Published in April 2025

Our 2025 Big Give Green Match Fund campaign has now closed. If you missed it and would still like to make a donation towards our work, click here!

In this year's Big Give Green Match Fund campaign, supporters helped to raise an amazing grand total £18,106.62 (including match funding and GiftAid) to enable a community in southern Zimbabwe to build a sand dam and implement a range of environmental protection measures. This will help to restore degraded land, improve food and water security, and strengthen the local community’s resilience to the effects of climate change.

On behalf of the dryland communities we support, we'd like to say a big thank you to all supporters, donors, and campaign champion funder (The Big Give Trust) for their generosity.

About Zimbabwe

Water is growing increasingly scarce in southern Zimbabwe, posing a threat to people’s livelihoods and critical ecosystems. Severe environmental challenges, including deforestation, climate change and land degradation, are further compounding the problem, contributing to food shortages and poverty, particularly amongst rural farming communities.

Last year, the President of Zimbabwe declared a national disaster in response to yet another extreme drought in the country, which caused severe damage to crops and food production, leading to widespread food shortages. As droughts become more frequent and intense in the region, it reinforces how important it is to support communities to strengthen their food and water security.

About sand dams

Sand dams are a sustainable rainwater harvesting solution that store up to 40 million litres of water (which meets WHO drinking standards), providing people with year-round clean water. Unlike other water solutions, sand dams recharge groundwater levels and enable vegetation to regenerate. Combined with environmental protection measures, including tree planting, land degradation is reduced, increasing soil fertility so that farmers can grow more crops.

Watch how sand dams work here:

About our Green Match Fund campaign 

We will support a community in southern Zimbabwe to construct a sand dam, providing them with year-round access to clean water for life. Community members will also be trained in environmental protection techniques, helping to enhance the benefits of the sand dam by restoring degraded land, enhancing soil fertility and improving conditions for farming. In turn farmers can produce more food, ensuring their long-term food security.

In addition, we will support the establishment of a community-managed woodlot, helping to promote the natural regeneration of local woodland, increasing vegetation cover, and promoting soil and water conservation. The community will also be trained and supported to plant trees, providing them with a source of timber, fuel, and an additional source of income.

Lastly, the community will be provided with training in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) principles, such as hand washing hygiene and safe water storage. This will help local people to make use of the water from their sand dam to improve their health and hygiene, reducing the chance of sickness and disease.

Florah Moyo (pictured), is a member of the Sivume community in Zimbabwe. We asked her about how a sand dam project in her community has made a difference to her life:

"Because of the water, now life is easier. I can drink water, I can plant vegetables, all this makes my life easier. Before it was difficult to grow crops because you were relying on the rains and sometimes the rains didn’t fall, so it was very difficult. But now we have the sand dam we are hoping to grow more food for our families."

Florah Moyo, member of the Sivume community, Zimbabwe.

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Missed our Big Give campaign? Please donate what you can and help to empower vulnerable women and girls in drylands to transform their own lives with sand dams and clean water