Over the last few weeks, I have stumbled upon several articles discussing the value (or lack of thereof) of sending young people to volunteer overseas. As an employee of Progressio, an international development charity that sends 18-25 years old to Africa and Central America, I felt I needed to dig into the issue a bit more.
“Pencils down in five minutes, finish your pictures guys.” A flurry of paper and splashing of colour. 12 eager faces, determined to create masterpieces and succeeding with creative zeal.
We are now 6 weeks into our programme and things are in full swing. We are carrying out psycho-social support (PSS) sessions every week teaching the kids about child rights, sexual reproductive health and HIV and Aids. We have many exciting things planned for the final few weeks of our project, and it’s dawned on us all that our time here is quickly coming to an end and our ICS journey will be over sooner than we think.
Week 4 has got off to a flying start here in Bulawayo. The Restoration of Hope team have been busy all week working with local schools on a whole host of topics; HIV/AIDS, Sexual Reproductive Health, Child Rights and Income Generating Activities just to name a few.
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
We arrived in Harare at two in the afternoon following a fourteen hour journey from London, Heathrow. Along the way we stopped at Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Lusaka in Zambia. The stops were enjoyable enough, enabling us to see other parts of Africa and the vast change in climate and environment.
After we arrived in Harare we took a minibus for a short journey to the Small World lodge. We were expecting something somewhat different and were all pleasantly surprised by the garden and living area of the lodge filled with crafted metal artwork and comfortable furniture.
Progressio has been working on gender in Zimbabwe for several years. To celebrate International Women’s Day, Progressio’s Southern Africa Sub-regional Manager, Fiona Mwashita, talks to us about being a woman in Zimbabwe.
What would you say are the main challenges facing women in Zimbabwe?
When l look back, it’s difficult to believe that we are almost at our mid-term mark. Time has gone by so fast and it only feels like yesterday that we began our volunteer journey. There is nothing more we could ask for than to have our cycle extended. We are enjoying every moment that we are together as a team either working in the office or out carrying out our activities and more so in our host homes. Starting out on this journey has been a really wonderful experience so far.
Saturday 17 January, 2.00pm: After months of anticipation, excitement and intrigue, I arrived in Zimbabwe with nine other ICS volunteers from the UK. We were greeted at Harare airport by our team leaders and spent a quiet night together in the city to rest from the long journey. The following morning we hit the road early to travel to the city of Mutare for the start of our orientation week. The journey took us through some beautiful rural scenery as we heard more about the country and the culture.
People usually say that Monday is the most hectic day of the week but on Tuesday, at that point and time I begged to differ because when we arrived at Mncumbatha Secondary School the students were buzzing a different tune. All we could see were the students running from one classroom block to another as an attempt to settle down and start on with the day’ work, as it was just a few minutes after eight.
