Some years back HIV positive people were voiceless as HIV negative people represented them and so their deepest concerns were never really uttered. But Zimbabwe’s 24-year-old Anna Sango has put an end to this as she represented Zimbabwe women both living with HIV and not, at the first ever International AIDS Conference held in the United States. In her line of work back home Anna Sango is a peer educator in Bulawayo. She is a well-known vocal activist who founded her own community-based support group for women affected by HIV. She advocated for the inclusion of all women in matters of policy formulation in matters that affect them.

It is also at this conference that sex workers demanded their fuller inclusion. Sango in her presentation said:

“Frankly we are getting tired of repeating ourselves… why do so many of the same old problems exist? 2012′s pandemic has a woman’s shape… we need to look with clear eyes to see old problems, why are we working on the same old problems every 2 years? What is missing? We are missing! I’m a young woman, transitioning into full adulthood, full womanhood, I would like to do that in a safe space, I ask you, how are you holding yourself accountable?  An AIDS free generation looks like a generation which takes global responsibility for the safety and quality of life of all of its women and girls by discussing, implementing, and following through on plans for addressing racism and women’s equality. Policy decisions that affect women must include them in the decision-making process…This means all women, including women who use drugs and women sex workers.”

Whose right is it to kill?

Many countries in the world have abolished the death penalty but in Zimbabwe it is still in existence. Zimbabwe is crafting a new constitution and COPAC has submitted a Second Draft Constitution and if it passes will undergo a referendum. In this draft the death penalty is abolished – but only for women. This has led to many human rights organisation calling for an absolute abolition of the death penalty. The Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO) an organisation committed to advocating for justice in prisons of Zimbabwe is amongst these organisations.

In Zimbabwe there are 71 people on the death row and three of them are women with the last execution being carried out in 2005. Elisha Chidombwe of ZACRO indicated that on each of their visits to Harare Central Prison they visit a guy who has served 15 years waiting for a resolution. Sadly he mentioned that many people facing the death penalty die before their penalty day because of isolation and the fear of death itself.

ZACRA believes that the death penalty is revenge and not justice. The organisation opts for the provision of correctional activities in prisons for those who would have committed offenses that carry the death penalty. The organisation is currently circulating a petition to present to Parliament to abolish the death penalty. They are hoping to get 2 million signatures.

If you want to put an end to the death penalty in Zimbabwe, contact ZACRO and make your signature count as your voice!

There is a programme on ZTV, Another Chance, that focuses on reuniting prison inmates and their families. More of like reaching out to the gap that exists between individuals in prison and their families back home. In so doing they ask for forgiveness from their family and the ones they offended when they committed the crimes that saw them sent to jail. I remember in one episode a man who was left with two months of his sentence trying to reach out to his wife and family. When the Another Chance crew visited the wife, she said in the four years her husband had been in prison she had moved on with her life and that to her, the marriage was over. Sadly this is how he learnt his marriage had dissolved. He was devastated and was really worried about where he would go after his release as his wife had abandoned him and his relatives were probably going to shun him.

Many ex-convicts face such scenarios when they finish serving their jail terms. Upon facing such challenges many commit crimes again within a short period of time upon their release and end up going back to prison. Speaking at a Prison Networking meeting organised by Miracle Mission, Elisha Chidombwe of ZACRO (Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender), mentioned that there is no support offered to people who are released from prison. For instance if one stays in Mutare and serves their jail term in Kariba, upon their release there is no clothing, transportation or any other form of support given to them. This encourages them to commit crimes.

At the same meeting an ex-convict said how proud he is of going back to prison not as a prisoner this time, but as Minister of the Word to share his life experiences both in prison, and his life after the jail term. To him receiving Jesus Christ as His Lord and Saviour whilst in the prison cells, and the support he got from his family upon his release, have been the two strongest pillars in his life. He believes himself to be a better man and would like to reach out to inmates serving in Zimbabwe’s prisons under a prison programme organised by Alpha Zimbabwe.

The Alpha for Prisons programme offers courses to introduce inmates to Christian beliefs. Thus there is need for the government, the church, NGOs and the corporate world to help in the support of prisoners both in prison and their life after they serve their jail terms. Through their work in prisons Alpha Zimbabwe realised some of the needs of prisoners are really small. For example prisoners at Karoi prison requested vegetable seeds so they could start their own gardens.

So much about what appears to be glib public statements on zero tolerance to political violence: “An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a since interest in prolonging lives of poultry.” George Eliot, 1866

Get involved with a happening media/information organisation.

Global Voices seeks an Advocacy Director to run its online freedom of expression initiatives. Global Voices Advocacy seeks to build a global anti-censorship network of citizen media and online activists throughout the developing world that is dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and free access to information online.

The goal of the network is to raise awareness of online freedom of speech issues, and to share tools and tactics with activists and citizen media facing censorship and surveillance on different parts of the globe. The network provides support to both the Global Voices advocacy community and to others, produces and promotes educational guides about information technology advocacy, privacy and anonymity, anti-censorship and and anti- surveillance campaigning, and strategies for online organizing. In collaboration with software developers, activists, and citizen media producers, the network also aims to design and promote new and more appropriate tools to protect our rights on the Internet. Finally, the Global Voices Advocacy community focuses on building and supporting the rights of netizens around the world.

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Perhaps the biggest tragedy in our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns. . . . We may want to love other people without holding back, to feel authentic, to breathe in the beauty around us, to dance and sing. Yet each day we listen to inner voices that keep our life small. – Tara Brach