In our executive director Ben Freeth’s latest newsletter from Zimbabwe, he writes that, with the excellent rains, the rivers are flowing and the dams are filling. The MCF hopes this year to produce enough free seed packs to donate to 15,000 desperate families across Zimbabwe who have no reliable income at a time when food inflation is the highest in the world and commercial seed is unaffordable. The MCF is gearing up towards our regular update event at the Royal Geographical Society in London on Tuesday 20 June.  Please diarise the date. It will take place at a critical time ahead of Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections.  

As Zimbabwe moves towards Christmas 2022, it is easy to look around at all the darkness and despair and to think: “Where is the light in the darkness?  Where is hope in the despair?” However, at the end of the dry season, after over 6 months without a drop of rain, I was most struck this year at how the trees knew that the rain was coming and shed all of their old leaves. In the hot and dusty land, they drew from deep down beneath them enough moisture to produce new and shiny leaves in beautiful colours. Christmas is about drawing the truth from deep below the surface in a dry and barren land. Ben Freeth

It is - and has been - a difficult and sensitive time as we head towards elections next year.  The date has not been announced, but constitutionally they should be held by or before the end of July 2023. However, indications are that President Emmerson Mnangagwa may call early polls in March or April. Fear is very much on the rise as people get unjustly thrown into jail in the most awful of conditions. On the positive side, we distributed more of our free, open-pollinated seed this year than we ever have, giving 12,000 families the wherewithal to feed themselves throughout the year and also give out seed to their neighbours.