60-jähriges Bestehen von Fepa: A Night to Remember!

Der 60. Jahrestag von Fepa war eine unvergessliche Feier mit vielen Höhepunkten, die uns alle in Erstaunen versetzten!

Die Jahreshauptversammlung: Geschäft und Inspiration
Unsere Jahreshauptversammlung bildete den Rahmen für eine Kombination aus Geschäft und Feier, bei der wir auf sechs unglaubliche Jahrzehnte des Erfolgs zurückblicken konnten.

Das Podium: Entfesselte Experten
Unsere Podiumsdiskussion mit Experten war ein Brainstorming-Kraftwerk, das innovative Ideen hervorgebracht und unsere Begeisterung für die Zukunft entfacht hat.

Der Apero: Kulinarische Köstlichkeiten
Der Apero verführte unsere Geschmacksnerven und bot einen Einblick in die reiche Geschichte von Fepa und unsere aufregende Zukunft.

Ndomzy: Aktivismus, Sprache und Tanz
Ndomzy, eine leidenschaftliche Aktivistin, betrat die Bühne. Ihre kraftvolle Rede bewegte uns, und ihre unglaublichen Tanzschritte begeisterten die Menge. Sie drückte die Kraft der Kommunikation durch Aktivismus und Tanz aus, hielt die Kultur lebendig und verband sich mit der Zukunft Afrikas.

Tanzchoreografie: Groove Central
Unsere choreografierten Tanzroutinen verwandelten die Tanzfläche in eine Dance-off-Extravaganz mit Musik für jeden Geschmack.

Die große Party mit DJ Qpaem
Aber die Party ging erst richtig los, als DJ Qpaem an den Decks auflegte! Die Beats brannten, und die Afrobeat-Musik versetzte uns alle in einen Rausch und wir bewegten uns zu den ansteckenden Rhythmen.

Kurz gesagt, der 60. Jahrestag von Fepa war eine Mischung aus Geschichte, Innovation, Unterhaltung und Freude. Auf weitere 60 Jahre voller Erfolg und unvergesslicher Momente, in denen wir die Kultur lebendig halten und mit Afrika in die Zukunft blicken! 🥂🎈🕺🎶 #Fepa60thAnniversary #PartyOfTheDecade #CulturalCelebration #movewithit

LIVELIHOOD-PROJECT: Financial skills and microfinance for women

The Livelihood Project trains women in entrepreneurship and financial management and accompanies them in setting up businesses. In addition, they get access to business loans and thus to capital to finance their projects – mostly in agriculture.

Empowering women – changing society sustainably

Since 2009, the local farming community has gradually lost access to land that is used by corporations for the production of bio-ethanol. This poses a financial problem for many farming families, reducing their livelihoods. This leads to increased poverty. In addition, there is a heavy burden from the current drought; 2019 will go down as one of the driest years in Zimbabwe’s history.

As a result, there is an increase in problems such as school dropouts, thefts, increased prostitution, child marriages as well as the hiring out of children, preferably girls. Family fathers often migrate to the neighbouring countries of South Africa and Botswana in order to find an income there. However, this is often difficult. The women stay behind alone with the children and start looking for a new income. Farming alone is not enough to feed the family.

Women try to set up small businesses in the village community. To do this, they use the small areas of land they have left to grow vegetables, raise pigs or poultry.

The livelihood project was initiated by our partner organisation PYCD (Platform for Youth and Community Development) and has been active in Chipinge since 2008. It has been shown that often technical skills for new projects are available, but basic entrepreneurial skills were lacking and capital was not or only with difficulty accessible. This is exactly where the project comes in.

The main goal of the project is to find solutions to deal with women’s financial challenges.

Research showed that supported women invest a large part of their earned income in projects that benefit the village community and use it to feed other family members or to finance their education. However, sometimes they invest in projects that are not very profitable. Therefore, the project aims to invest efficiently and in an economically sustainable way. When women are financially independent from their husbands, their social position also improves. The project thus makes an important contribution to gender equality and meets the targets of SDG 5 (Gender Equality). Further SDGs are thus supported.

Currently

At the moment, 15 women are receiving training tailored to their specific needs in a pilot phase. This includes a practical coaching programme that accompanies them in their various business activities.

fepa partner organisation	Platform for Youth Development
Location	Chipinge, Zimbabwe
Target group	female entrepreneurs, women in general
fepa Budget until 2024 total	CHF 20’000

PYCD – Platform for Youth Development

Gender activism

Young women and men are active against sexual exploitation, child marriage and for more equality. The Gender Office creates space for dialogue among women who critically question harmful practices in a culturally sensitive way. The Gender Office is part of our community of practitioners who use innovative methods to advocate for women’s rights and gender justice.

