We are a Zimbabwean trust responsible for strategy and operation and a Swiss donor association supporting the community in Ward 3 Mwenezi, Matibi, Zimbabwe. We are focussing on holistic support for the community at Matibi through a catalyzing self-learning and self-help center called Nook. We aim to create an independent community that is capable and confident to tackle their own challenges. The main challenges identified through the community so far are basic health, income generation, water management, new farming practices, green energy, waste management and psycho-social change.
The problem
The existing structures in rural communities are no longer serving the needs of the people. Missing water is affecting agriculture, no jobs are making people dependent on money from outside, mindset-wise people are no longer hopeful in their capacity to change their own destiny. Starving, despair and boredom leading to alcohol and drug abuse, land flee and child pregnancy are some of the effects of this problem.
Our approach
We are the only inch wide community development charity that is offering mile deep holistic support through a self-learning innovation center so that people can create their own independent and self-sustaining life, tackle together the most pressing problems of the community and make the community thrive.
This needs a profound change of cultural mindset to a «let’s do it»-menality, a new approach of producing food, retaining water, and protecting the soil and environment as well as new opportunities to create income through new business models like permaculture farming, local butchery and solar power installation.
Let me show you a graphic to easily illustrate what we do:
For 2024 and 2025 we are planning several activities that are embedded in our long-term strategy:
We are in close collaboration with the Matibi Mission Hospital where we are supporting the long-time running of the hospital with paying incentives to doctors to come to this remote, rural site and procuring drugs. At the moment, we are planning to renovate the theatre for surgeries like hernia repairs, hydrocelectomy, surgical excision of other lumps and bumps and cesarean sections. Here is the project description and the quotation for the phase one renovation. Phase two will bring in needed equipment and the training of more doctors from the expert surgeon, Dr. Antony Chengahomwe, who will come to Matibi once or twice a month to revive the surgery at Matibi Mission hospital.
The projects like Nook hostel, permaculture, organic gardening, butchery and solar energy are all interconnected, e.g. the permaculture project is aiming to positively affect the grazing lands so that farmer can better feed their cows, sheep and goats, leading to a better price when they sell the cow to our butchery which keeps the money circulating in the community.
We are planning to offer an price incentive for the cattle if they invest the money in small solar power plant on their roofs or in turning their farm into a permaculture cell. The reduced CO2 through green energy and the sink through arboriculture could maybe be marketed to CO2 certificate trading.
In the middle of our activities is a self-learning center called Nook where the community can gather to identify and collectively learn how to solve their most pressing challenges. The center is open for all and runs two learning cycles and two psycho-social support camps a year.
The concept of the Nooks was developed by our partner Project Defy. It is a concept that scales worldwide where other communities are more than invited to open their own Nook to start identifying their own most pressing challenges and find self-help solutions. At the moment, there are 32 Nooks open worldwide, two of them in Zimbabwe. The second one is rund by our sister organisation SwiZim Trust. There are 30+ worldwide on the waiting list due to a lack of funds, eight of them in Zimbabwe. Read here more about the global Nook network and how you could support this big scaling movement.
We are partnering with local authorities, traditional chiefdom structures, civil society organisations, and donors from Zimbabwe, Switzerland and the world. We are looking for long-term partners who share the vision of local-led self-help communities that make an impact.
Contact
For questions, suggestions, or to request materials and promotional items, please write to:
Freunde für Matibi
6000 Luzern
or via Mail to info@matibi.ch
If you would like to support our work with a donation, you can find our bank details below. Every franc goes directly to the hospital and the people in Matibi without any administrative hassle.
| Bank | Luzerner Kantonalbank |
| Location | 6210 Sursee |
| IBAN | CH85 0077 8010 3544 9740 0 |
| BIC/SWIFT | LUKBCH2260A |