Love is in the air as two young college graduates drive to rural Limpopo in South Africa to break the news of better prospects ahead. But that joy is short-lived as a father takes a hard-line stance to save face in the community for his failure to provide for his family as he reveals a dirty family secret which brings misfortune to the life of a young woman. Events unfold in a set up which puts to test the value of a woman in a society where culture is still struggling to adapt to the demands of modernization. In such an environment is a young woman called “Elelwani” who recently graduated from college and hopes to further her studies in America. Under the guise of a home coming celebration the father took the opportunity to introduce her daughter to her future in-laws.

Florence Masebe plays the role of Elelwani, a young woman who is married off to a king in honor of traditional cultural beliefs as well as to pay off debts accrued during her upbringing and for the support her family has been getting from an elderly king in Limpopo. ‘Elelwani’ is an indigenous film shot in Venda language based on a novel by Titus Maumela and directed by Ntshaveni wa Luruli. Set in rural Limpopo where people are still very much attached to their culture the film reveals the harsh treatment faced by women in a society where men still play a dominant role in decision making. When Elelwani turned down the offer to marry the king this does not deter her father from settling for her youngest daughter as a replacement. This decision makes Elelwani bow down to the cultural demands and later agrees to marry the king so that her young sister can be saved from the forced marriage arrangement.

Such a thought provoking film brings to life some of the stories we have been reading in the press of how the girl child is used as a pay off for avenging spirits or exchanged for a bag of maize when family faces starvation. Premiered at the just ended International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) “Elelweni” tells a story of rural women who are struggling to fight patriarchy and to get fair treatment in the society.

The film festival showcased films, which helped raise awareness on women’s sexual rights and the general human right abuses women go through under the cover tradition.

There are many issues that happen around us but which we remain clueless about as we get on with our lives.

It is already a hectic world, we often say, for anyone to take notice of the man standing next to you, but it is only when you hear narratives that weave personal stories that you count your blessings; wonder how unfair life can be; wonder why there are no social safety nets as once known; wonder why there is no functioning social services sector; wonder you hear often some countries being described as “welfare states.”

Indeed all this came pouring like a deluge when I attended the launch of a documentary produced by the Disability HIV and Aids Trust (DHAT) with support from the US Embassy in Harare and the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR).

The documentary tells the story of visually impaired people living with HIV/Aids, and these very personal stories depict what remains a terrain not understood from local level right up to policy making echelons.

The documentary was shot in Harare where, like in many cities across the country, the visually impaired and disabled surviving as mendicants have become permanent features whose circumstances are not interrogated, whose lives are seen as not intersecting with those of able-bodied people.

One visually impaired couple living with HIV/Aids says even in health institutions, the personnel actually are puzzled how a blind person can contract HIV “as if we blind people are asexual beings.”

This itself was noted by the DHAT country coordinator Hamida Ismail-Mauto who said: “There is general misconception amongst health personnel that people with disabilities do not have sex and therefore do not require health services.”

That testimony is most telling in that it has implications on how disabled people’s health care needs are adequately addressed when prejudice can be found among professionals expected to attend to their needs and expected to know better.

It is no wonder then when the disabled decide not to visit health care centres because of the kind of treatment that awaits them.

A DHAT board member said while able-bodied people have abundant access to sexual health care knowledge where such things as condom use are even demonstrated to them, there remain no such thing for the visually impaired, placing them at the high-end risk of HIV/Aids.

Until someone says it, this is stuff you never think of, or imagine, yet it does open our eyes to daily realities of people with disabilities in this country live with.

It’s already a tough life for the able-bodied, imagine then an HIV+ disabled couple living in the streets and with no access to health care.

As the US Ambassador Bruce Wharton said in his remarks, more resources are needed for people living with disabilities and more interest required in the work being done by people living with different abilities.

Indeed we take some of these issues for granted and only until we see these experiences up close will we realise there is more to this country than clinging to office.

The Naked Option, Last Resort documentary was screened at the International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) in Harare this week. The documentary is a bold inspiration to the many women’s groups and movements across Africa that have taken up protest as part of their activist campaigns. Directed by Candace Schermerhorn and set in Nigeria’s Delta region, which is very rich in oil, the documentary chronicles the challenges grassroots women, and the environment face at the hands of oil companies operating in this region.

The women were pushed to protest due to the high level of environmental degradation caused by oil companies in the Niger delta who flared out gas into the air, polluting water and land. As a result farming and fishing was no longer viable for the women. Another factor that brought outrage was the companies’ reluctance in employing their husbands, brothers and sons. In the documentary the women said that the only benefit they derived from Chevron’s operation in the community was the heat produced when they flared gas. They would dry their cassava using this heat; a process, which usually took days, using the sun’s heat, would only take 5 hours. To them, in as much as this flared gas was a major threat to their environment and health, they saw it as the only direct benefit to their community. However, there then came a time when they were not allowed to enter the oil company’s premises so they could dry or collect their cassava.

In South Africa they famously say ‘Wathintha umfazi wathintha imboko’ (you strike a rock you strike a woman). With all these misgivings about the oil company’s operations, the women took it upon themselves to protest at Chevron’s premises. They spent weeks on the site and disrupted the company’s operations. They gained the attention of the company when they resorted to stripping naked during the protests. In the documentary one of the activists said, “Naked I came to this world, naked I leave”, to show how they had removed the shyness of being naked in peoples eyes as well as their determination. In their tradition it is taboo to strip naked, especially an elderly woman. An example was given that if an elderly woman is offended and strips naked in front of their offender they would have cursed the offender. This group of women protesting comprised of women of all ages, and elderly women were also a part of the group. Thus them stripping naked brought the attention of local and international media and the oil companies too who agreed to sign MOUs with the women where they made ‘empty’ promises. Empty as in up to when the documentary was screened in 2011; none of those promises had been achieved.

