Photo: The Guardian

On the Guardian today, a reminder that revolutions often start in culture.

The art of reading starts with a habit and every habit has a trigger. Reading helps people understand life and it teaches you how to write. Most great writers were inspired to write through reading. For writers, reading is one of the most important tools.

Writing is a skill, which one masters through practice. It gets better through writing a lot and reading widely. During a Food for Thought session at the US Public Affairs Section in Harare visiting award-winning authors from America shared some reading and writing experiences with young and upcoming writers in Zimbabwe. In order to encourage young writers to read, the visiting authors urged young authors to be broad minded. The authors from University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (IWP) are in the country to facilitate writing and capacity-building seminars with Zimbabwean writers.

Zimbabwe is to hang three men in its first executions in the country since 2005. The men who committed murders have been in jail for as long as seven years. The Supreme Court confirmed yesterday that the three would face the death sentence. For a long time human rights groups have appealed to the government to abolish the death penalty. The call to abolish the death penalty was even appealed for by Pope John Paul II, during a visit to Zimbabwe in 1988. Today in 2012, Zimbabwe’s new draft constitution still upholds the death penalty with the exception of females.

Out going US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray had this to say at a farewell round table yesterday:

… my time here in Zimbabwe has been interesting or to quote a favorite science fiction of mine, fascinating. It’s never been boring. It has often added a few more grey hairs to my already grey hair; I have never regretted any day I have been here, mainly because of the most valuable resource in this country, its people. There has been a lot of news about diamonds and other stuff, but the most valuable resource that Zimbabwe has is its people and that is what makes it fascinating to be here even sometimes during less than happy times.

Read more on the US Embassy website.

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External Evaluation – Community Based Child Care Project – Children First Project: The Child Protection Society
Deadline: 10 August 2012

Child Protection Society seeks to engage a qualified consultant(s) to conduct an end of project evaluation for the Children First – World Education funded project. The main objective of the project was to strengthen the capacity of communities to care for, support their families and to uphold children’s rights, specifically through ensuring access to essential services and facilities for orphan and other vulnerable children.

Qualifications and experience
-Advanced University Degree, preferably a Masters in any Social Science discipline or other relevant field
-10 years of relevant experience in child welfare and community based programmes
-Experience in undertaking similar evaluations in Zimbabwe
-Demonstrated ability to undertake both qualitative and quantitative research
-Excellent communication, analytical and report writing skills
-Knowledge of the Zimbabwe context is desirable

Terms of References can be obtained on request from pmpofu@cps.org.zw or physically from Child Protection Society Harare offices, Cnr H.Chitepo & Snowdon, Belvedere, Harare.

All applications should be hand delivered addressed to Administration Assistant in sealed envelopes or/and emailed to pmpofu@cps.org.zw with a clear Proposal and Budget, clearly marked: External Evaluation – Consultant.