The Make It Grow Project

Make It Grow: Supporting community-based food initiatives in Zimbabwe to fundraise using participatory video proposals

[Posted on behalf of Pamela Richardson-Ngwenya and the Make it Grow project]

In an attempt to empower communities to alleviate increasing food and nutritional insecurity, especially during the pandemic, the Make It Grow Project has been running online capacity-building workshops with community groups and NGOs in Zimbabwe to equip participants with the skills needed to create their own video proposals, using smartphone technologies. These video proposals pitch home-grown ideas for community food projects and can be used by the community groups and NGOs as a fundraising tool. The intention is to increase the accessibility of start-up funds for implementing community-based, sustainable food projects, while at the same time building up local video-making and project planning skills.

We devise learning resources for community groups and facilitators, to support straightforward ways of enhancing the social inclusion, production and dissemination of video proposals. We also work with the United Nations Development Programme’s Global Environment Facility (Small Grants Programme) and other donors to support and pilot the integration of video proposals into their grant management and application process, making it more inclusive for all. Following the workshop series, we continue to support our participants and their fundraising campaigns through ongoing public events and online publication of their video proposals.

We are now asking for YOUR help! Please support our community partners in Zimbabwe to fundraise for their sustainable food projects by donating to their crowdfunding campaigns and promoting their videos on your social media networks. Make It Grow is a Knowledge Exchange project from the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Sustainable Food, supported by the UKRI’s Economic and Social Research Council. You can visit our website at www.makeitgrow.org.

You can see some of the participants’ videos here: Video Proposals :: Make It Grow

Pamela Richardson-Ngwenya
Project Leader, Knowledge Exchange Research Fellow and Learning Facilitator
Make It Grow

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