Some people become activists through passion while some find themselves on the streets because they are just tired of getting screwed by the system. When Martin Luther King took to the streets he wanted to share his dream of a society where race was not an issue. The general socio-economic and political conditions we now live in demand action and solutions to our day to day needs. Every time we turn on news channels its about protests and uprisings as more and more people continue to demand solutions to contemporary problems affecting them.

South Africa was recently dubbed “the protest capital of the world” as the streets have become permanent homes for activists. Living in a world faced with a lot of injustice and inequality mainly driven by greed, profiteering and ignorance, calls for a collective effort from everybody. Activism is about affecting social change and championing a cause whether big or small. Small things like a change of mindset won’t even require government or big donor funding for a start and that’s the reason why we often read about the great works by Wangari Mathaai of Kenya who managed to share knowledge on environment conservation with rural communities. A young girl from Pakistan almost lost her life because she wanted other young girls in her country to have access to education. Even the young school children of South Africa became active in 1979 demanding better education. Artists as role models for the young generation have also become heavily involved in activism especially towards raising awareness on behavior change targeting drug abuse and safe sex.

Activism comes with its own challenges with many activists the world over being persecuted for championing people’s rights. Zimbabwe is one such country where activists and social movement groups have been labeled enemies of the state. A crack down on dissenting voices has resulted in many people shying away from being active in the community on issues that affect them due to fear.

One of Zimbabwe’s aspiring activists Wadzanai Motsi was awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and she conducted research on youth’s contributions to activism. At a Food for Thought session hosted by US Embassy Public Affairs section, Wadzanai and Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa shared their experiences on various forms of activism and the different ways each person can contribute to make the society we live in a better place.

Sociologist/movement theorist, Zeynep Tufekci, suggests we stop looking so much at outputs of social media fueled protests and start looking instead at their role in capacity building. More on Ethan Zuckerman’s blog

There’s a level of totalitarianism that pinches my nerves that is clearly visible in Zimbabwe. The people are always stuffed under the heavy hand of the despot either in the guise of ‘home grown solutions’ or ‘catching up with international standards’. Whenever the government wants to suck money out of us they do it to catch up with international trends.

Good examples are the introduction of toll gates, increasing toll fees, debates about urban tolls, spot fines, increasing import taxes and levies, new police and ministers’ vehicles, etc. International standards are unceremoniously dumped whenever issues of accountability and good governance are brought up and replaced by ‘home grown remedies’, which in most cases have only looked well crafted on paper but void in implementation.

They work these things like magicians in our eyes; most of the time we fail to connect the two dots in the line in the use of the terms from the start of the con plan to steal money from us to the point where we want the result and details of expenditure. A good but sad example is the toll fees which were forcibly introduced on our roads to catch up with regional and international trends and without fail, every motorist is paying but the amount of potholes on our highways by far do not reflect the tremendous amounts of money that is being collected in toll fees everyday.

Interestingly the government is still working ‘flat out’ to craft ‘home grown solutions’ that will insure that the system is water tight and any corruption be brought to book. Others who have tried to question the accountability of the government and police over toll fees and spot fines have been labeled western puppets whose agenda is to serve their western masters and to push for a regime change in our country. Anyone who asks questions about the diamond revenues (including the former Finance Minister, Biti), Zupco unfair operations, civil service inflated wage bills and unfair distributions of farming, energy, water and security resources etc, has been placed in this neocolonialists puppet bracket.

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Gender Based Violence Coordinator: World Education Inc./Bantwana (WEI/B) Zimbabwe
Deadline: 30 October 2013

Based in Harare, Fixed Term contract

World Education Inc./Bantwana (WEI/B) Zimbabwe is an INGO that has been working in Zimbabwe since 2008 dedicated to improving the lives of the poor through economic and social development programmes. It provides training and technical assistance in non-formal education for adults and children with special emphasis on income generation, small enterprise development, literacy, education for the workplace, environmental education, reproductive health, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS education and refugee orientation. Projects are designed to contribute to individual growth as well as to community and national development.

World Education Inc./Bantwana, with support from USAID is implementing a national Gender based Violence programme that seeks to reduce incidence of gender based violence and enhance access to services for survivors. To that end World Education Inc./Bantwana is recruiting to fill in the following key position:

Purpose of position
Reporting to the Child Protection Manager the GBV Coordinator will develop and lead the implementation of a technically sound, well mainstreamed gender based violence prevention and response strategy on behalf of WEI and its partner organizations.

Major responsibilities
-Design, manage, plan and coordinate programme activities on gender based violence
-Provide technical support and grants management for WEI mainstream and GBV partners
-Conduct capacity building workshops in communities on gender and child abuse
-Coordinate Gender mainstreaming issues for WEI and its partners
-Develop proposals, budgets, and work plans for gender based violence programmes
-Analyse and monitor trends, opportunities and challenges in Gender based violence
-Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with key GBV stakeholders
-Provide recommendations and strategic advice to the Child Protection Manager and Country Director
-Work closely with colleagues in other departments to identify promising practices and strategic opportunities for enhancing gender equality and ending violence against women, adolescents and children

Administrative responsibilities
-Write quarterly, monthly, annual progress reports
-Use partner feedback and reports to consolidate GBV reports
-Network and represent WEI at various child protection and GBV forums/stakeholders meetings
-Support and monitor partners/consultants on delivery based contracts
-Programmatic budget tracking

Qualifications and education requirements
-Advanced degree Social Work or any Social Sciences similar qualification. Specialized studies in gender a distinct asset
-5 years of professional experience in a similar role
-Proven experience in the design, implementation and management of GBV programs
-Experience in working with different stakeholders, preferably including experience in leading coordination efforts
-Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
-Ability to work independently, take initiatives and leadership
-Proven ability to develop and maintain partnerships

To apply
Interested candidates should submit their application letter and detailed CV, clearly stating the position being applied for in the subject section of the email or envelope. Please enclose copies of relevant certificates and give names and contact details of 3 referees. Applications should be submitted to: recruitment [at] worlded [dot] co [dot] zw

Or

Human Resources Department
World Education Inc. / Bantwana
29 Lawson Avenue
Milton Park
Harare.

