PORETO unveils a landmark structural transformation

BY STEVE EPHRAEM

CHIMANIMANI, Zimbabwe – Participatory Organic Research Extension and Training Organisation (PORETO), a distinguished non-profit organisation that has spent close to thirty years nurturing sustainable livelihoods in Chimanimani West, has announced a landmark transformation designed to propel its mission to greater heights and deliver even more impactful results for the ninety-nine villages it serves.

On 22 May 2026, at the PORETO Centre in Chaseyama, Chimanimani, a pivotal meeting brought together the organisation’s Board of Directors, dedicated funding partners, committed staff, and the members of the Chaseyama Permaculture Club. It was during this gathering that the PORETO Board unveiled a team of Secretariat to be fully constituted for the organisation.

According to Board Chairperson Sipiwe Buzuzu, this new structure is designed to fundamentally elevate the organisation’s standards of operation to ensure greater accountability, sharper strategic focus, and enhanced delivery on the ground.

Previously, the organisation comprised the Board of Directors, the Operations arm, and the Chaseyama Permaculture Club, with founder and Director Mr Julious Piti overseeing both operational and administrative portfolios. While this model served PORETO well during its formative years, the growing complexity and scale of its work demanded a more sophisticated approach.

Under the new transformation, Mr Piti will now direct his full expertise towards the Operations arm, allowing him to focus entirely on the organisation’s core programme delivery, agricultural extension, and community training.

In a decisive move to strengthen governance and administrative oversight, the incominga newly established Secretariat will assume responsibility for all administrative functions, finance, compliance, and organisational development. This arm will be led by the incoming Executive Director Mr Charles Muzite, who will officially assume duty at the beginning of July 2026.

After this, each pillar of PORETO will have a distinct and experienced leader. The Chaseyama Permaculture Club will continue its vital grassroots work under the guidance of Moses Kudana. The Board maintains its strategic oversight under the chairpersonship of Sipiwe Buzuzu. Field operations and programme implementation remain the focused mandate of Julious Piti. The newly created Secretariat, under Executive Director Charles Muzite, will ensure that the backbone of the organisation is stronger than ever.

PORETO continues to deliver tangible results in its endeavor to build self-sustainable communities through biodiversity agroecology, climate change adaptation, watershed management, youth engagement in agroecology, and income-generating projects such as food processing, beekeeping, mushroom growing, and seed sovereignty.

This has been enabled by amplifying local skills, facilitating experience sharing, and channeling training and potential funding opportunities to communities from within the sons and daughters of the soil..

For current and prospective funding partners, this transformation sends an unequivocal signal. PORETO is not merely growing but professionalizing by building the institutional, financial, and administrative capacity necessary to absorb larger grants, execute more ambitious projects, and report with the transparency that genuine partnership demands.

And with its vision rooted firmly in the skills, sovereignty, and resilience of local communities, PORETO is now poised, more than ever before, to deliver lasting change from the ground upwards.