Impacting beyond one’s own life – Legate/Will

fepa regularly receives bequests and legacies from people who wish to support its work for the benefit of people in Southern Africa beyond their death.

If you are thinking of making a bequest or leaving an inheritance to fepa yourself, it is imperative that you draw up a will.

Questions relating to inheritance are legally complex and associated with emotions.

Contact us and we will be happy to advise you or refer you to specialists.

Our former Co-President Ueli Haller will be happy to help you.

Your Contact on the topic of Legate/Will

Ueli Haller
Pastor
Former Co-President and board member
1974 in Rhodesia for 4 months, then expelled from the country until 1980
Board member since 1974, since then countless visits to Zimbabwe

uelihaller@gmx.ch

Africa Link Award

FEPA AWARDED

On 8 September, fepa received the “Friend of Africa Solidarity Award”. The award is given by Africa Link. The award recognises organisations and individuals who contribute to positive change on the continent. We are proud and happy about this recognition. fepa Co-President Ueli Haller accepted the award and presented our projects PORET and KSTC.

Africa Link is a diaspora organisation of Africans living in Switzerland. It regularly publishes articles in the form of an online magazine on topics that concern both Africa and Switzerland.

Introduction

16 Zimbabwean grassroots organisations (Community Based Organisations) form a Community of Practitioners (CoP) that uses an empowerment approach in communities to advocate for women’s rights and gender justice.

The experiences in 2021 and 2022 are rich and promise that the path taken will make a substantial contribution to strengthening women’s rights and achieving SDG 5, while also achieving sustainable promotion and empowerment of young women as transformation agents and development agents.

Current reports on some of the contributors can already be found on the main page.

fepa’s approach to action

In our internal concept we describe our commitment to women’s rights and gender justice. The fepa community of practice approach is a flywheel for committed people. We consciously focus on diversity, agility and a multi-perspective approach. We are all part of an activist movement that empowers community members to achieve SDG 5. The distinct empowerment approach aims to achieve sustainable, democratic and equitable structures in communities. Individual rights (e.g. protection from early marriage) play a role in this, but we also do this in the belief that we are shaping an enabling environment for all genders through participation and citizen initiative. By working together to strengthen the capacity of grassroots activists, to seek dialogue, and to identify and implement solutions, we are building the foundation for a society that respects and advocates for the rights of all genders.

A flexible and participatory approach is a prerequisite and strength of community-based development. Navigating within societies is complex and it can never be fully anticipated. The CoP approach allows individual partners to develop autonomous objectives and context-specific solutions from the bottom up and implement them directly for the benefit of the target group. At the same time, they contribute to the improvement of the work of other activists. This is the advantage over a programme approach with guard rails set by fepa. The partners complement each other systemically and, thanks to the exchange and joint learning, increase the impact of committed people as agents of change.

The chosen approach is part of our initiative to ‘decolonise help‘ and to introduce agile methods in project management in order to not only achieve better results more effectively and faster, but also to act (even) more in partnership.

Excerpts from the fepa report on the CoP (highlights/lowlights/lessons learned) can be found here (only available in German).

Documentation on women and development

On the occasion of an exchange visit in 2020, we worked up some background information. There are still gaps. Will you help us to fill them?

Your contribution

Would you like to volunteer as part of our team that supports activists in the South? We have room for movement and give space for your commitment and talents. Contact us by email: info@fepafrika.ch

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.

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.

CYDT – Community Youth Development Trust

The youth organisation CYDT works for women’s political participation in the southern Granz town of Beitbridge and in Gwanda Central, about 530 kilometres southwest of Harare. In the process, civic education trainings for women were conducted. Multiplication campaigns support the process: women and men who have received further training act as multipliers within their environment in the long term in order to sensitise acquaintances, family members and friends to the political participation of women.

The full report with insights into the details of the project can be found here.

Currently

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

MDPZ – Miss Deaf Pride Zimbabwe Trust

Miss Deaf Pride Zimbabwe advocates for the concerns and rights of people with hearing disabilities in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. Access to knowledge about sexual and reproductive health and rights is denied to many people with hearing disabilities – which is why MDPZ focuses primarily on sexuality education in sign language.

As part of a project supported by fepa, several sexuality education workshops were conducted in sign language. Videos were also produced to raise awareness of structural and sexual violence against people with hearing disabilities among a wider population. The full report and insights into the project can be found here.

Currently

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

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.