Chido Govera

Chido Govera is a Zimbabwean social entrepreneur, farmer, campaigner, educator, and the founder of The Future of Hope Foundation. The Foundation, focused on orphans and women, works to help lift vulnerable clients out of poverty through entrepreneurial and self-help initiatives. The core idea is to them find sustainable food, nutrition and income security. Govera is an expert in edible and medicinal mushrooms and a pioneer in the conversion of coffee grounds from cafes into mushrooms.

The idea that mushroom farming could be a solution to poverty in Zimbabwe came naturally to Govera, who was orphaned at a young age. Her grandmother had shown her how to forage for them in the forest outside of her village, teaching her which were edible and which were dangerous. Serendipity offered her the opportunity, as a young girl, to join a program where she learned how to farm oyster mushrooms using agro-biomass. Mushrooms are easy to cultivate and to harvest, so they provide both nutrition and income, and they can be grown at scale and commercialized. Govera became an expert on mushroom cultivation as well as an innovator to improve the economics of mushroom farming. All this work and more, complemented by teaching and advocacy in Zimbabwe and in other emerging countries, aims to help lift people out of poverty through sustainable farming. Learn more