ICS Zimbabwe

As the train pulled into Wellingborough station I was filled with excitement. The long wait to meet my team and find out what our project would be in Zimbabwe was finally over!  Walking towards the waiting room I turned to see another train pulling into the station and a group of people who I recognised from the Progressio assessment days stepped off the train. As we introduced ourselves we were thrown into the excited chatter about where we had travelled from and our expectations for the weekend ahead.

On the 22nd of July the UK hosted the very first Girls Summit in Partnership with UNICEF. 'A future free from Female Genital Mutilation and Child/Forced Marriage' is what acted as the basis of the summit and proved to be a significant turning point for the international awareness of these two very widely practised customs. In response to UNICEF's own campaigning #YouthForChange, our ICS Progressio team created a short 15 second video at Kambanje Secondary school in Phalombe where we filmed a class of students expressing their own varying definitions of what freedom meant.

Partnered with the Diocese of Mutare Care Cordination Programme (DOMCCP) from July-September 2014, Progressio volunteers have been thoroughly getting involved with communities and fast becoming globally active citizens. 

After twenty-two hours’ worth of travelling in taxis, coaches and planes before finally touching down in Harare, anything goes. That sentiment hasn’t worn off even – or, especially – after three weeks settling into Zimbabwean life. 

Out of the airport’s arrival hall and stepping into one of the famous commuter minibuses, or ‘combis,’ for the first time, we were naïve in being amazed at how spacious it was as we bounced through the dusty countryside.  Africa has so far met expectations, and so much more. 

This week, we implemented an HIV support group into our programme as we felt that it was important to reach out to these groups providing information about disclosure of HIV and AIDS, health and nutrition, the importance of a nutritional garden and the technique of seed savings. This is similar work to what our partner organisation, the Diocese of Mutare Community Care Programme (DOMCCP), do so we were keen to reach out to more members of the community. 

This week was the first of our sessions, with sessions running from Monday to Wednesday and Thursday and Friday dedicated to planning. The first session that I lead was a mothers’ group in Chatindo, which was really successful. We had 29 mothers turn up with more people continuing to turn up throughout the session. This session we focused on establishing relationships with mothers and helping them to establish a support group that will continue to run and meet up after we have completed our ICS placement.

Last week, saw the start of our first productive work at Simukai. Some people wonder what is Simukai? What do they stand for? Why are they needed? These are many questions that I asked myself before the start of the cycle and my volunteer journey. Within the first week of visiting Simukai it suddenly became clear to me how special they are because of what they do. They make a stand for child rights, they protect and reunify children living on the streets and educate children on HIV and AIDS.

Arriving in Nyanga to our home for the next 9 weeks was very exciting. Nyanga is a beautiful place surrounded by mountains covered in crisp white clouds and bright orange roads. The setting was quite different from the city feel of Mutare but once again the people were ever so welcoming and excited to get to know you and what type of work you’ll be doing. It felt really nice to arrive into our community and participate in the local church processions, interact with the children and engage with the women in the community and those who will be helping to facilitate our projects.

We kicked our first day of orientation off with a sunrise-lit jog down the dirt road outside the gates of our commune, to a view of mountains silhouetting before a rapidly warming glow. A welcome icy bucket bath later we arrived at the circle seated room, notebooks open and pens poised. Mr Mark (Progressio Zimbabwe Logistics Officer) welcomed us kindly and wasted no time in mingling the national and international volunteers from DOMCCP, Restoration of Hope and Simukai to catalyse the bonding and team-building process between us all. 

It’s been an eye opening period of realisation for the ICS Progressio volunteers working at Simukai Child Protection agency, based in Mutare. If I look back at when we stepped off the plane onto Harare soil, arriving as the new (but slightly less fresh team members - after that journey), I guess we knew to expect the unexpected, but we still didn't know much about our partner organisation and what we’d be dealing with.