«FEPA’s support has helped a lot in changing womens’ lives in Chipinge through the awareness campaigns that empower women to stand their ground and challenge the harmful cultural practises that continue to hinder women’s development. Through the support, quite a number of women can now stand up and report cases of rape and sextortion freely.» – PYCD

Check out our news page for the latest on this partnership.

Advancing girls’ and women’s rights

The aim of this project is to create a more gender-equitable society in the Checheche and Chisumbanje region of Chipinge District, Zimbabwe. Young women should be able to play a central role in development efforts. To this end, the project gives them a voice, strengthens their position in the local community and supports them in removing obstacles that prevent them from taking on this role. Therefore, the project supports young women from the community who address gender-based injustices themselves and in a culturally sensitive way.

Directly, the project strengthens the right of girls and young women to dispose of their own bodies through concrete measures, because this is a basis for the empowerment process. Thanks to targeted networking and knowledge transfer in this rural region, the project makes available competencies from other organisations that were not previously active in the project region and anchors them in the local organisation with its gender activists.

The fepa project partner ‘Platform for Youth and Community Development’ (PYCD) is a committed and locally strongly rooted youth organisation. With its many members and 25 selected gender activists, PYCD is working to change attitudes and practices among members of rural communities in Chipinge, Zimbabwe. These communities are characterised by culturally based disadvantages of girls and (young) women as well as socio-economic dynamics that negatively affect the social rights of girls and young women.

fepa partner organisation	Platform for Youth Development
Location	Chipinge, Zimbabwe
Target group	Girls and young women
fepa contribution 2017-2020	CHF 140’000
fepa contribution 2021	CHF 31’000
fepa contribution 2022 (budget)	CHF 35’000

PNYOF – PaHukama National Youth Oryxes Foundation

PNYOF, or the Youth Oryxes as they call themselves, is a youth-led organisation active mainly in Chinhoyi, but also in Harare and more recently in Bulawayo.

PNYOF is committed to the community of practice for women’s rights and gender justice. They will contribute to nationwide activism, especially in the context of the 16 Days Campaign.

Currently

Check out our news page for the latest on this partnership.

WAP – WOMAN ADVOCACY PROJECT

“Clean Girl” – With liquid soaps against early marriage

Girls and young single mothers learn the craft of soap production. The sale of the produced liquid soap generates income for the participants and makes them at least partially financially independent. This enables them to pay school fees on their own and makes them less vulnerable to being married off early and against their will.

Currently

Check out our news page for the latest on this partnership.

With financial independence in a self-determined future

In Zimbabwe’s impoverished suburbs, there is hardly any access to WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene). The number of teenage mothers is on the rise in the crisis-ridden country. Although early marriage is prohibited by law in Zimbabwe, this practice is still widespread throughout the country and is also an existing problem in the townships around Harare. Those affected have hardly any economic means of survival and are consequently particularly vulnerable to exploitative conditions, e.g. within sex work. Their children grow up in poverty. These teenage mothers and girls affected by or at risk of early marriage are the target group of this project. The main focus is on poverty reduction and the prevention of child marriages and teenage pregnancies. Through their presence in the community, the participants themselves become ambassadors against child marriage and contact persons for their peers.

The project organises small groups of vulnerable girls and women and accompanies their weekly meetings. At these meetings, liquid soap is produced, sales are organised and mutual assistance is provided in social and economic matters. The meetings provide a protected space for the participants. The participants are accompanied by WAP for 12 months – the aim is for them to be able to produce and market soap on their own afterwards.

WAP founder Constance Mugari and her husband are fully committed to protecting young women. They are convinced: “Poverty puts the girls in danger. Because they have no money to spend, they are taken out of school, pregnant early, married off and sometimes even driven into sex work.” Constance Mugari, her husband and a small team of Ambassadors aim to drive positive change in the areas of child marriage, teenage pregnancies and access to education. WAP has been fighting for the protection and rights of young, disadvantaged and marginalised girls and women with competence and commitment since 2012, thereby empowering them on their way to a self-determined future.

WAP works in 6 townships of Harare where poverty levels are high – especially since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

fepa partner organisation	WAP (Women Advocacy Project)
Location	Harare, Zimbabwe
Target group	Women and young single mothers that are in danger of being early married
fepa contribution 2021-22	CHF 6-15’000
fepa contribution 2023-25	CHF 55’000

BLF – Better Life Foundation

The youth organisation BLF campaigns against gender-based and sexualised violence in the rural Mutoko District, about 100 kilometres north-east of Harare.

As part of a project supported by fepa, a Women Protection Committee was established. Its task is to offer protection to girls and women affected by gender-based violence and to support them in the prosecution of the offences and the conviction of the perpetrators. A positive impact on local jurisdiction in cases of gender-based violence is already visible as a result. The report with insights into the details of the project can be found here.

BLF has also composed and performed a Women’s Song to speak out against gender-based violence and child marriage.

Currently

Check out our news page for the latest on the partnership.