Inspirations
I have just returned from a month in Zimbabwe, living and volunteering on a rhino conservancy and having the time of my life helping with wildlife welfare and community projects. I first visited Imire two years ago on a summer break from school and I had a fairly life changing experience. It seemed the obvious place to return to once it was safe to do so to start my year of adventure.
Some of the activities that you partake in at Imire are truly magical - Interactions with orphaned elephants, tracking rhino by just their spoor, completing game counts of baby antelope. I will admit that as someone who is almost obsessive about animals, it was the wildlife that initially drew me to the conservancy however the community activities that you get the privilege of experiencing are just as special. The only disappointing part of my first trip was that the Zimbabwean school holidays align with the UK ones, meaning that all of the schools were closed. This time however I was excited to be able to visit the local secondary school to get a taste of how they operate in Zimbabwe. But of course, the main thing that slipped my mind was the dreaded ‘Rona. It was ludicrous of me to assume that a random traveller from the UK was going to be allowed to just swan around the school in order to write a blog post. My mission would have to wait.
However in the absence of a school visit I ended up being able to have an experience that was even richer. I was reacquainted with an amazing woman who I met during my trip in 2018, Damaris Matzika, a Maths teacher at Numwa Secondary School who has devoted her life to teaching - she has worked there for 34 years already! But alongside her teaching, Damaris has also set up an incredible community project which is now thriving - The Numwa Mother Support Group Empowerment Centre. In her own words, Damaris describes the aim of the group “to support all children in education”
Following Zimbabwe’s independence there was a severe shortage of teachers so many travelled from abroad to work in the country's schools. One of them was a woman from the UK who, after noticing that boys were being prioritised for education over girls, wanted to do something to try and make it fairer and campaign for girls' education. In Zimbabwe, every child has to pay school fees (unless you are from a disadvantaged household) which can be problematic for a country with such a struggling economy.
As part of her work, she paid the fees for a number of girls, enabling them to attend school and Numwa was one of the first three schools to be offered support. During this time she also encouraged women to set up groups to support girls in education through fundraising and other projects. This is how the Numwa Mother Support Group Empowerment Centre was born.
There were a few unsuccessful attempts to set up the group before it became the powerhouse that it is today. The first attempt was in 2003 when it attracted much attention but many of the women who wanted to join misunderstood the purpose of the group, looking for support themselves, mainly in the form of donations and hence most were not in the position to help in the way that the group needed. They first started to become more successful when they focused on selling sweets and gardening in order to fundraise. Sadly, they soon realised that gardening was not viable as the area around Numwa has always had water problems and so they had to terminate this part of their work. But they found success selling sweets, led by Damaris and at their peak they were able to pay fees for five primary and three secondary school children just from the money raised from sales.
From there they moved on to the next stage of their work, which today takes up most of their time, making products. They started out with school uniforms - skirts, ties and blouses, enabling the group to provide free uniforms for disadvantaged pupils and very affordable ones for everyone else. Any profits that are made are used to purchase fabric and equipment to allow them to continue their amazing work.
Next they moved on to making reusable sanitary pads. In many developing nations it is still common for young girls to miss up to a week of school each month when they are menstruating due to lack of access to suitable sanitary products to allow them to comfortably attend school at this time. Since the women started making these most crucial of products they have sewn literally thousands of pads which have been circulated all over Southern Africa. There is no doubting the impact that this group are having on the lives of young people all over Zimbabwe. Most recently they were contracted by the Ministry of Education in Zimbabwe to make over 3000 masks to give to school children to enable them to study safely after the government put a call out to groups that had the capacity to assist.
Last year the group was donated a storage container which they have converted into a workshop that would rival any small factory. It is immaculately organised with their sewing machines, work stations and even cooking facilities. Many of the women in the group live far away, some with travel times of up to three hours of walking a day so sometimes they spend the night in the workshop and cook for themselves. But the most important reason for them getting cooking facilities in the unit was not for themselves, but entirely selflessly (which seems to be the group’s identity, whether intentional or not) is to provide food for the more disadvantaged young people who attend Numwa school as well as for all of the older pupils during exam season. On some days, the pupils have a gruelling timetable of two exams a day so the women ensure that all of the exam takers are provided with a proper lunch to keep them going and allow them to have the best opportunity to perform at their full potential.
What is most striking about this group of women is the unrivalled positivity and joy which quite literally emanates from them - they are all smiles. I was lucky enough to return to the group three times during my trip and at least twice per occasion one or more of the women would break into song and dance, explaining that music brings them joy and continues to motivate them while they work. The most memorable of the songs is “Tafara Tasanganiswa”, Shona for “we are happy to be together”.
They are a truly inspirational group of women, led by an absolute trailblazer. If you are interested in finding out more information about the Numwa Mother Support Group Empowerment Centre and how you can support them either financially or otherwise please get in touch via my contact page.