As part of Zimbabwe’s new Disneyland in Africa initiative, Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi says:

“We want to create a free zone with a banking centre where even people who do not necessarily live in Zimbabwe can open bank accounts.”

Never mind Zimbabwe’s recent history of economic instability and confidence challenging measures like freezing and seizing assets in foreign currency.

I can just imagine the conversation:

- Where do you bank?
- Disneyland, Zimbabwe
- Hmmm. How’s that working for you?

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Accountant: Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN)
Deadline: 3 September 2013

(Tenable immediately)

The Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN) is seeking an experienced, dynamic and suitably qualified person to join the organisation as an accountant.

ZWRCN is a non-governmental organization that was established in 1990. We seek to empower women in Zimbabwe through the provision of information, technical support and advocacy that promotes their participation and benefit from economic, social and political processes.

The post holder will be responsible for undertaking the effective management and utilisation of the organisation’s financial resources and assets, as well as human resources

The major tasks of the accountant include
-Developing budgets for the organization
-Compiling financial reports
-Monitoring financial systems & procedures to ensure compliance with policies and procedures
-Payroll Administration
-Ensuring that assets are insured and maintained in proper condition
-Overseeing organisational procurement processes
-Managing the organisation’s investment portfolio
-Overseeing petty cash management
-Networking with the bankers, partners & auditors
-Overseeing auditing
-Compiling management reports for Senior Managers and presentation to the board
-Cash flow management
-Performing monthly reconciliations
-Analyzing financial transactions
-Preparing statutory returns
-Assisting in risk management
-Any other duties as assigned by the Executive Director

Qualification, skills and experience
-Certified accountant (CA, CIMA, ACCA, CIS)
-Degree in accounting
-Experience/qualification in project management
-Minimum 3 years experience of working in the development sector
-Some experience in managing human resources

To apply
If interested kindly submit a brief motivational letter and a comprehensive CV by 3 September 2013 to: pamela [at] zwrcn [dot] org [dot] zw copied to chipiwac [at] zwrcn [dot] org [dot] zw

A competitive salary and benefits are offered commensurate with qualifications and experience. Note that only short listed candidates shall be contacted for an interview within 7 days from the application deadline.

Information and Communications Officer: Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN)
Deadline: 3 September 2013

(Tenable immediately)

The Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN) is seeking an experienced, dynamic and suitably qualified person to join the organisation as an Information and Communications Officer. ZWRCN is a non-governmental organization that was established in 1990. We seek to empower women in Zimbabwe through the provision of information, technical support and advocacy that promotes their participation and benefit from economic, social and political processes. The post holder will be responsible for the overall implementation of the organisation’s information and communication strategy.

The major tasks of the Information and Communications Officer include
-Sourcing, collating and packaging gender and women’s rights information relevant to ZWRCN’s Zimbabwe, regional and global stakeholders
-Writing relevant articles, opinions and briefs for diverse audiences, including for all forms of electronic and print media
-Developing relevant messages and materials to communicate ZWRCN’s work and products to diverse audiences
-Innovative use of different information communication tools, aimed at social and economic empowerment of ZWRCN stakeholders
-Management of the content used in ZWRCN electronic resources, including the ZWRCN web site
-Development and management of information databases
-Profiling and branding the organisation’s work
-Providing training and advice to colleagues on the use of electronic information services
-Supervising and training other information staff as appropriate

Qualifications, Skills and Experience
-University degree in communication, journalism or public relations
-A minimum of 5 years experience working in the area of gender and development, preferably in a development sector environment
-Proven track record of innovative utilisation of information communication tools
-Proven experience of working with diverse media
-Excellent writing skills, and demonstrable experience in editing materials for production
-Good understanding of communication for socio-economic change approaches

To apply
If interested kindly submit a brief motivational letter, comprehensive CV and two samples of writing by 3 September 2013 to: pamela [at] zwrcn [dot] org [dot] zw copied to chipiwac [at] zwrcn [dot] org [dot] zw

A competitive salary and benefits are offered commensurate with qualifications and experience. Note that only short listed candidates shall be contacted for an interview within 7 days from the application deadline.

There are many issues that happen around us but which we remain clueless about as we get on with our lives.

It is already a hectic world, we often say, for anyone to take notice of the man standing next to you, but it is only when you hear narratives that weave personal stories that you count your blessings; wonder how unfair life can be; wonder why there are no social safety nets as once known; wonder why there is no functioning social services sector; wonder you hear often some countries being described as “welfare states.”

Indeed all this came pouring like a deluge when I attended the launch of a documentary produced by the Disability HIV and Aids Trust (DHAT) with support from the US Embassy in Harare and the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR).

The documentary tells the story of visually impaired people living with HIV/Aids, and these very personal stories depict what remains a terrain not understood from local level right up to policy making echelons.

The documentary was shot in Harare where, like in many cities across the country, the visually impaired and disabled surviving as mendicants have become permanent features whose circumstances are not interrogated, whose lives are seen as not intersecting with those of able-bodied people.

One visually impaired couple living with HIV/Aids says even in health institutions, the personnel actually are puzzled how a blind person can contract HIV “as if we blind people are asexual beings.”

