Building capacity and confidence in Zimbabwe

In 2011, we helped source specific assistance for organisations such as the Zimbabwe National Trust, which needed help planning how to secure the future of one of its sites, the Bermuda National Trust with the preparation of a strategic plan, the National Trust of Slovakia with advice on the vernacular heritage restoration, and the South African National Trust with potential donors.

The Ladies Methodist Group in Mutare gathering at La Rochelle before the braai (barbecue)

Karen Dickin of the National Trust for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, helped the National Trust of Zimbabwe develop a management plan for their flagship property, La Rochelle in the Eastern Highlands.

“Left to the people of Zimbabwe in 1967” she writes, “the estate is now rather worse for wear. But amongst local Trust supporters there is a deep love of the place and bags of hope and enthusiasm that things can only get better.

One of the key areas of the management plan is to attract schools and local visitors but even a simple thing like labelling the specimen trees is a chore as there are no engraving machines available in Zimbabwe, even if they could afford one. I am now galvanising the National Trust gardening community to see how we might support them going forward, including engraving labels. Longer term, INTO hopes to help develop a professional garden
conservation plan.”

You can find out more in Karen Dickin’s Zimbabwe blog.

Karen also wrote an article in Views (page 40)

You can also find out what happened in 2012 when National Trust (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) gardeners came to the rescue: Paradise Lost.

A young Shona man contemplating the world from a rock at Lake Chivero near Harare (all images by Karen Dickin)