A growing message of hope

Chido Govera’s childhood mirrors the story of many African girls. Orphaned at seven, she abandoned school and became the carer of her brother and grandmother. At 11, despite years of abuse by family members in her homestead, Chido rejected an offer of marriage but jumped at the chance to attend a week’s training in mushroom cultivation. This is where Chido’s story sidesteps the typical tale of orphaned Zimbabwean girls.

“Most of my time was spent looking for food and not getting any, but then mushrooms discovered me,” she quips. That week of training, supported by the local university and Belgian environmental entrepreneur, Gunter Pauli, changed her life.

“When I learned to farm mushrooms, the same people who used to threaten to send me off the homestead could no longer threaten me because I could secure food,” Chido remembers. “If I had food, they had food – whether I gave it to them or they took it by force.”

Chido and 14 other orphans were taught to grow oyster mushrooms from food waste. “Oyster mushrooms, like shiitake mushrooms, prefer material that is rich in cellulose. When you add humidity to a hygienic cellulose-based material, then scatter over mushroom spores, they grow!” enthuses Chido.

Soon, she was producing enough mushrooms to sell at the markets. “With that money, I started helping other orphans. That was my turning point – I was able to save others and myself. This has been my wish ever since.” Since then, Chido has been a fierce advocate for underprivileged girls in Africa. “As a woman, when you can control your own food, you can do many other things. It gives you power. It gives you a sense of security.”

At 16, Chido returned to school, “but every morning I still harvested mushrooms.” After her final year of high school, Chido was forced to choose between study and mushrooms. “School had been my dream but it was very clear that I wanted to impact people’s lives, so I decided to make my work better.”

Years later, at age 23, after treating her childhood trauma and establishing sustainable mushroom cultivation processes, Chido established The Future of Hope foundation. “The centre focuses on ‘stepping out of the victim role’. To say yes, this happened when I was a child but this is not who I am today, and now I can redefine myself,” explains Chido. Providing this safe place – “where orphans can process what happened to them and take charge of their own lives” – is the purpose of The Future of Hope centre, based in a small town in Zimbabwe.

“I invite local groups for two weeks, where they train in food production, learning to use what’s around them to secure food and build a business that earns money to send children to school, to access mediation, to take care of themselves.”

The centre sits next door to a baobab factory, so students grow their mushrooms from its waste, but Chido has grown mushrooms with all kinds of material, from corn cobs and husks to coffee grounds and water hyacinth. 

After two weeks at the centre, the girls return to their communities with mushroom starter packs. “The orphans don’t own any land, so we focus on mushrooms because they require small spaces to grow. Then we partner the girls with community members who own some land,” Chido explains.

Chido is propagating empowerment everywhere, in African towns and Indian schools, visiting entrepreneurs in the US and Europe, and now Australia. “We’re raising funds to expand our work. Our model addresses the challenges in our country but it can be implemented all over the world,” emphasises Chido.

At 31, Chido is foster parent to seven orphaned girls. “I am Auntie, I am Mumma, I am Sis-Chido.” And since mentoring Chido in her formative years, Gunter Pauli has since become her foster father. What a fertile 31 years they have been for Chido Govera – peddler of hope, with a currency of mushrooms. 

Catch Chido Govera in Australia over the next few weeks: The School of Life is hosting Chido and Melbourne on 20 April at The White House in Melbourne  and in Sydney on 27 April at Dendy Opera Quays. At Cornersmith’s Annandale café, Chido is teaching green fingers how to grow mushrooms from coffee grounds on Friday 28 April. Find information on donating to the Future of Hope foundation at Chido’s Australian Go Fund Me page.

Follow the progress of Chido Govera’s Future of Hope foundation on Facebook and on Instagram.