Masakhaneni Projects Trust

Here again! What a year.  The deadly corona virus that has ravaged the rest of the world has not spared Zimbabwe. Masakhaneni staff has had  to minimize days spent in the office and work from home for the past 4 months. Our programs are based entirely in rural areas where cyber connectivity is unreliable in most areas. Most programming activities require physical interaction with the communities we work with. Besides, most of the programs are about how members of the community interact with each other. We are into conflict resolution and management in all of our programs. We also seek to engender a sense of community solidarity, co-existence and cooperation as a way of enhancing community productivity. Our lobby work seeks to enhance the agency of these communities.

As we met with communities to discuss the ravages of Covid-19, we shared with these same communities our collective strength when we sought to look out for each other. Covid-19 is an anti-social disease which is the antithesis of the socialization that all our programs require in communities. No shaking of hands, stay 2 meters apart, cover your face, avoid crowds, and do not attend funerals! These strictures that are key in preventing infections, run foul the interpersonal socialization that is required in our programs. Communities should work together to reduce suspicion and tension that result from “not knowing one another properly”. Covid-19 has closed schools. We hear sad stories of young girls falling pregnant during this lockdown as they have nothing else to do! We have come across incidents of domestic violence which can be directly attributed to the lockdown. Subsistence activities are curtailed by Covid-19. Thus escalating poverty in the communities. Read more

2019’s winter is going to be a long and unpleasant one. In Gwanda South and North where most of MPT’s programs take place, communities are experiencing severe drought. Many households did not harvest a thing from their fields. Between April and August in a normal year communities would be supplementing their meals with produce from their fields; not this year. It is going to be a long chilly winter indeed. The next harvest from the fields that is if decent rains fall will be March to April 2020 ten months away. How will the poorest of the poor survive the next ten months?

In most districts of Matabeleland south water levels of most boreholes have gone down; small dams did not fill up. Small gardens have been abandoned to preserve water for livestock. Reports indicate that Matabeleland south this year is likely to lose 50% of its livestock to drought. The national herd in those areas is already depleted in any case. This means loss of income, loss of a source of livelihood for most communities above all it means loss of hope. We, at Masakhaneni engage communities in discussions about remedies needed to protect communities from the ravages of these droughts. We need permanent solutions to what appears like an ongoing problem. Droughts in this country occur too frequently. Read more