This itself was noted by the DHAT country coordinator Hamida Ismail-Mauto who said: “There is general misconception amongst health personnel that people with disabilities do not have sex and therefore do not require health services.”

That testimony is most telling in that it has implications on how disabled people’s health care needs are adequately addressed when prejudice can be found among professionals expected to attend to their needs and expected to know better.

It is no wonder then when the disabled decide not to visit health care centres because of the kind of treatment that awaits them.

A DHAT board member said while able-bodied people have abundant access to sexual health care knowledge where such things as condom use are even demonstrated to them, there remain no such thing for the visually impaired, placing them at the high-end risk of HIV/Aids.

Until someone says it, this is stuff you never think of, or imagine, yet it does open our eyes to daily realities of people with disabilities in this country live with.

It’s already a tough life for the able-bodied, imagine then an HIV+ disabled couple living in the streets and with no access to health care.

As the US Ambassador Bruce Wharton said in his remarks, more resources are needed for people living with disabilities and more interest required in the work being done by people living with different abilities.

Indeed we take some of these issues for granted and only until we see these experiences up close will we realise there is more to this country than clinging to office.

The Naked Option, Last Resort documentary was screened at the International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) in Harare this week. The documentary is a bold inspiration to the many women’s groups and movements across Africa that have taken up protest as part of their activist campaigns. Directed by Candace Schermerhorn and set in Nigeria’s Delta region, which is very rich in oil, the documentary chronicles the challenges grassroots women, and the environment face at the hands of oil companies operating in this region.

The women were pushed to protest due to the high level of environmental degradation caused by oil companies in the Niger delta who flared out gas into the air, polluting water and land. As a result farming and fishing was no longer viable for the women. Another factor that brought outrage was the companies’ reluctance in employing their husbands, brothers and sons. In the documentary the women said that the only benefit they derived from Chevron’s operation in the community was the heat produced when they flared gas. They would dry their cassava using this heat; a process, which usually took days, using the sun’s heat, would only take 5 hours. To them, in as much as this flared gas was a major threat to their environment and health, they saw it as the only direct benefit to their community. However, there then came a time when they were not allowed to enter the oil company’s premises so they could dry or collect their cassava.

In South Africa they famously say ‘Wathintha umfazi wathintha imboko’ (you strike a rock you strike a woman). With all these misgivings about the oil company’s operations, the women took it upon themselves to protest at Chevron’s premises. They spent weeks on the site and disrupted the company’s operations. They gained the attention of the company when they resorted to stripping naked during the protests. In the documentary one of the activists said, “Naked I came to this world, naked I leave”, to show how they had removed the shyness of being naked in peoples eyes as well as their determination. In their tradition it is taboo to strip naked, especially an elderly woman. An example was given that if an elderly woman is offended and strips naked in front of their offender they would have cursed the offender. This group of women protesting comprised of women of all ages, and elderly women were also a part of the group. Thus them stripping naked brought the attention of local and international media and the oil companies too who agreed to sign MOUs with the women where they made ‘empty’ promises. Empty as in up to when the documentary was screened in 2011; none of those promises had been achieved.

This documentary shows the power of women coming together. It took a few minutes for those women to decide they were going to invade Chevron’s premises and then when they managed to stop the company’s operations the women would take 12 hour duties to guard and protest within the premises giving each other time to attend to their household chores.

The Naked Option is a great inspiration to women’s activism and to also question corporate responsibility. Often companies come to extract minerals within communities and concentrate on making the minimum operational costs at the expense of the community’s health, environment and development. My mind went to the families in Chiadzwa and I felt that Sheila Mutsenhu, the lady who stripped naked in front of the US Ambassador in Mutare earlier this year protesting against sanctions in Zimbabwe, should have better directed her efforts. Her being a citizen in the Manicaland province where Chiadzwa diamond mines are located, her zeal would be more beneficial if directed to the cause of women’s issues in the area. Maybe one day she will lead a group of the Manica women to protest demanding better living conditions.

This year is the 12th edition of the International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) and it will run from the 23rd to the 31st of August in Harare. It will move to Bulawayo from the 5th to the 7th of September. You can download the programme here.

Driving to work yesterday, along the Borrowdale Road, I passed a woman driving in what’s mean to be the fast lane, ie, on the right. She was flossing her teeth. I kid you not. Though this wasn’t as surprising (I think) as the guy I saw driving Very slowly up Arcturus Road the other evening. The reason for his below 30k’s an hour speed? He was changing his shoes.

Sex sells. No two ways about it, and that’s the reason we now see billboards and TV commercials with topless men and women everywhere. Different words have been used to describe the sexually suggestive moves we now excessively watch in music videos. Words like “dirty dancing” “gyrating” and “work it” have been mostly used to describe the shaking of the bum whether one is sweating it out in the gym or on the dance floor. To lighten up these sexually provocative words Oxford dictionary has added “twerking” to the list. For doing such moves in public it would earn you unanimous ridicule but with words like  “twerking” people now let it pass for “cool”. So those moves in sungura and rhumba music videos which feature movement of the rump can be now be described as “twerking”. Even when you go for your Zumba classes you might have been twerking without knowing it.