Our busy week (April 26th) started with a session on child abuse with a women’s group from Nzvenga village. They took the session with much enthusiasm and appreciated learning how to better take care of their children’s wellbeing and ensure that they grow up with healthy emotions. After the morning session, we prepared for an afternoon session with the youth group, with whom we discussed issues on voluntarism. The previous Monday we had held a session on disease awareness only, with the women and had not mobilised the youths so it was great to have a busy day.
Tuesdays were scheduled for Bumhira community and we have been able to meet with Bumhira primary school children (grade 4-7) and shining stars women’s group from Bumhira as well. We have done child abuse, disease awareness and health and nutrition sessions with Bumhira primary. We were all glad to have the children be present for the sessions that we held over the school holidays. With the women’s group, we have done child abuse and disease awareness sessions and the women’s group loved it.
Although we have not been able to work according to the planned schedule, we have been able to find ways to improvise. For example, we had to cancel our scheduled session with Regina primary because we could not get access to a classroom so instead, we played a game of rounders with them, which they played as mixed teams, of boys and girls and we had a great game!
Apart from the hiccup that week, the previous Wednesdays we have been able to conduct sessions on child abuse and disease awareness, and hospital cleaning in the morning. In the afternoons, we walked to Samanyika Anglican church were we met 3 other groups of women with whom we did sessions on disease awareness, child abuse and gender based violence. All three sparked heated discussions especially issues on gender equality.
On Thursdays, we had only one session with a women’s group from Ruwende and Mawadza villages. We had to cancel two sessions because of the Independence Day holiday and a trip to Mutare for the mid-term review. Fridays are days for home visits, as of now we have managed to conduct two sessions we also attended to the stakeholder and mid-term review meetings.
To conclude, work has been going well as planned and we hope it continue to move smoothly when the schools open.
Blog written by in-country volunteer Tildah Magoba
Photo 1: Health and Nutrition with Bumhira primary
Photo 2: Game of rounders with Regina primary
Photo 3: Gender Based Violence Session With Women’s Groups in Samanyika