Only short listed candidates will be contacted.

Two (2) Monitoring & Evaluation Officers: World Education Inc./Bantwana (WEI/B) Zimbabwe
Deadline: 30 October 2013

Locations: Harare and Bulawayo

Fixed Term contract 1 year

World Education Inc./Bantwana (WEI/B) Zimbabwe is an INGO that has been working in Zimbabwe since 2008 dedicated to improving the lives of the poor through economic and social development programmes. It provides training and technical assistance in non-formal education for adults and children with special emphasis on income generation, small enterprise development, literacy, education for the workplace, environmental education, reproductive health, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS education and refugee orientation. Projects are designed to contribute to individual growth as well as to community and national development.

Purpose of position
To provide technical expertise in the implementation of Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting of activities of WEI projects.  The M & E Officer coordinates and manages project reporting on specific indicators and activity-related accounting Major

Responsibilities
-Provide technical expertise in Monitoring Evaluation and Reporting of activities and achievements of WEI Project
-Setup an M & E database and updating it in line with emerging developments
-Ensure data quality including data cleaning before submission to head office
-Conduct supportive supervisory visits to sub grantees to observe, monitor and provide guidance and quality feedback on the use of data and indicators
-Support and facilitate for consultants hired to carry out external assessments of the project or other research assignments
-Analyse and document all key indicators’ data, best practices and case studies of innovative OVC initiatives
-Participate in compiling quarterly performance and annual SO and KRA level results reports.

Qualifications and education requirements
-First degree plus a minimum of 3 years of substantial monitoring and evaluation experience
-Proficiency in utilization of relevant software applications
-Excellent communication, conceptual and presentation skills
-Knowledge of USAID-funded and other donor programs and practices desirable.

To apply
Interested candidates should submit their application letter and detailed CV, clearly stating the position being applied for in the subject section of the email or envelope to: recruitment [at] worlded [dot] co [dot] zw

Or

Human Resources Department
World Education Inc. / Bantwana
29 Lawson Avenue
Milton Park
Harare

Only short listed candidates will be contacted.

In 1947 Johnnie and Greta Makings arrived from a green and wet England
and bought this house on a dry and dusty hillside in a foreign land

at that time there was no water supply to Monavale
just a few rambling farmhouses and manager’s dwellings
strewn across its stony hilltops
that rise above the surrounding wetlands

Johnnie was an action man of the land
a pioneer
he knew how to survive
he was one of the initiators of the communal borehole
that was piped into the scattered dwellings
he picked up the millions of loose rocks and created beautiful dry stone walls
across contours of the hill
around gardens (fed by his house waste water)
built stone houses

he was a creative god in this foreign garden

when we came to this place in 1980
Johnnie and Greta were still living in their (Johnnie-built) house next door
and they welcomed us in with stories of this hill
- their home for 33 years

Johnnie told me of noticing a Gum Tree sapling
when he was building stone steps at the bottom of the garden
and of his decision to leave it to grow
an evergreen fast-growing foreigner to this land
it captured his spirit

when we arrived 33 years later, the hill was already a different place
water was being pumped from a seemingly limitless underground aquifer
and fed into gardens and vegetable patches on the hilltops
it had turned into a green and leafy place
with towering gums and shady jacarandas
foreign trees, planted by the new settlers
seeking a more gentle way of life

gods in the garden

30 years later, a more environmentally aware community
began to see the impact of these foreign evergreens
on the indigenous trees

beautiful Musasas and hardwoods
out-competed by new exotics
which  were spreading fast across the hill
leaving only vestiges of this once unique woodland

once again we became gods in the garden

and began to cut and cull these alien trees
in an effort to retain what had been lost
and we planted back native trees
and began slowly to see the increase in insects and birds and diversity

We too have been living on this hill for 33 years now
and Johnnie Makings’ Gum tree had reached an incredible height and girth
she could be seen for miles towering above the tallest tree on the hill

for years now there have been conversations about her survival …
the obvious problem being the amount of underground water she consumed
she was leaning a bit
she was out competing the surrounding trees
she was getting old – drying out at the outer branches?
was she on her way out?

when we were in Cape Town
Mel took the decision to cut her down

gods in the garden

coming back to a huge empty hole in our canopy was devastating
despite being warned
despite the logic
I feel a deep mourning

she was the herald of sunrise
catching the first light in the  tips of her sky-high branches
holding the last touch of gold
long after the sun had sunk below the horizon
the roosting place of eagles, falcons and passing herons
home to thousands of birds

she was my age
she was my friend
she was a guardian of our boundaries

what responsibility we take
when we play with the balance of nature
only aware of our own intentions
until we see the effects of our actions

in the bare-open space at the bottom,
Mel is ready to plant a few hundred indigenous trees and bushes
the moment the rains begin

gods in the garden

Lily found the huge cobra under the jasmine last week
it’s ankle wide girth winding swiftly across the lawn and into the rocks below
a sense of awe
of gratitude and relief that she is still here

and there were 2 bush babies at the bananas last night
are they a pair?

the garden echoes with the peeping of new fledglings

there are gods in the garden
despite our god-like interference