Young Voices Network yesterday launched their “Seven Point Manifesto On Ending Homelessness” at their offices. In doing this Young Voices Network, hopes to enrich the public debate about Operation Restore Order with considered recommendations sourced from those Zimbabweans who were directly affected. Young Voices Network also hopes to engage with policy makers on the issues that affect you in Hatcliffe and Hatcliffe extension and influence the political and policy reform processes.

Speaking at the launch Young Voices Network Co-ordinator Tayiona Sanagurai said that the Manifesto was a culmination of a theatre for development dialogue. The process involved the youth in Hatcliffe creating a drama, which was performed for residents of their community, followed by an open discussion. Mr Sanangurai cautioned however, that the Manifesto was not a panacea for ending homelessness.

“We are trying to get people to look at homelessness” he said, “[the Manifesto] provides pointers to policymakers.”

Included in the presenting panel were two outspoken youths, Brave and Patience, from Hatcliffe extension. Amidst several contributions from members of the audience that the youths should ‘find projects to generate income and occupy their time’, Brave detailed why this was not possible. He recounted how he and a colleague had managed to start a potato cultivation project, but when they needed to acquire funding from CBZ to grow their business, they were rejected, as they were unable to supply proof of residence.

“There are no water or electricity services where we live. So we don’t have the bills.”

While Hatcliffe Extension residents have been issued lease agreements by the government, banks refuse to recognise these as legal documents. Thus youths in Hatcliffe are unable to open bank accounts or obtain loans.

Mr. Sanagurai elaborated on the difficult situation of Hatcliffe Extension residents, adding that several municipalities, including Harare City Council and Ministry of Local Government claimed jurisdiction of the area. This state of contention left residents without any proper representation of their interests. “Government uses uncoordinated and inconsistent policies, which leads to a lack of accountability,” he said.

The Manifesto asks the government to create a policy environment that guarantees the rights of citizens to housing, health services, and the benefits of full citizenship. It asks that policymakers commit to the goal of addressing the after effects of Operation Murambatsvina, and ensure that government departments at all levels work together effectively, and with the voluntary sector to prevent homelessness.

It’s always crazy the stuff your ears pick when you are out minding your own business. I watched a guy spend his money on a group of women the other day where the conversation became as explicit as it gets. Consenting adults so what, I mused. Then I heard one of the “ladies” say, “Some of us have been picked up by strangers and we ended up spending the night as far as Gwanda. But why do you men always insist on using condoms? You should go get tested if you are so concerned about Aids. We have had enough of these condoms. We want it raw.” “It” of course being sex.

I was given a jolt, wondering of course if there is any woman who claims prostitution as her way of life who actually has the luxury to make such demands, if there is any man who actually “sees reason” and literally throws caution to the wind.

I wondered if the ladies had themselves bothered to get tested, but because there is never any logic involved in these matters, this is an area where one can afford to impose their demands on others and still afford not to subscribe to the same! I suppose from the age old crap informed by the hypocrisy contained in the aphorism “do as I say and not as I do.”

I pondered how the female legislators who have brought sex to the public domain with such radicalism you would think this was the ultimate elixir for Zimbabwe multi-pronged woes would respond to such chutzpah, which by the way would be same kind the honourable MPs have exhibited.

I pondered on the connect between the government stats we get concerning HIV/Aids prevalence, whether indeed the country is winning the fight with such sex workers mocking clients who insist on condom use.

Of course these musings must not be read as claims that men do not make such demands themselves to forego “safe sex” as sex itself remains a site of struggle, of power and control which researchers note has been complicated by the patriarchy that continues to dominate the dynamics of such things as who decides the use of prophylactics.

I remembered a e-chat I had with a researcher working on HIV/Aids in Zimbabwe who intimated that the stats may indeed dwindle nationally yes, but still find new infections on the up within a given demographic. And the conversation I was listening to seemed to put these issues into perspective.

