This area is devoted to the updates sent back from Nairobi from the 10 women from Aotearoa who attended. 

Highlights include;

• National Director Alison Lewin's tour of some of the YWCAs in Zimbabwe looking at their HIV projects
• International Women's Summit on Women's Leadership in HIV&AIDS
  • Keynotes Mary Robinson and Peter Piot

 

Webcasts from the different sessions are available for viewing from the World YWCA website as well as downloads of the speeches given at the Summit including Dr Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organisation and Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS.

Visit to Zimbabwe - Alison Lewin

I’ve just been fortunate enough to join 8 other women on a 5 day study visit in Zimbabwe hosted by the YWCA of Zimbabwe.  The aim of the visit was to expose us to the realities of HIV in Africa and give us greater insight into the particular issues facing Zimbabwe as well as the challenges facing the YWCA there as they try to continue to provide programmes in the community.  It was also an opportunity to encourage mutual learning and the development of respectful and sustainable partnerships

I chose to stay at the YWCA's Westland hostel which is located on the outskirts of Harare in a “medium-high density” housing area.  The property is picturesquely situated in a large compound and is the primary income generator for most of the programmes that the YWCA runs.  The hostel attracts church, business and government groups for meeting and conferences as well as providing accommodation for travellers and locals.  I got to experience first hand the problems that Zimbabweans are coping with on a daily basis - frequent power cuts leading to problems in accessing water.   This meant bathing in buckets of water, cooking on an outside fire and using candles for night lighting.   A diesel generator (kindly donated by the YWCA of Canada) is able to be used only when fuel is available (not very often and at an extraordinarily high price).    To their credit, the staff remain resolute and determined to keep going.

My first official visit was with the Hon. Sthembiso Nyoni, the Minister of Small-Medium Enterprises (SME).  Before taking on her ministerial role she was an active member of the Zimbabwean YWCA for a long time and is still very committed to supporting the work of the Y and trying to improve the lot of women in Zimbabwe.  She was intending to attend the International Women’s Summit and has paid for 3 other Y women to attend as well.

As a way of encouraging self employment, she has been working to implement a  business loans scheme, paying particular attention to ensuring that women get access to loans.  It has been recognised that women are more likely to be successful in business and can be relied upon to repay the loans.

The spread of HIV is a significant issue for Zimbabwe and due to the dire economic situation it is difficult for people to access treatment.

The Y is involved in several projects that support people living with HIV.  They also partner with several organisations involved in work:

AIDS Counseling Trust

The AIDS Counseling Trust is an organisation that deals with both adults and young people.  Its core focus is to help establish support groups, empower them with life skills to alleviate poverty as well as support the young people living with HIV and AIDS

The YWCA has been responsible for training members in alternative technology skills to help them deal with the electricity and water shortages.  They have been taught how to construct and use a hay box slow cooker, a charcoal cooler and a drum oven for use over an open fire.  ACT have in turn trained YWCA staff and members in low input and nutritional gardening. 

Herbal Gardens

The use of herbs as an alternative/complementary therapy in     the fight against HIV and AIDS was a common theme during our study tour.  Herb gardens have been set up at a number of sites including at the Westlands Hostel, the YWCA Kuwadzana Support group for people living with HIV and AIDS, at the Mbare Training Centre and at The Centre in Harare.  The rationale is that economic hardships make it difficult for people to afford medication and learning to grow and use herbs to help maintain general health and fight common illnesses such as colds and flu provides an alternative when medication is unavailable or can be used in a complementary way when someone has access to ARV drugs. 

The Centre

The Centre, located in a residential area in central Harare, is an organization set up by and for People living with HIV and AIDS and is affiliated to the International Community of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (ICW).

The Centre’s core areas of work include

• Support group meetings offering moral and spiritual support to those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS
• Working closely with HIV+ children
• Education on home-based care, nutrition and the use of herbs to maintain health.

Mbare Centre

This centre is located in a high density housing area in central Harare.   It offers young women (and a few young men) the opportunity to access vocational training in the areas of Hospitality and Catering and Sewing.    I was immediately struck by how run down the facilities were.  The building is basically a corrugated iron shell with holes in the roof. 

Much of the equipment that they use for catering training is damaged and the kitchen area is tiny for this sort of work.   The sewing room seemed to have only three hand-operated machines which had to be shared between students.   The teachers freely admitted that it was unlikely that a lot of the students would be able to get work in Zimbabwe although they did do their best to organise work placements for the students.  Some of the students would probably end up trying to get work in South Africa or one of the other neighbouring countries.  

The students obviously took great pride in what they were doing and were happy to share  their thoughts and aspirations.  On a personal level, I felt quite overwhelmed when one of the students that I had been talking to ran out to the bus as I was leaving and threw her arms around me, thanking me for taking the time to come and visit.

Honde valley

The Honde valley is a stunningly beautiful rural area located approximately 4 hours drive East of Harare.  Our destination was a school located at the end of an 8km stretch of rough (4 wheel drive territory!) dusty road.   The school was central to the little community surrounding it and we were warmly welcomed by the school children who had been waiting for hours for our arrival.   We were taken on a tour around the community which included having a look at a gully reclamation project which aimed to reduce erosion and reclaim land for gardens.  All this work was being done by hand, including the transportation of rocks from another area to build up the gully.

The stark reality of life in rural Zimbabwe was plain in our visits to two households in the community.  In one home, we met a couple with 2 small children.   He was clearly extremely sick with AIDS and she was having to cope with nursing him, looking after the children and trying to find enough food for the family to survive.  The second household consisted of 2 children (an 11yo. girl and her older brother) whose parents had passed away several years before.  They had virtually nothing and were surviving on the generosity of other villagers who would give them food when they could.   The young girl continued to attend school in spite of this and indicated that she would like to be a nurse.  These were just two examples of people living below the poverty line.  Zimbabwe is full of people living in similar situations.   The YWCA has trained women to provide some home-based support to high needs households.  The problem they are facing is that, not only is there no money to pay them, there is also no money to purchase fuel to enable these women to reach the areas that most need assistance.

Our tour was concluded with a shared meal at the school.  The Headman of the community made the point that while HIV was a major issue for them, access to water was the biggest single problem.   If they had the resources to solve the water access problem then they would be in a better position to deal with the other issues themselves.

After all the negative publicity that Zimbabwe has received in our press I leave Zimbabwe with a lasting impression of warm, friendly people who seemed genuinely delighted to have visitors and went out of their way to ensure I was comfortable.   People are clearly suffering due to the political situation but seem quietly confident that there will be a change in leadership next year when the elections occur.  For the moment they continue to try and manage as best they can.