Jethro, 12, goes to Mthombotemba primary school in Zimbabwe, in southern Africa. He's a garden monitor and helps out at the school’s vegetable patch.

'This garden’s very important because we need the beans and vegetables that we get from it,' says Jethro. These crops help us.'

‘My class comes to work in the garden twice a week,' he says. 'We helped harvest the maize last week. Now we’re planting spinach and chomolias (a kind of cabbage). We also grow onions, tomatoes and carrots.’

Jethro enjoys working in the garden and has learnt a lot of new skills. ‘I’ve learnt how to plant maize using the conservation method, and I’ve learnt how long the seeds spend in the ground before they germinate.’

When it doesn’t rain for a long time, you get drought: crops can’t grow and people do not have enough food to eat.

In times like this, Christian Aid helps with emergency feeding projects. They give out porridge to children at school so that they do not go hungry. They also helped the school set up the vegetable garden by providing tools so that they could make the land ready for growing and giving them seeds. Now the school has its own garden, there’s more food to go around.

In 2008 there has been fighting over the elections in Zimbabwe. Lots of people who don't support the President, Robert Mugabe, have been killed or injured by the President's supporters. Many schools were closed because parents were afraid to send their children out - some have now reopened.

Drought and violence are making food shortages in Zimbabwe more serious - around 7 million people now need food aid. So Jethro's school garden and the emergency feeding project are really important ways to help ordinary people cope.