I asked myself if these ladies could actually make such demands in obvious pursuit of ultimate happiness, why the pleasure principle always has that mysterious proclivity to absent commonsense.

I recalled the words of Mark Twain: “Of all delights of this world man (and woman) cares most for sexual intercourse. He (she) will go any length for it – risk fortune, character, reputation, life itself.” (c.1906)

In 2005, a march organised by Women and AIDS Support Network (WASN) to protest against the government’s slow work towards normalising the availability of ARVs led to their arrest. They had managed to mobilise people living with HIV/AIDS, children affected by AIDS, affiliated organisations and other interested people to protest outside the Parliament of Zimbabwe. The timing of the march was perfect as on that day, the 1st of December 2005, the then Minister of Finance was presenting his budget. However, the arrest of WASN staff members and others who voluntarily handed themselves to the police did not deter them form continuing to advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Today, nearly six years down the line, such efforts of voicing out have brought about a change in the country with regard to HIV/AIDS related issues. Gone are the days when HIV/AIDS issues were whispered quietly or even associated with promiscuity or prostitution. It is through the work of organisations like WASN and others that advocate for people living with HIV, who disseminate information about the disease and those that take a step further to assist children affected with AIDS, mostly orphans, that we see this change.

Speaking at a Food for Thought session at the US Embassy Public Affairs section in commemoration of International Women’s Day, Mary Sandasi, WASN’s director urged the government and the local community to fully support HIV/AIDS programmes and projects before turning an eye to external support. She insisted that the government, through its finance ministry, should increase the national budget allocated to the health ministry. She also said that, as research is so fundamental in the battle against HIV financial support must be given to this area.

As individuals our role to help fight against HIV/AIDS is to get tested and know our status. In so doing those who are infected can go for early treatment and therefore reduce the chances of them being bed ridden and the need for home based care.

On 27 February, VIDA published statistics on the gender of contributors at a number of literary magazines and journals, with Granta emerging as the only publication with a ratio that favoured women.

So, subscribe to Granta this International Women’s Day!

HIV and AIDS Information, Education and Communication Advise: The HIV and AIDS Management and Support Organisation in Zimbabwe (THAMASO – Zimbabwe)
Deadline: 13 February 2012

Harare, Zimbabwe

Three-month placement (with the possibility of renewal)

Progressio has been leading the way on practical international development issues for more than forty years. Whether through placing development workers overseas, or in our policy and advocacy achievements, Progressio has a track record of making a difference. We work with people of all faiths and none.

Please note that for this placement we are only able to consider applicants who are fluent in English, as well as Shona, Ndebele and/ or Tonga and able to start before the end of March 2012.

The Development Worker (DW) will work as HIV and AIDS Information, Education and Communication Adviser. S/he will offer technical support in Braille and sign language material development and interpretation. The DW will also assist in the development of HIV and AIDS Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials at both organisational and project levels. S/he will also assist THAMASO – Zimbabwe in developing an effective communications and marketing strategy.

The successful candidate should have a degree and or post graduate qualification in the area of Journalism, Media Studies, Development Studies, Social Sciences, or in any other relevant discipline.

A minimum of at least five years’ experience developing IEC materials in Braille and ability to interpret sign language is essential, as is a minimum of three years’ experience in HIV and AIDS related community development work – involving research, documentation, knowledge management as well as writing, designing and editing of publications. You should also have demonstrable experience in: the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in community development work, particularly HIV and AIDS-related initiatives; developing, implementing and monitoring effective communication strategies, and training/ facilitation methodologies.

You also need competency in sign language and Braille; knowledge of new and emerging ICTs; demonstrable ability to design electronic and print IEC materials and other communication items; the ability to transfer skills and knowledge through formal or informal training in ICTs, and proven understanding of HIV and AIDS as a developmental and human rights issue.

