Sokwanele has launched an online Constitution survey that aims to gather views from Zimbabweans everywhere, including the millions of Zimbabweans who live in the Diaspora and who have been largely excluded from the constitution-making process.

The constitution survey features a mix of questions. Some questions directly address content usually included in a constitution, while others seek to survey opinions on issues of concern to Zimbabweans. These issues, and Zimbabwean opinions on them, should guide those who are tasked to draft the new document and our views should be honoured in the detail making up a new constitution.

Spread the word, and complete the survey here

Below is a press release from the organisation Support about the need to make female condoms more widely available:

Female Condom Popular in Zimbabwe – Numbers Show True Picture

By Kathryn Bice, Freelance Journalist

The female condom has come in for some criticism in the media in Zimbabwe in recent months, but experienced advocates are convinced that it is a product strongly desired by Zimbabwe citizens and a vital weapon in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Critics have claimed that women do not want the female condom because it is too big, noisy and difficult to insert.

Not so, says Mrs Patience Kunaka, the communications manager for PSI Zimbabwe, which distributes the FC Female Condom, branded as care, through private sector channels in Zimbabwe. PSI, or Population Services International, is a non-profit organization that works to make health and population control products and services more available in low-income areas of the world.

The number of female condoms distributed by PSI grew from 455,556 in 2001, when they were launched, to more than 3 million in 2008, before declining slightly last year due to Zimbabwe’s economic problems.

As well as care, the FC Female Condom is distributed free of charge as the unbranded Femidom by the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council, an arm of the Ministry of Health, through government institutions such as clinics, tertiary institutions and government offices.

Such numbers are proof that demand for the female condom is fundamentally strong and rising, Mrs Kunaka said.

The key is “education and outreach”, she said. “PSI has a highly targeted program. We believe that distribution should be backed up with interpersonal communication. People we have reached out to are very happy to use the female condom.”

The perception that the female condom is too big is sometimes due to the fact that “some people have poor understanding of the female anatomy,” she said. “People who have been exposed to it have no such worries because they know the female condom fits well as it lines the contours of the vagina.”

The FC Female Condom is a tube-shaped sheath about as long as a male condom but slightly wider so that it lines a woman’s vagina comfortably.

The FC Female Condom has a small ring at one end that fits inside the vagina and keeps the condom in place and, according to some users, gives enhanced pleasure. It also has a larger ring that stays outside and covers part of the woman’s genitalia and the base of the man’s penis, giving extra protection from sexually transmitted infections.

Mrs Kunaka got some backing from an unexpected source recently when the advice doctor in US Glamour magazine, Dr Kate O’Connell, wrote that when she tried the female condom, inserting it “wasn’t as tricky” as she expected.

Dr O’Connell also commented that although it made “a little squishy sound, it wasn’t distractingly loud,” and that she probably noticed it only because she had her ears open for noise.

PSI socially markets care through hair salons and barber shops, pharmacies, private health care institutions, support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS, and networks of sex workers.

Priced at 20 US cents for a packet of two, it is “attractively packaged and positioned for women who are confident and care about themselves and their partners,” Mrs Kunaka said.

The internationally recognized hair salons initiative has been so successful that Botswana is considering replicating the model.

“We continue to recruit hairdressers and provide structured training and support for them to sell the female condom and to teach women condom negotiation skills and how to use it correctly,” Mrs Kunaka said.

“When the clients go in for a hairdo, they have a chance to talk to the hairdresser about how to use the female condom, and the hairdresser can teach them.”

Mrs Kunaka said the decline in consumption of female condoms in 2009 was due to Zimbabwe’s economic challenges, which include unemployment and effects of the 2008 inflation.

“The hair salons are our major channel, but they have been badly affected by the economic problems,” she said.

“We have water shortages and power outages, which make it difficult for salons to operate. Some are opening for shorter hours and some are closing altogether.

“We are moving to a situation where some hair dressers rent a chair in a salon, and with rents going up they might have to move at any time, so they don’t have anywhere to store their condoms.”

The economy has also been “dollarized”, with the US dollar being used for many transactions.

“We don’t have a 10 cent denomination, which makes it hard for people to buy their condoms because they don’t have these smaller denominations”, Mrs Kunaka said.

“To enable women to access the product, clients are encouraged to buy amounts costing a dollar which is the readily available denomination.

“But we still have a lot of confidence in the hair salon channel. We try to take advantage of the conducive environment, and provide the distributors with branded aprons, towels, floor boards and racks to display the condoms and posters that show the hairdressers posing with different hair styles.”

Ministry of Health and Child Welfare figures put Zimbabwe’s adult HIV prevalence rate at 13.7 percent in 2009, down from 18.1 percent two years previously. The female condom remains an important weapon in the fight against the epidemic.

“The female condom is very important because it gives women a chance to play a role in HIV prevention at the family level,” Mrs Kunaka said.

“Women say they feel safe, because they can buy and put it on themselves, so they are sure the condom is there to protect them.”

But an underlying problem is the gender inequality in Zimbabwean society.

“When you look at our culture, it is the men who make the sexual decisions. It is very hard for married women to negotiate condom use. In fact women who are in less regular relationships actually have more chance to negotiate,” Mrs Kunaka said.