This documentary shows the power of women coming together. It took a few minutes for those women to decide they were going to invade Chevron’s premises and then when they managed to stop the company’s operations the women would take 12 hour duties to guard and protest within the premises giving each other time to attend to their household chores.

The Naked Option is a great inspiration to women’s activism and to also question corporate responsibility. Often companies come to extract minerals within communities and concentrate on making the minimum operational costs at the expense of the community’s health, environment and development. My mind went to the families in Chiadzwa and I felt that Sheila Mutsenhu, the lady who stripped naked in front of the US Ambassador in Mutare earlier this year protesting against sanctions in Zimbabwe, should have better directed her efforts. Her being a citizen in the Manicaland province where Chiadzwa diamond mines are located, her zeal would be more beneficial if directed to the cause of women’s issues in the area. Maybe one day she will lead a group of the Manica women to protest demanding better living conditions.

This year is the 12th edition of the International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) and it will run from the 23rd to the 31st of August in Harare. It will move to Bulawayo from the 5th to the 7th of September. You can download the programme here.

Humanitarian Reporting Award 2013 – Deadline Extended
31 August 2013

Zimbabwe faces humanitarian challenges that until recently have not been receiving much coverage due to lack of adequate media attention; a situation the Humanitarian Information Facilitation Centre (HIFC) is addressing through its mentorship programme. Further, donor attention has shifted from Zimbabwe to other crises for various reasons. It is with this in mind that HIFC and OCHA have initiated media awards for humanitarian reporting in the country. This is done as part of efforts to encourage journalists to cover humanitarian issues. The winning journalists will be announced and receive their awards at belated World Humanitarian Day (WHD) commemoration. WHD was declared in 2008 and is marked on the 19th of August annually. It was first commemorated in 2009 but is still not widely known. Consequently, it has not received much media and public attention. The awards therefore serve the dual purpose of bringing attention to humanitarian issues currently affecting Zimbabwe and the importance of World Humanitarian Day.

Objectives
-To encourage media coverage of humanitarian issues affecting Zimbabwe
-To commemorate World Humanitarian Day
-To raise awareness of WHD and the humanitarian work being done in Zimbabwe
-To highlight new/innovative humanitarian projects in Zimbabwe

Eligibility criteria
The contest will be open to all journalists who are based in Zimbabwe regardless of whether they are working for the print, electronic or web-based media.  Only stories of a humanitarian nature will be considered for the competition. Humanitarian issues will be defined within the scope of the cluster system and the work of humanitarian clusters in Zimbabwe.

Categories
-Print
-Broadcast- Radio And Tv (Audio And Visual)
-Online
-Gender Award (Gender should be within a humanitarian context)

Submissions
The submission of entries has been extended to 31 August 2013, to allow for receipt of more entries.
Only one submission per journalist will be accepted.
Only stories from August 2012 to date will be considered.
Only submissions made through the following ways within the stipulated dates will be accepted:

Electronically through an email address that has been created for this competition: humanitarianawardzim2013 [at] gmail [dot] com

Or

Delivery of articles in a sealed envelope clearly marked Humanitarian Reporting Awards 2013 Zimbabwe (specify category) to the HIFC offices at: 38 Harvey Brown Avenue, Milton Park, Harare Zimbabwe

Adjudication
The adjudication process will take place soon after the closing date, 31 August 2013. The judges shall remain anonymous and their names will be made public on the day of the awards.

Prizes
The prizes will be announced and awarded to the winning journalists during the 2013 belated World Humanitarian Day commemoration.

When you spend more than five years getting bashed from all sides with election campaign rhetoric it gets difficult to believe every word, which comes out a politician’s mouth. Politicians’ now use every occasion as an opportunity for electioneering. Forgive me for thinking the same on the recent announcement by our out-going Honorable Minister of Tourism who seized the occasion at the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) general assembly to show some love for Disneyland.

Just yesterday the President warned of a tit for tat with the West for imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe and today we wake up to hear promises of building Disneyland in Victoria Falls. This is just too comical. It’s hardly a month after the harmonized elections and urban dwellers are in a ‘fix’ as they have resorted to shallow wells as sources of water. Who would want to come to a cholera-ridden country? Neither would residents opt for a theme park over service delivery. As highlighted by the Minister yesterday, Mickey Mouse comes with a price tag of US$300 million and if this money can be put to service delivery before Mickey it will go a long way in fulfilling elections promises.

Sometimes the stuff Zimbabweans believe can blow you away, and some have opined that the nature of our politics has made this the land of wild conspiracy theories.

I was in Mbare over the weekend where I witnessed long queues of people waiting their turn to get water from water points scattered around the area near Rufaro Stadium.

I was told there hadn’t been water since Thursday last week, and one commented, and I am not sure whether it was innocuous banter or he meant it, that the people were being punished for voting for Zanu PF.

I looked him straight in the eye and couldn’t make anything of his expression whether he was “joking” yet in a place where Zanu PF won “resoundingly” I was persuaded take his word for it.

I didn’t ask him who was doing the punishing, but considering what Zanu PF has always peddled, there were no prizes for guessing, yet the fact that someone actually believed it was in itself telling about the kind of people we have become, the kind of politics we have embraced where people are apparently incapable of thinking for themselves and will believe all sorts of canards spun by the revolutionary party.