You must have an understanding the implications of gender when working with issues relating to HIV and AIDS; excellent team building, interpersonal, communication and networking skills; initiative, proactivity, time-management and organisational skills, and analytical, report writing and presentation skills.

A readiness to work with people with widely differing belief systems and personal circumstances, including people living with HIV; demonstrable commitment towards the aims and objectives of THAMASO – Zimbabwe and Progressio and willingness to undertake road travel in Zimbabwe are also essential.

It is essential that you complete the application form in full, as very specific information is required and will be used to decide whether or not you will be short-listed for an interview.

For further information and an application form visit: www.progressio.org.uk/jobs

Closing date: 13 February 2012

Interviews: 17 February 2012

Please return the completed application form to: recruitment [at] progressio [dot] org [dot] uk

Made rounds in my old neighbourhood the other weekend and had a mini tour of the favourite haunts of the old boys. Still found the usual crowd and met some ladies I knew back then from the generation of my elder siblings. I knew them then as selling their souls to the Devil as some ultra-Purists would put it, no doubt to the ire of feminist writers and scholars – and Hon. Tabitha Khumalo even! I found them still at it, ostensibly enjoying lagers which they apparently liked hot because it seemed to take them hours to down a 330ml pint of their “favourite” booze! But then I learnt a long time ago that it is always easy to moralise about these issues and expose your own hypocrisy, yet it got me thinking about the dynamics of economics meets want, want meets disease and how we as mere mortals can tread that very thin line and come out of it all unscathed.

The thing is that I am one of many people who have over the years been diagnosing folks ailing from whatever ailment by just looking them. And the advent and eventual ubiquity of HIV/Aids became easy play for me and other such types. So it was here during my little pub crawl that I met these two ladies who this one time were at the centre of ghetto gossip that they were literally die-hard types seeing virtually all their friends and former lovers had succumbed to HIV/Aids. And the two were themselves at one time written off because of their poor health with every Simba and Saru seeming to be in the know that they each had one foot in the grave because they were visibly ailing “with all the signs of HIV/Aids.” Yet here they were looking as strong as horses and obviously loving the attention from the ogling eyes of all types – skinny tipplers with rapidly aging faces because of rabid gulps of undiluted spirits, and the pot-bellied types who seem to flaunt this rotund protrusion of their abdomens as a sign of living the life. But I figure living the lie is more like it! So as I stopped by for a chat, and naturally perhaps, they asked that I buy them a couple of pints of lager and I obliged, perhaps like people who last saw each other do. Just as I was placing the beers in front of them, a chap I knew back in the day as having gone to school with one of my older brothers came along carrying three pints of lager. Pleased to see him, I extended my greetings, but the chap was mysteriously peeved, pointing a finger at me with words like “wena mfana wena” which translates to “you young man, you better watch out.” Turns out he wasn’t concerned about my health seeing the company I was in! The three lagers were in fact for him and the two prostitutes! Turns out he was imagining I was muscling in on his action as the two laughed out and told him “no, no, no, he is our younger brother!”

This little incident got me thinking about the dynamics of HIV/Aids and how easily it spreads. If this chap was pissed off seeing me talking to these women, he surely knew that he had competition from other young men who couldn’t wait to take the ladies home for some good old hanky panky as soon as he took his eyes off them! I am a product of these mean streets where prejudice seems to be second nature, where sex and cash have a logic of their own, yet there are issues that remain etched in one’s mind that tend to present one as a sanctimonious prick even, yet for me, the greatest tragedy of our time is not HIV/Aids in itself, but how some individuals have come to accept HIV/Aids as an inevitable “gamble” every sexually active adult has to live with. Once upon a time as a naïve young man I thought I had all the answers to the world’s problems, now as a grown man with kids of my own, I take some time off to mingle with other adults and I wonder if my juvenile idealism still has a place at all in this cruel world. Am I moralising? Maybe. Am I worried what kind of world my three little boys will grow up in? Damn right I am! But what can I do? I just watch the world pass me by and muse “what if?”