Maendeleo means “growth” and that’s exactly what this programme delivers: sustainable food security built by communities themselves. In Zanzibar, families face rising costs and climate pressure that make it harder to grow nutritious food consistently. Through Maendeleo, The Lady Fatemah Trust works in partnership with Aga Khan Foundation to equip families with organic, climate-resilient farming skills and nutrition support, turning short-term relief into year-round stability.
potential annual meals per year at full harvest
Families equipped to grow organic, climate-resilient crops
Green Champions – Community mentors supporting farmers across Unguja and Pemba
Food parcels help families survive difficult weeks, but they cannot solve the deeper issue of hunger returning season after season.
Across Zanzibar, families are increasingly affected by climate shifts, changing rainfall patterns, and pressure on household incomes. When crops fail or yields drop, families reduce meal quality first, often impacting children’s growth and mothers’ health. The result is a cycle of vulnerability where one shock can destabilise a household for months.
Maendeleo exists to break that cycle by helping families produce nutritious food reliably, using methods that can withstand climate challenges.
Maendeleo is about more than crops, it’s about dignity, resilience, and generational change.
When families grow nutritious food consistently, children are healthier, mothers are stronger, and communities become more stable, even when climate pressures rise. This is the long-term shift we’re building: from seasonal vulnerability to sustainable food security.
Real updates. Real impact.
Explore how your support is changing lives, project by project.
Many agriculture programmes focus on inputs alone, seeds, tools, or one-off training. Maendeleo is built around continuity and behaviour change.
It combines farming skills with nutrition learning, then reinforces it through local mentors who stay connected to the community. That means farmers are not left alone after a workshop, they’re supported through real challenges: pests, rainfall changes, soil improvement, planting choices, and harvesting methods.
It’s also designed to turn giving into lasting impact: one season of support can become year-round food security, year after year.
