The 29th of October is celebrated the world over as International Internet Day and today Zimbabwe joins the rest of the world in commemorations. The sharing of information is now just a click of a button away. A conversation, which used to cost a couple of dollars to make, can now be made with a few cents. The Internet has brought communities closer closing on the gaps created by physical barriers of distance.

The first Internet message was sent in 1969 by Professor Leonard Kleinrock from a computer laboratory at University of California in Los Angeles and from there the world witnessed the invention of electronic mail by Ray Tomlinson in late 1971.

According to Internet World Stats, Africa has 167,335,676 Internet users complemented by a 15.6% penetration rate. Despite the challenges of exorbitant Internet costs and the unavailability of infrastructure in most African countries, Zimbabwe has experienced a huge leap in internet usage from 50,000 users in 2000 to around 1,981,277 internet users in 2012.

As the Internet continues to grow so is the government’s interest in monitoring and eavesdropping on citizens. The Internet is used to perpetrate human right abuses under the guise of the protection of national security. A report by Freedom House notes that internet freedom worldwide is on the decline, with 34 out of 60 countries assessed in the report experiencing a negative trajectory. Growing arrests of social media users and the control of web content can be attributed to the sharp decline in internet freedom in the past year and Zimbabwe is among such countries where the state continues to have the authority to monitor and intercept ICT communications at will.

Some people become activists through passion while some find themselves on the streets because they are just tired of getting screwed by the system. When Martin Luther King took to the streets he wanted to share his dream of a society where race was not an issue. The general socio-economic and political conditions we now live in demand action and solutions to our day to day needs. Every time we turn on news channels its about protests and uprisings as more and more people continue to demand solutions to contemporary problems affecting them.

South Africa was recently dubbed “the protest capital of the world” as the streets have become permanent homes for activists. Living in a world faced with a lot of injustice and inequality mainly driven by greed, profiteering and ignorance, calls for a collective effort from everybody. Activism is about affecting social change and championing a cause whether big or small. Small things like a change of mindset won’t even require government or big donor funding for a start and that’s the reason why we often read about the great works by Wangari Mathaai of Kenya who managed to share knowledge on environment conservation with rural communities. A young girl from Pakistan almost lost her life because she wanted other young girls in her country to have access to education. Even the young school children of South Africa became active in 1979 demanding better education. Artists as role models for the young generation have also become heavily involved in activism especially towards raising awareness on behavior change targeting drug abuse and safe sex.

Activism comes with its own challenges with many activists the world over being persecuted for championing people’s rights. Zimbabwe is one such country where activists and social movement groups have been labeled enemies of the state. A crack down on dissenting voices has resulted in many people shying away from being active in the community on issues that affect them due to fear.

One of Zimbabwe’s aspiring activists Wadzanai Motsi was awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and she conducted research on youth’s contributions to activism. At a Food for Thought session hosted by US Embassy Public Affairs section, Wadzanai and Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa shared their experiences on various forms of activism and the different ways each person can contribute to make the society we live in a better place.

Sociologist/movement theorist, Zeynep Tufekci, suggests we stop looking so much at outputs of social media fueled protests and start looking instead at their role in capacity building. More on Ethan Zuckerman’s blog

Amnesty Switzerland’s campaign drawing attention to human rights abuse: it’s not happening here but it is happening now.

More images here

Launch of Openphoto 2013 Competition with US$5,000 First Prize … Victories & Violations – The Struggle for Minority Rights in Africa
Deadline: 30 November 2013

After the success of the inaugural competition in 2012, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) is pleased to announce the launch of OPENPhoto 2013 on the theme of Minority Rights in Africa – with the winners being selected by a jury comprised of some of Africa’s and the world’s top documentary photographers, and with a top prize of US$5,000.

Aiming to encourage analytical and critical thinking about society in Africa and support the development of photojournalism across the continent, OPENPhoto 2013 is looking for strong, interpretive documentary work on the theme of Victories and Violations: The Struggle for Minority Rights in Africa.

“Across the continent, many people remain marginalised and socially excluded because they are minorities. People are discriminated against because they are disabled or homosexual or indigenous or sex workers. Or because they are women living with HIV. Or men from a small ethnic group. Or children from a non-state religion. Or families fleeing persecution in another country,” said Richard Lee, OSISA’s Communications Manager. “OPENPhoto 2013 is looking to reward photo essays that depict the reality of life for these marginalised minorities – the good and the bad, their struggles and their successes.”

The competition is open to any photographer based in Africa – professional or amateur. And the prizes are definitely worth winning:

First Prize – US$5,000 plus a commissioned assignment with OSISA in 2014
Second Prize – US$2,000; and
Third Prize – US$1,000

OPENPhoto 2013 will be judged by a prestigious jury of award-winning African and international photographers. Convened by the Pulitzer Prize-winning South African photographer, Greg Marinovich, the jury includes João Silva, Munem Wasif, Patrick Baz, Robin Comley, Yunghi Kim, Enrico Dagnino, Andrew Lichtenstein, David Dare Parker and Janine Haidar.

The competition deadline is November 30th with the winners being announced on December 16th.

For more information and to apply: www.open-photo.org

According to the Zimbabwe Demographic Household Survey of 2010-11 56% of children between the ages of 6 to 59 months are anemic. The National Nutrition Survey which was done in 2010 shows that less than 10% of Zimbabwean children under the age of 2 receive the recommended minimum acceptable diet of eggs, meat, milk products, and legumes are rarely included in the diets of young children. About 35% of child mortality recorded globally are a result of malnutrition. In the past years Zimbabwe has been faced with food insecurity and which has been mainly attributed to the prolonged drought the country has been facing, unsustainable farming practices and also economic challenges.

The World Food Programme recently announced that 2.2 million people are food insecure and are in need of food assistance. Due to high food prices many families can longer afford to have three meals per day, not to mention a balanced diet. Production of small grains and other local varieties, which are huge sources of nutrients, has significantly dropped as farmers now pursue high value crops like tobacco. This has negatively impacted on the nutrition status of the nation, as more people in Zimbabwe are becoming anaemic and obese due to poor diet. Food insecurity is increasing in Zimbabwe especially in dry areas, as more people in these areas are increasingly relying on food assistance from humanitarian organizations to avert malnutrition. The government of Zimbabwe and various development agencies like USAID, Food and Agriculture Orgnization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Progamme of the United Nations (WFP) have been working on ways to promote sustainable diversified agriculture production in the country. Since 2000 through its Humanitarian Assistance Office, USAID has been involved in the funding of food security projects in Zimbabwe which includes the promotion of positive nutrition behaviors aimed at reducing malnutrition among children less than five years of age.

The promotion of new crop varieties, conservation farming and post harvest technologies are some of the methods which can used to improve food security.  FAO representative Mr. David Mfote highlighted that conservation farming can contribute to crop production in Zimbabwe and also there is need for value addition for small grain products in order to increase uptake by people. At a public sensitization meeting for this year’s theme of the 2013 World Food Day commemorations hosted by the US Embassy Public Affairs section representatives from government, FAO, USAID and WFP shared views on Zimbabwe’s Food System.

This year’s World Food Day celebrations will be held in Lupane on the 16th of October under the theme “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition in Zimbabwe. Supporting messages for the 2013 commemorations include “Good nutrition depends on healthy diets, Healthy diets require healthy food systems – along with education, health, sanitation and other factors and Healthy Food Systems are made possible by appropriate policies, incentives and governance”.