Community Engagement Activities with an NGO in Masvingo, Rural Zimbabwe

by Professor Kevin Ramsden, Department of Global Studies, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies

It was with great pleasure that I traveled to the country of Zimbabwe in southern Africa last September, 2023, to engage in fieldwork with my friends in the NGO, the Zienzele Foundation (ZF). I have been involved in fundraising and direct support for ZF for over 20 years, and finally had the opportunity to head into the field with its members and meet with the wonderful folks they offer so much support to, including a number of orphans, who have lost parents through AIDS or abandonment, and are often left to raise themselves in Child-Headed Households (CHH) without adult supervision. These children, aside from living under unbelievably impoverished and difficult conditions, are frequently traumatized by the loss of parents and siblings, living a life without love and care. However, despite the awful reality of their lives, many are being helped by ZF and the local people (mostly older women), to improve their lot and, hopefully, set them on the path to escaping their terrible existence. I would like to share with you on this blog, some of what I witnessed and engaged in during my brief time in their communities.

Background

Rural poverty in Zimbabwe is a persistent issue, deeply entrenched in the country’s history, and several key factors contribute to its ongoing prevalence: historical land disparities, economic instability, climate change vulnerability, and limited access to education and healthcare. In addition to the aforementioned issues, the arrival of the global COVID19 pandemic in 2019 only served to compound an already desperate situation. It is estimated that almost half of Zimbabwe’s population fell into extreme poverty between 2011 and 2020, and this means that the poorest households have had to give up on attempting to access formal healthcare or forgo education for their children, with food taking priority over school fees, uniforms or books. Almost 90% of the extreme poor live in rural areas, and around 1.6 million of this number are children. However, perhaps the most damaging effect of the pandemic was the impact it had on the workforce and employment situation. Movement from rural to urban areas by a mostly young, male, job seeking demographic has caused serious problems in the familial make-up of rural communities, in particular. How can these communities hope to survive in this transition period and beyond, and indeed how are they managing to survive even now? Almost certainly, the answer lies in the work of NGOs alongside, or independent of, efforts by local authorities. One such NGO engaging in essential work in the Chivi district, Masvingo, is the Zienzele Foundation.

The People of the Zienzele Foundation


The Zienzele Foundation began as the result of a chance meeting in Zimbabwe of two committed women — Prisca Nemapare and Nancy Clark. When Prisca was a professor of nutrition at Ohio University, she started an Earthwatch project researching the nutritional status of women and children in her native Zimbabwe. That project began in 1984 and continued through the 1990s. In 1998 and 1999, Nancy Clark, a nurse from rural Vermont, volunteered with the project. Then, in 2000, Earthwatch discontinued its support due to the dangerous political situation in Zimbabwe. Undaunted, Prisca and Nancy returned and set a new course. Prisca and Nancy based the mission of Zienzele on what they had seen during their research: an emerging crisis of children orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As the virus devastated an entire generation of adults, widows and grandmothers were struggling to adequately care for the orphaned children left in their care. These aging caregivers asked Prisca and Nancy for help, and Prisca and Nancy responded with “OK! Let’s think about what we can do together.”

Now, the Zienzele Foundation has a network of volunteers in Zimbabwe who provide oversight and carry out the work when Nancy and Prisca are absent. Each of the 23 Zienzele school districts has a Zienzele Representative who has been chosen by the caregivers in their village. There are also three Zienzele Coordinators who oversee several districts each. This model has created a high level of accountability and quick response to situations as they arise.

September Field Activities

I’d like to introduce here several activities we engaged in during the September visits to some of the villages and communities that ZF works with. This involved long and tiring days of driving and walking, but both Nancy and Prisca, hardly young women, managed it all with hardly a word of complaint. However, after the first day it became very clear to me that the inconveniences we were suffering over a short period, were nothing compared to the daily challenges faced by the people we were meeting with. It took us over 3 hours each way in our van across mostly unpaved dirt tracks from our Masvingo base to the first villages. However, some of the women we met at the community center we visited had walked round trips of between 20 and 30 kilometers. There is no transport available between the villages and the towns for most people. Walking is the only way to get anywhere.

     

On the first few days, we met the women of the basket making groups. Nancy and Prisca usually meet with all the basket making groups in each of the three community centers recently built by ZF, and buy their baskets. They only buy the best baskets, however, so maintaining quality control has become important to each group. After buying the baskets on a field trip, Nancy takes them back to the United States where they will be sold at markets and online. All the profits from the sales will be used to pay the school fees of the orphaned children and CHH, as well as supporting the women in developing new enterprises. There is one community center placed roughly in the center of 6 or 7 villages to allow easier access for all the villagers in that area. These community centers have made a major difference to the lives of the people in the area, as they now have a safe and centralized place to meet, pursue projects and develop their communities further.
One of the biggest issues for the local communities is the provision of clean, potable water. There is no running water available in the villages, and this means long trips on foot to collect it from nearby rivers or streams. One 60-year-old woman I met told me that she lives about 2 kilometers from her nearest water source and has to collect water around 3 times a day (carrying 20 liters each time on her head – 20 liters equals 20kg). That is about 12km a day of walking across rough ground for 60 liters of water (60 liters of water = a 4 or 5 minute shower). People here have no access to running water, electricity or sanitary facilities. The water from the river is not really safe to drink, but there are very few other options. This often leads to sickness and diarrhea, especially among CHH and the elderly. The Zienzele Foundation is now very active in providing bore holes to bring clean water up from underground and has already drilled a number of these around the community centers.

     

There are also pumps being placed in the garden projects that the local people and ZF are working on. These gardens provide a much needed source of fresh food and nutrition to the communities, as drought and hunger are among the biggest killers in this dry and unforgiving landscape (general example for developing world: https://www.usaid.gov/six-kilometers-day)

Child-headed Households

Undoubtedly, though, it is the fate of the children in the CHH that Zienzele and its members have to focus on the most. Many of the children in the CHH have nobody to help them and are unable to provide for themselves as they are so young. Living together for security, they do receive a little food and other supplies from caring locals, but generally they live miserable lives without adults around, and are extremely vulnerable to disease, hunger and mistreatment. ZF tries to provide as much assistance as they can to these poor kids, but it requires a lot of work and the efforts of some very kind ZF community caregivers and donors from overseas.

     

There is some hope, however, as a number of these CHH children have been well supported by the Zienzele Foundation and are now on the path to better lives. Some have grown well and finished high school and are now at college, technical schools and even university. They are a group called the “Zienzele All-Stars”, and I had the privilege of meeting with them several times, listening to their stories and giving them as much advice and encouragement as I could. Wonderful young people who only needed a little help to become brilliant young adults.

Please contact me if you wish to learn more about the Zienzele Foundation, or just visit their terrific website to get the whole story: https://www.zienzelefoundation.org/