ICS Zimbabwe

Summary of how I benefited from ICS

I was a national team leader for the first two cycles of Simukai, in which I successfully lead the first team of 7 volunteers and the second team of 12 volunteers. These cycles ran from January 2014 to June 2014. Our program supplemented the work done at Simukai, covering the Mutare urban and rural districts. I am really grateful to have participated in this program which has built me professionally and also developed my community immensely. During the programme I have gained the following skills:

Summary of how I benefited from ICS

On 19 and 20 January 2016, I assisted a grandmother to weed and to put fertilizer to her crops which include maize and beans in her field of about half hectare as my Action At Home for 2 days.

I chose to help this grandmother because she is poor, very old and she is staying with a grandchild living with HIV/AIDS. This grandchild is in grade three and is nine years old.

Our Action at Home experience with my volunteer colleague have been blissful and worthwhile. “Terrific Wednesdays” like we called them were one major component of our weekly schedule which we looked forward to every week for the past five weeks.

Our Action At Home (AAH) focused on doing arts and crafts as well as basic computer literacy skills. The objectives were to give the children a break from the normal learning schedule through play, to identify and nurture talents, increase knowledge on computers and boost confidence of the girls.

It would seem quite the cliché for a ‘middle class Christian girl’, former Chapel Prefect no less, to be taking part in an overseas volunteering placement in Zimbabwe. Whilst I may fit the stereotype, the reality of an ICS placement couldn’t be further from this generalisation, which became very clear from the very beginning of my ICS journey at the orientation and training weekend. The group of people that I was surrounded by were from different walks of life, with various faiths or none at all, demonstrating an open-minded and accepting attitude towards these differences.

In honour of International Women’s Day, on 8 March 2016, the Rowa Runners took a moment to outline women that they have found inspirational. This year the focus of International Women’s Day is ‘A Pledge for Parity’, recognising equal pay, equal rights. 

Ida Pfeiffer (1797-1858) - by Becca

T.I.A. stands for ‘This is Africa’ and is used to describe anything normal in Zimbabwe and absurd in the UK. 

The following are 15 times we have used the phrase T.I.A. on placement.

1) When your transport to work hasn’t had a MOT since it was brand new and the road you travel on has more big dips than Colossus.

2) When you forget your ‘bag for life’, but it doesn’t matter because you can carry you weekly shop on your head. 

Mid-February marks five months since I returned from my ICS placement abroad. My team and I stayed and worked in Mutare, Zimbabwe, and the surrounding towns, from July to September 2015. 

Looking back over the last few months has allowed me to appreciate and digest the experience and, from this retrospective place of awe and love, I have created my ‘Five things, five months on’ list… 

1. Perspective

You may be aware that here at Progressio Team MASO, we have divided into three groups; HIV & AIDS awareness, Income Generating Activities (IGAs) and Child Rights. As a team, we all spent longer than other projects completing our initial research, as we had to build relationships within the community, being the first cycle and all. 

The Rowa Runners are 12 volunteers from two vastly different cultures. In different countries there are different ways that we express ourselves. When two of these cultures mix, it’s common for the two sides to view each other as strange. There are a lot of blogs on this website that explore how non-British cultures are weird, but none on how your culture is weird to us! I got together with some of my fellow Zimbabwean volunteers and we’re going to tell you who’s truly weird! (You).