“In the past there has been a stigma attached to being seen buying a female condom. There was a perception that condoms were for people of loose morals. We position it as a family planning product to married women, and that has successfully overcome the stigma.”

PSI has also increased its efforts to sell the female condom to men.

“We have expanded our barbers’ network, because we hope they get to talk to as many men as possible. If men can also buy the condom for their partners, then many more women will be able to protect themselves.”

Zimbabwe’s Parliament is currently on leave until October. In its recent Bill Watch (Review of Last Session of Parliament), Veritas noted that in the recently ended second session of the seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe, the Senate sat on 16 occasions, and the House of Assembly on 30 occasions. Parliament passed only six bills during this legislative year. Even when Parliament did meet, it was never for very long:

Normally sittings are on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, commencing at 2.15 pm for the House of Assembly and 2.30 for the Senate.  Standing Orders envisage work continuing until 7 pm, but very seldom did either House sit after 5 pm.  There were a significant number of short sittings, when one or other of the Houses met only to adjourn after sitting for less than an hour  and sometimes after 10 minutes.   The Session was also marked by long adjournments – six weeks over the Christmas-New Year period, and a premature adjournment for more than three months from March onwards to allow legislators to take part in the Constitution outreach programme – which eventually only started at the end of June.

What hope do we have in a Parliament-led Constitutional reform process when these are the same politicians who don’t take their elected responsibilities?

How do you feel when you get your bill from the City of Harare each month?

We get charged for refuse removal, but in many suburbs, this seldom happens. We get charged for improvements. Yet pot holes are infrequently fixed, road signs are in disrepair, if there at all, the grass on verges is uncut, litter is strewn everywhere, shopping centres like Kamfinsa look like a war zone and very few street lights work.

Yet, according to a recent Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) news alert, Harare’s Mayor, Muchadeyi Masunda, will not review the large salaries that are being paid to some employees within the council. Apparently the salaries top the US$8000/month mark.

CHRA rightly points out that the money that residents pay each month goes straight to the city’s salary bill and not to service delivery. Amusingly, the Mayor suggests that paying council workers less will result in high staff turn-over and therefore compromise service delivery.

What service delivery? Can’t see any where I live, can you?

Support the work of organisations like CHRA and their calls for rates boycotts and litigation if the Mayor doesn’t take residents concerns seriously.

According to IRIN (humanitarian news and analysis) one third of Zimbabwe’s children are chronically malnourished, and Zimbabwe is in a perpetual state of humanitarian need. While Mugabe tells the US and Britain to go to hell, these countries feed the people that Zanu PF have failed.

Journalist Jan Raath tells us that “Chiadzwa, is regarded as the richest diamond find of the century. Over the past nine months, rudimentary mining only in one small area of the field has reportedly yielded 4 million carats, worth around 2 billion US dollars.” Read more

Where is this money going?

In a Kubatana newsletter in June we asked our subscribers to state what they believe to be the most serious political issue in Zimbabwe today, and suggest a solution. Please read the submissions below and let us know which one tops Your list.

1. Inability to consider the impact of one’s actions and how this affects others, the environment and future generations.
2. Consider the impact of my actions on a daily basis and to teach this by living it out in my life.

1. The social or political issue in Zimbabwe is that leaders stay in power too long. They know that they have cases to answer to and that the law will catch up with them.
2. To have new broom and have all new leaders and I am sure from this you will have a country with actual laws.

1. The only serious or critical issue in Zimbabwe is governance. Once this country is properly governed all the shortages of everything required for a person to live a common life will disappear.
2. What is required is not only the change of government but a democratically elected government with a democratically minded leadership. All I can say is that the shambles we are in at the moment is caused by mismanagement. Zimbabwe is rich but where our natural resources are channelled is a mystery. All the government arms are corrupt so unless we appoint dedicated and dynamic leaders in all government institutions we will become poorer and poorer when our country is rich with natural resources which require committed people to manage.

1. I am convinced that the most serious political issue in Zimbabwe is greed. All our political leaders tend to forget their past promises in pursuit of self aggrandisement. Had it not been for greed, our dear comrades from the MDC could nave quit this malfunctioning inclusive government. But because they still have porous backgrounds to fill the Mudzuris are being quite bitter about being called under performers.
2. I think the most practical solution is to have a leadership code that determines what those in power should own and how much money they earn.

1. I consider the Constitution Making Process to be the most serious social or political issue in Zimbabwe. We can only come up with a meaningful constitution if it really represents the needs of the people of Zimbabwe. However, one is bound to question its credibility if the outreach phase is marred by violence.
2. The three principals should facilitate campaign awareness programmes to stop violence during the outreach programmes. In addition, the legislators should not stifle the process by demanding exorbitant allowances. Finally, the sample should be representative for validity and to avoid bias.

1. Zanu-PF
2. Trials

1. The most serious political issue is the Dictatorship of Zanu-PF.
2. This can be solved through the unity of the people standing up and speaking with one voice.

1. I think the most serious political issue in Zimbabwe is the probability of having free and fair elections.
2. The only major step to solve the problem is coming up with a constitution that that gives a platform for free and fair elections.

1. The most serious social or political issue in Zimbabwe is leaders who cling to power regardless of their failures to rule the country.
2. The practical steps I would take to address the issue is to highlight to them the areas in which they have failed.