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Chipo Katsidzira Manicaland correspondent
The Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa’s Diocese of Manicaland is seeking to embark on income-generating projects to supplement the church’s income and reduce reliance on funds from its schools and parishes.

In an interview with The Herald, Manicaland Diocese, Bishop Erick Ruwona said the economic situation did not allow for the church to wait for tithes, hence the church was running poultry as well as maize production projects at various schools.

He said they also had a piggery project at St Augustine’s Mission School and a maize production project at St Mary Magdalene.

“The first project we did was for chicken rearing at St Faith’s Mission but we did not realise any profits from that.

“We also had a maize project at St Mary Magdalene.

“We produced good yields for two consecutive seasons; the 2016-17 season when we planted 20 hectares and the 2017-18 when we did 17 hectares under Command Agriculture. In 2018-19, we did not plant any maize because of the poor rainfall and drought forecast but it is a project that we will continue with in future,” Bishop Ruwona said.

He said the church was also training for members who were interested in piggery to empower them to become self-sufficient.

Bishop Ruwona said the produce would be channelled to their schools to reduce the budget for suppliers who were getting the bigger chunk of money raised from school fees. “We realised that as soon as money came in, it would immediately go out again through payments to our suppliers. So if we can supply our own meat and mealie-meal, among others, we would then do away with some suppliers.

“There is no reason for us to pay someone for a product which we can produce ourselves. We will supply the schools and keep the money within the church,” he added.