Onboarding local communities to SEEDS through sharing regenerative, abundant vision stories. 

This is a story I wrote and shared during the Zimbabwe SEEDS Heroes training. To share the vision of SEEDS and how it can work in the context in which we live in rural Zimbabwe and inspire dreams and action.

This story is told from the perspective of a man who went to visit his sister after a long time, and he is sharing the story with his family once he has returned home.

As you know I went to visit my sister’s village last week as it had been a long time and she wanted to share the changes happening there; and let me tell you, I couldn’t believe it when I arrived. As I am walking from the main road down the sandy path, dust turns to green, and everywhere I look I see life. As I walk and greet others, I say good morning and I’m only greeted with smiles and comments like “the grass is growing well” “the rain is just perfect today” and I start to wonder, something is very different here. I see fields full of food, many different types of crops, fat happy cattle moving like a herd of buffaloes, and  there are fruit trees, indigenous and new types I don’t know. Then I see a shed full of bikes close to the road and a young man sitting there.  “Bike?” he calls.

“What do you mean?” I reply. “Would you like to use a bike to get to your destination?” he asks. “How much is it?” I ask, knowing I only have enough dollars for my travel back home! “We mainly use Seeds” he says. “Seeds? what like maize or pumpkin seeds?” “No” he smiles, and explains “Seeds is the currency we are using here. Who are you visiting?” he asks me.  I explain I’m here to visit my sister and the young man makes a quick phone call and next thing he says is “it’s OK. She will send seeds for your journey. You can use it while you are here and drop it off on your way out.” I couldn’t believe it. I felt so happy to be trusted as a stranger and to have this opportunity to make my journey easier. There was a large basket woven from locally grown Ilala on the front of the bike where I could put my parcel for my sister.

And so, I carried on, amazed by the road; no corrugations and no erosion. I passed a bustling market. This never used to be here, I think to myself. It used to be a stall with tomatoes someone had brought from the closest town to sell, and only tomatoes! I walked around to see what was available and saw so many wonderful things; veg and fruit stalls with every kind of green veg, and okra, and tomatoes of different colours like I had never seen; indigenous plants dried for tea for many different ailments, many fruits indigenous and exotic. I saw a clay pot solar fridge keeping Amasi and milk cool in the mid-day sun. The second-hand clothes were there too, and a tailor who had taken these clothes to create new designs. Very nice. I really wanted to buy something for you mama, but I only had my travel money so I couldn’t. There was beautiful wooden furniture and a new shop where anything broken, anything could be fixed! I saw a beautiful building unlike any others I had seen before and there were children learning, many groups of children, and solar panels on the roof. And so many spaces coming up all around this central market; places where you can learn about computers, a team building and making solar panels and parts, people producing very nice soaps and cosmetics, and the local farmers grow the ingredients. A movie theatre, a restaurant and bakery, so many things.  My mind was racing, so many questions how has this happened? I have never seen a village like this in Zimbabwe.

I carried on to my sister’s place passing beautiful homesteads; some were traditional but looked different. So much food growing around, solar in every home, and I saw big tanks catching rain from the rooves and taps. How could this be? In an area that has always been so dry? Some of the houses looked very modern and nice but didn’t look like cement or dagga, and I hadn’t seen any brick kilns around the place. I went past a large dam only it wasn’t on a river it was high in the landscape, there were rivers flowing too. I even saw a solar-powered bus taking children home from school.

When I arrived at my sister’s place, the look of disbelief on my face must have been clear. She laughed and welcomed me into her beautiful home.

“Welcome my brother. Welcome. It has been too long!” she said.

“Too long indeed!  So long that I have arrived in a different place!!” I replied.

“My brother come and sit, and let’s have tea and talk about it all.”

We walked onto the veranda of her modern house, the walls were thick and the plaster looked very strong. It was cool everywhere and there were very comfortable seats.

“What is happening in your place sisi?” I asked

“My brother, we are on a journey as a village, as a community, we have chosen a path of plenty. Instead of telling ourselves we are poor every day we came to realize we are rich, if we work together to build our soil, our community, heal ourselves and the land then opportunities are plenty. We decided to start working on building our soil rather than letting it run away in every storm. We came up with a plan together. We make decisions all together until everyone is agreed. As we built the soil, we were able to grow many things, and we used some of our knowledge from our elders and some new ideas. And, as we started this journey, we heard of SEEDS.  SEEDS is a way of rewarding people who are on this journey of regeneration, for people and all life. We all have a universal basic earned income in Seeds. It’s the currency to cover our basic living costs. Then in groups we wrote proposals for business ideas based on the principles of regeneration. We started with a market place where everyone could come and bring their produce. There is a very smart scotch cart that travels around too, with orders of produce for those who are far and elderly so they can have access to goods. So, because we all had Seeds, the currency, more and more businesses accepted these Seeds, and more and more businesses and organizations grew. You know the soap factory is a co-operative and I work there, I love making soap and we only work five hours a day in the week, and all the profits are shared amongst the workers.  The farmers in the village get a very good price, in Seeds of course, for the ingredients we use in the soap. I also spend some time mentoring  young girls, and I get a reward in Seeds. There is a very large area in our village where we have only indigenous fruit trees and oil trees growing like a forest. And all the produce and products made from here, all the proceeds from the sale goes to a community fund so more people can start new businesses. We have events where we come together to do many beautiful and fun things. We all have been living a better life because of this and it’s not because a big company or industry came and told us they would give us jobs, or an NGO giving out food from far way, we did this ourselves, and SEEDS is what supports us to do this, to make our village more beautiful than ever before”

“Ah! This is amazing my sister. I want to go home and share this story with my family and village and try to do the same there. Will you help me?” I said to her.

“Of, course my brother, give me your phone and let’s start the journey in SEEDS.” My sister then downloaded the SEEDS passport on my phone. It’s like Eco cash but much better; the value stays the same it doesn’t devalue and become worthless. And in the invite, she sent me many Seeds to start, so I can invite others and so I could bring you some gifts from this beautiful village.

I spent two days exploring the wonders of that place. You can’t believe how well everyone lives; so many amazing designs that mean people live such a high standard of living, but it’s not at the cost of anything else. They don’t destroy others or nature to rise, they rise as one. The room I stayed in at my sister’s place was built from natural materials like dagga and sand but you couldn’t tell, it looked very modern and well finished, she told me how she hosts travellers from all over who stay in this cottage and can pay with Seeds. She also took me to the market to show me how the SEEDS passport works, and after one stall I was off on my own. It was easy to use. I was so happy.  

I left on my bike with my parcel of gifts from the market for you all; wait children let me finish and I will show you! I have many ideas now on how we can bring our village up. I have many Seeds to invite everyone in the village, and we will start to plan together how we will rebuild and regenerate our soil first, then we can bring our ideas and proposals together. My sister introduced me to other people on SEEDS who are all over the world, who are on the same journey. They can help us to write our business ideas and show us how to apply for Seeds for this, and share tools with us to heal our broken community so we can work together and turn our desert into paradise.

Now children come and see the wonders I bought for you with Seeds.

A Campaign proposal for other stories and story tellers to receive Seeds to onboard their local communities through SEEDS Vision stories, dreaming of abundance in their local context will be up in the co-op next cycle.