Sustainable, Equitable, and Resilient Food, Nutrition, and Income Security in Manicaland (Buhera and Mutare) and Masvingo (Chivi and Zaka).
Understanding the Patterns of Power Affecting Women
Twenty years ago, a young SEBINA MASUKUTA met and married the love of her life, a man from Museki village, twenty years senior, “I just wanted to have children.” Her wish was fulfilled that year same year as they welcomed their first daughter. Life would soon prove it wasn’t meant to be.
At just 20 months, Sebina’s daughter fell sick with an unknown illness and passed away, leaving her mother heartbroken. Trying to fill the
vacuum in her heart left by her late child, Sebina fell pregnant again, and in 2004, gave birth to another girlat home. In 2012, feeling society’s scorn for not having a son, she became worried when she couldn’t feel any movements from the baby.
“I went to the hospital, and they said everything was fine. When I got home, something triggered my asthma, and I went into early labour.”
Sebina and her husband tried to make their way back to the hospital.
Still, it was too late as she gave birth on the way, “He was alive for less than an hour and died because we didn’t wrap him up in time.” It was the boy she always wanted.
Now 43, Sebina’s hopes for a boy are not unfounded; instead, they reflect feedback shared during the development of the Takunda Gender Analysis. The overall objective of the analysis was to identify gender gaps, practices which influence patterns of power and control of assets, to name
Finding the Young Voices
Every week, DESMOND JEKE (20) meets with his peers for a friendly match at the nearest soccer grounds in Ward 3, Zaka District. The regular meetups give Desmond and his peers time to unwind and set aside concerns about their future. Like Desmond, some of them have completed senior school and are unable to proceed to tertiary school due to financial constraints.
Desmond is just one of two young men who attended the broader village sensitization meeting for the Village Development Committee (VIDCO) 3. VIDCO 3 consists of three villages, Mahora/Tizirai 1, Chisandako and Nhando. Noticing that his age group was underrepresented at the meeting, Desmond invited some of his peers to attend the following session. According to Desmond, the low attendance level was due to the consistent exclusion of young people in the early stages of development programmes, “I’ve never seen a meeting where we are called in as youth to discuss our aspirations.”
He goes on to share some of the challenges young people face in attending meetings, “It is difficult to get a young person to commit to attending as my peers can outrightly refuse to be associated with a meeting or are easily influenced against attending a meeting.” A perceptive young
man, Desmond’s solution is simple, “I think, if you want the youth to meet and participate, you must engage our parents, not the headman. If you arrange a meeting with our parents, explain and seek consent from them for us to attend the meeting, it puts them in a better position to urge us to attend the meeting and plan for our future.”
Takunda, a USAID-funded Activity, is working towards the co-creation of youth-oriented opportunities with its partners. Aiming to empower over 3,000 young people with vocational skills training, the Takunda community visioning process will inform the selection of projects as identified by communities and assess their feasibility based on information shared regarding past projects.
The underrepresentation of young people during the community visioning process has
throughout
and
Working towards a remedy, Takunda staff began to implement an innovative approach towards youth engagement, “We noticed that youth participation varies from one Ward to another. What we
a few. In its preliminary findings, the study indicated that male elders would only parcel land to their sons upon marriage- allowing men to control more land than women.
With four daughters and no son, Sebina was unable to hold onto her late husband’s estate. One of the key findings highlighted in the gender analysis is women’s ability to develop coping solutions to support their families. Sebina re-married.
Sebina’s second husband is from Nhando village, which borders Museki village, “I wanted someone who could take care of me and do the same.” However, she could not take her children from a previous marriage, and someone came to the rescue, “My late husband’s sister offered to take care of the girls.”
Soured by her experiences giving birth at home, Sebina’s ensuing pregnancies in the new marriage were all delivered at a hospital.
“My last pregnancy was difficult. I didn’t have enough to eat, and the baby kept threatening to come early because of my asthma. My daughter is seven months old, but she’s unable to sit, and I don’t know why.” She faces yet another challenge.
As development agencies continue to grapple with the best approaches to engage communities, community leaders in Buhera and Zaka districts are appreciative of Takunda’s engagement method. Takunda, a USAID-funded Activity, is using the Community Visioning process to engage communities to collectively develop a Community Action Plan (CAP) that is in line with their priorities and aspirations. The CAP will not only guide Takunda program interventions but all future community interventions.
On May 31, 2021, during the Takunda community visioning process, BOWAS MUSEKI, councillor for Ward 14 in Zaka district, shared his perspective on the factors he thinks are affecting sustainable development in his community, “Whenever we receive support from development partners, some projects succeed, and others fail. Those that do succeed, we hardly follow through with them. When
the partner leaves, we too leave the project.” As a part of the community visioning process being run in the four districts of Manicaland and Masvingo, villagers from Ward 14 in Zaka detailed different projects they undertook in the past, including their successes and challenges.
Representing his village, ANTHONY GONDOKONDO gives a breakdown of different households, “The most vulnerable household in my village is one without cattle, ploughs,
tractors, that’s the lowest. A middlerange household has a cow or two.
