Rural Communities Empowerment Trust (RUCET) is a community-based youth organisation that contributes to youth development and youth participation in Zimbabwe. They engage in training, platform building and networking with other youth organisations. The organisation has a visible constituency of youth activists at the local level.
Young Women in the Middle
“Young Women in the Middle” is part of the 2023 Small Grants Initiative, to promote the participation of young people, especially young women, in governance, democracy and development issues in Lupane, Zimbabwe. RUCET focuses on capacity building of youth around democracy and governance, youth participation in local governance, promotion of human rights and peace building. The “Young Women in the Middle” project focuses on two main activities for this purpose; firstly, 40 young people are trained on governance and democratic participation (2 trainings are held with 20 young people each), secondly, they develop action plans for increased youth participation in governance and development processes in Lupane.
Shamwari Yemwanasikana Sikana (SYS) is a non-profit NGO working for the rights and empowerment of girls and women in families, schools and communities. SYS is dedicated to promoting girls’ and women’s rights in collaboration with local, national and global corporate partners. As a partner organisation of YETT, fepa first supported SYS with the financial support of the April Ignite Training Camp 2022.
“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
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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
YETT – Youth and Empowerment and Transformation Trust
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Culture of participation
Based on an impact model in which civil society actors play a central role for a democratic and welfare-promoting transformation in Zimbabwe, fepa supports the work of the Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT) as part of an overarching, long-term partnership programme. The focus is on empowering young women and promoting peace.
«fepa encourages peer-to-peer learning through developing synergies between youth organizations at different stages of organizational growth and development.» – YETT
Empowerment and networking
Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT) is a network of over 40 local organisations working in the youth sector. Co-founded by fepa in 2004, YETT has now become one of the most important Zimbabwean organisations helping young people to organise and network in a way that enables youth to have a say in the peaceful and democratic transformation of society at all levels.
Young people make up 60% of Zimbabwe’s population. Yet they have had little influence in shaping the country. Moreover, they are often at the centre of conflicts and are instrumentalised by political opponents for their own purposes. In addition, there is high youth unemployment and the desolate situation of the education system.
The target group of YETT are young women and men aged 18 to 35 from different backgrounds: urban as well as rural, Christian as well as secular, students as well as unemployed school leavers, and young people from different ethnic backgrounds. Special attention is given to the active and equal participation of young women and young people with a disability.
«fepa has helped to ensure the relevance of youth and young women’s voices in the development discourse in Zimbabwe» – YETT
With the financial support of fepa, YETT promotes local youth activities in the field of women’s empowerment and peace. Each of these activities is a key project for the implementing youth organisation, thanks to which it learns new approaches, acquires new knowledge, gains new members and creates new networks. YETT has been running the Young Women Rise Excel Course (YWRE), a five-day workshop for young women from all over the country, since 2019. fepa has been supporting YWRE since 2020.
fepa partner organisation
Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust
Location
Zimbabwe
Target group
Young people up to 35 years in community-based organisations
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
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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
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Kumbe Kumbe Arts Trust is a youth organisation that uses various forms of art for positive change in Zimbabwean society. They are strongly committed to community concerns and issues.
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Art for Peace 2023
With the Art for Peace project, Kumbe Kumbe Arts Trust is part of the Initiative for Small Grants 2023, in which young artists develop methods for peacebuilding through visual art. For this purpose, an exchange of 5 young art activists from each of the organisations Kumbe Kumbe Arts Trust and Shamva takes place, in which the use of art in public relations is discussed. The aim is to create a joint mural in Shamva (mixture of drawings and graffiti) that presents a call for peace and conflict transformation. The mural will depict peace stories and events that speak for an end to violence and for more political tolerance.
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
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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
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Rise N’ Shine Trust is a non-profit charity in Zimbabwe that works for the arts, education and the environment. Specifically, it is about creating self-chosen and self-determined pathways for young people and women in rural, peripheral and urban areas. Rise N’ Shine believes in the power of education to bring about sustainable change in communities and societies for the future.
Tables of Peace 2023
The Rise N’ Shine Trust is a partner organisation of the Small Grants Initiative 2023.
With the project “Tables of Peace”, RNS advocates for art, education and the environment. Young men come together and address their own role in relation to gender-based violence. Since playing billiards is a frequent pastime for many men from rural areas and small towns, RNS picks up right there, addressing men’s participation on the issue of gender-based violence at pool tables.
