A Chirumanzu youth based star club has successfully set up a poultry production micro enterprise which supplies an average of 125 broilers to its local market after every six weeks. The club comprises of 8 industrious and hardworking females from ward 23 in Maramba village.

Through this micro enterprise, the star club members have broken the huge cycle of donor dependence which is common within rural communities as a result of the high rates of poverty they are subjected to.

One of the club members said the project has greatly aided the group members as they are now financially empowered to take care of their families.

“Our major breakthrough came when we heard about Hand in Hand Zimbabwe through their local Enterprise Development Facilitator (EDF) in June 2022. We immediately joined the Motivated and Entrepreneurial Youth Project and underwent business development trainings which focused on financial literacy, opportunity identification and business management skills.”

After receiving the trainings, the club members ventured into broiler production and were fortunate to receive materials to construct a foul run. They were also given chickens and feed worth USD$500 all under the MEY Project productive support initiative.

“Before the productive support initiative we were keeping 25 to 40 broiler chickens and we made very little profit which was not enough for us to cover our day to day expenses.

After receiving the support, we however managed to construct a standard fowl run with a housing capacity of 150 chickens and increased our production to 125 chickens after every six weeks.

To date, the group makes an average income of USD$875.00 and a profit of USD$600.00 per month from their chicken sales. Each member gets USD$75 per month after sharing the profit.

Their village head commended their project citing that the young women have proven how dedicated they are to reducing poverty within their community through their enterprise.

The eight members now live above the USD$1.90 per day poverty datum line. A poverty datum line (PDL) represents the cost of a given standard of living that must be attained if a person is deemed not to be poor. Basically, a household’s income should be able to buy the quantities of food, shelter, and clothing, deemed necessary for their basic upkeep.