Lean Season Assistance Program (Lsa)

HOCIC in partnership with World Food Program, a UN wing for food security worldwide, has been implementing the Lean Season Assistance (LSA) Program in Umguza District(2013-2014), Bulilima District(2015-2017) and Matobo District(2018).These districts lie in Agro Ecological Zone 4 which is characterized by high temperatures, poor and erratic rainfall. This type of climate, results in recurrent droughts which expose communities to food insecurity.

 In November 2013 to March 2014, eighteen (18) out of nineteen (19) wards in Umguza district benefited from the project. This benefited 29 011 beneficiaries who received food packs in the form of pulses, cereals and vegetable oil. The program targeted the vulnerable members of the community who were food insecure as a result of recurrent droughts that hit the area. A total of 989.468MT of food in the form cereals 734.050MT, pulses 191.350MT, vegetable oil 64.068MT and USD116 044, in the form of food for cash was distributed to the 29 011 beneficiaries. In 2016 to 2017 in Bulilima District, Cash and in kind distributions were successfully carried out in the targeted wards to ensure that households had enough food to afford at least   three meals a day. From July to October, the same community participated in rehabilitating community assets prior to receiving their monthly rations. In July 2016, the number of beneficiaries was up-scaled to a total of 32169 beneficiaries. In January 2018, the program got started in Matobo District in wards 1, 2, 3, 4 and 12, with a total of 7500 beneficiaries, targeting the most vulnerable during the peak hunger period. The objective of the program is to improve food availability for food insecure households in these wards, whilst they do light works and attend trainings lessons on crop farming and livestock production.

Food Assistance For Asset Program (FFA)

HOCIC has been implementing the Food Assistance for Asset program (FFA) in Umguza and Matobo Districts since 2012. The objective of the program is to rehabilitate, create and establish assets that will assist in achieving food security in drought prone areas. In 2012, 6 dams, 2 dip tanks and one nutrition garden were established in Umguza. 400 farmers were trained in conservation farming. The program benefited over 5000 food insecure households to become food secure. In 2013 the program targeted 15 assets. 10 of these were new assets (1 new dam, 7 nutrition gardens, 2 diptanks and 1 water pipeline) and 5 were dams that were rehabilitated. 30 conservation farming demo plots were established in six (6) wards with a total of 7,5ha target for conservation farming through a farmer field school approach. 2457 (1116 males 1341 females) were the total PAC workers. And a total of over 12000 food insecure households benefited from the completed assets. In 2017, one new diptank was constructed, 2 weir dams rehabilitated and 4 nutrition gardens established. At least 6000 food insecure households are benefiting from the diptank, garden and weir dams.