Inspired Individuals

Tinashe is Zimbabwean and married to Naomi and they have two children. After a career in Zimbabwe doing essentially agricultural extension within the cotton industry, Tinashe moved to Mozambique to work for World Relief, a Christian NGO. During this time he worked within the micro-finance section supporting the development of community-based agricultural projects. He was instrumental in establishing a model for developing irrigated community-based agricultural projects with a community-loan component. The principles are very strongly routed in enhancing the economic status of communities by helping to develop viable (and sustainable) agricultural projects, that are not reliant on donor funding, have strong community by-in (and accountability), and are base on business principles. Tinashe’s guiding philosophy has been that Africa cannot depend on grants from the North, and that Africa needs to develop viable agri-businesses in communities that generate income and lift people out of poverty through economic empowerment. His mission is: “to support the economic empowerment of rural farmers”. Tinashe was one of the founding members of AfricaWorks, a local NGO that provides agri-business loans to communities.

Sub-Saharan Africa is plagued by the AIDS epidemic. Millions of people have died of AIDS-related diseases, whilst many others continue to live infected with the HIV which has very detrimental impacts on their health status. In some parts of the worst affected areas such as Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana whole sections of society in some communities have wiped out, with the responsibility of care and provision for the millions of orphans falling on the grandparents, many of who are ill equipped to provide for this unexpected burden. Since HIV has a disproportionate impact on the economically active section of society, the livelihoods of the remaining communities is a massive problem and daily struggle for many. Building reliance and mitigating the impacts of HIV and AIDS in rural communities is one of the most pressing needs in sub-Saharan Africa today. The church traditionally has been good at caring for the sick and dying, but this is insufficient, it has to gear up to partner in strengthening the livelihoods of the people to whom they are called to serve, but they lack the skills to do this.

Whilst working in Mozambique, Tinashe was in contact with a group of church leaders in Swaziland who had heard about the work of AfricaWorks and wanted ‘import’ the principles to Swaziland to help build the livelihoods of those impacted by HIV and AIDS, in particular rural women and orphans. Advocates for Africa’s Children was the NGO these pastors had help establish with support from an American and they requested Tinashe to translate the model he developed in Mozambique to Swaziland. Tinashe moved with his family to Swaziland to take on this challenge of establishing viable agri-businesses to improve the livelihoods of the most vulnerable in the society.