The well-off household has enough cattle and a member who works in the capital city, Harare. A small household has 5 members, and a large household has up to twelve members,” says the headman for Gondokondo village in Zaka District.
The information compiled by the thirty-four village headmen under Museki’s charge contributes largely to the development of CAP. Bowas
offers an olive branch for future engagement, “When development partners engage us, they must make it clear that we own the project, the way you have done today. When we then work together, we will constantly remind ourselves that this project is ‘ours’ and we will ensure we put in measures for its sustainability when the partner leaves.”
The drive behind Takunda’s community visioning process is
anchored in a need to empower communities to develop CAPs that can be presented to any development partner or shared with the government. The CAP reflects a community’s vision and strategies for realizing it.
EVERJOY MASASE (19) thought she would be preparing for her ordinary level examinations this November but, a simple half-truth from a neighbour changed the course of the life she knew. “My father used to tell me he doesn’t have money to waste on educating a girl,” Everjoy reminisced, “whenever I requested anything from my parents, they would flippantly disregard it. They didn’t care, and it was heartbreaking.” Choking back emotion as she speaks, Everjoy recounts how she left her parents’ home as a girl and became a wife.
Born into a family of five siblings, four girls and a boy, Everjoy remembers her days at school, “I loved sewing and geography. I was a good student, and all the teachers at my school used to say so.” This was not enough to convince her parents to invest in her education. When her father stopped paying her school
fees early in form one (age 16), Everjoy found a solution, “I decided to have a boyfriend, and, at the time, we had a platonic relationship. Any time I needed fees or books for school, he would give me the money for it.” Investing in her future.
In SEPTEMBER 2020, a neighbour advised her parents that Everjoy may be pregnant. Given the opportunity, her parents didn’t need any further details and proceeded to throw her out of the house. “I felt abandoned,” Everjoy confided.
Today, Everjoy lives a different life from the one she grew up in. “My mother-in-law has been teaching me how to saw. When she purchases clothing material, she makes sure she gets some for me.” Using the floor as her cutting table and an old dishwashing sponge as a pincushion, Everjoy neatly cuts out a pattern for a face mask. “I can make face masks and underwear, and my mother-in-law sells what I make.”
Once wary of her mother-inlaw, Everjoy looks forward to her weekly lesson, “I thought she would abandon me as my parents did. I now find I can tell her anything- even request sanitary wear, and she’ll bring it. My mother never did this.” Everjoy is making sure she absorbs different sewing techniques from her mother-in-law, “I want to own a sewing machine and learn to sew other things to make money.”
Sixty kilometres away, MOREBLESSING TAMAYI (16) was a student at the local high school in Machinga, Buhera. Then fifteen years old, Moreblessing fell pregnant and had to drop out of school and start fending for her new family. “I now buy kapenta in bulk then sell it at a profit in smaller portions,” she shares, “I don’t want to continue doing this. I want to raise enough money to take myself
back to school.” Mother to a bubbly three-month-old son, Moreblessing, shares her aspirations are for the next five years, “I see myself working behind a desk, typing on a computer
with people waiting for a meeting with me.” In the background, her mother-in-law scoffs at such an ambition.
MAXMILLION MOYO, a Business Development Specialist at Takunda, said, “We noted a demand for technical vocational education and training (TVET) in the community action plans collected by our the Takunda community visioning team.
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... especially the the Ward based coordinators to mobilize the youth.”
MARTIN CHAUKE, Business Development Offices at Takunda. Martin shares his motivation, “As I will be working mainly with the youth, I want to impart knowledge of what I’ve achieved in life. My vision is for them to have access to the exposure
The potential of young people and women is incredible. We are now mapping stakeholders, institutions, and individuals interested in improving access to labour markets, skills, self-employment, and employability.”
The need and potential of availing of TVET is best expressed by WAITWELL KAMBARAMI (51), a parent, a builder by profession, and a farmer in Rowa, Ward 14, Mutare Rural. Waitwell grew up with 11 other siblings, six sisters and five brothers. Their parents were not formally employed, and they lived off their subsistence farming. Using the profits gained from selling their farming produce, Waitwell’s parents invested in the education of their twelve children.
All children completed their Form 4 (ordinary level) at different high schools; others completed their Advanced Level.
“How can I fail to send my children to school when my parents sent
twelve?” asks Waitwell. This is the source of his drive to ensure his children prepare for the future.
“My daughter finished a hotel and catering course at a vocational training center and is employed at a fast-food restaurant. My son is following in her footsteps with distinctions, and I have two other children still in junior school.”
Waitwell attributes his achievements so far to multiple sources of income, ranging from buying and selling sugar & salt, building and being resilient. “I don’t want my family to live the same life I did. Their lives should be better.”
Written by: Charmaine Chitate
and the opportunities that I did, so that they are empowered. I also see myself impacting in the communities I also come from.”
APRIL 11, 2021: Memory Jameson, a resident of Tadzoka village, poses for a picture with the result of her cartographic skills which identify natural resources, roads, dip tanks, gardens, and irrigation systems in her village. As part of the community visioning process in Ward 12 (Chivi District), the legend on Memory’s map identifies well-to-do households (red circles), middle-income households (black circles), and in blue circles, vulnerable
