Our Makamure group doing great- hooray for new representative Mai Tapera!
Mr. Maingire, maker of wooden bowls and spoons!
a great day for all of us in Makamure!
under the blooming Jacaranda tree in Nemauzhe
'HOORAY' STORIES!
A NEW ZIENZELE WOMEN’S COOPERATIVE IN CHIROGWE!
We thought you might be interested to learn HOW we find new Zienzele groups!
Mai Chirigo is a Zienzele regional coordinator, and she attended the funeral for longtime Zienzele representative, Mai Masara. At that event, she was introduced to a woman, Mai Chikati, from the village of Chirogwe, and they got to talking about Zienzele- Mai Chikati was eager to start a group in her own village. Mai Chirigo explained the process of starting a group, and between that funeral (in late 2020) and our visit in September, the women of Chirogwe had written up a Zienzele Constitution for their project, elected officers and a representative, and started making baskets! Nancy and Prisca arrived in September expecting to have a basic ‘how to get started’ chat- and instead we found a fully formed cooperative with baskets ready to sell! We identified the top weavers in the group and the women decided to have those women serve as teachers for the others. We start paying school fees in January for ten students!
MAI TAPERA, THE NEW REPRESENTATIVE AT MAKUMURE
Mai Masara was a hardworking representative for our Makumure women’s cooperative, and her death in 2020 affected her whole community. She was a quiet caring leader, a top-notch basket weaver, and she transformed the Makumure group into a cohesive group. We will all miss her!
The group selected Mai Tapera as their new representative, and we are excited to see a younger generation of caregivers stepping into leadership roles!
MUKOVERE AND RAZI
Our secondary school students at Razi
Makovere’s cash crop: sisal!
MUSVOVI
TWO-METER SPACES AT MUSVOVI!
GRADE SEVEN STUDENTS ABOUT TO TAKE THEIR EXAMS (AFTER NOT HAVING ‘REAL’ SCHOOL FOR ALMOST TWO YEARS)
Prince joins the gathering with his Gogo
a sneak preview of our basket purchases!
CHOMURUVATI
A personal note from Nancy: “…even though we had no choice but to cancel our travel to the villages during this pandemic, I cannot help but notice how much my missing THREE trips in a row has meant.
In over twenty years, I had NEVER missed two trips in a row (we had to cancel one trip following 9/11/01, and one due to violent political upheaval in Zim around an election), so missing three ‘normal’ visits in a row has had subtle consequences for the kind of connections and motivations folks here feel. So, this is part of what I am talking about when I say it feels to me like there is rebuilding to do, starting with this visit.
A little bit of grief for the momentum it feels like we have lost, and then BACK TO WORK!”
LUNCHTIME AT CHOMURUVATI SCHOOL
ABSOLUTELY NO NONSENSE!
‘VINTAGE’ WEAVERS ARE DOING A GREAT JOB PASSING ALONG THEIR KNOW-HOW: technically how to weave a high-quality basket and how to create complex and aesthetically pleasing designs.
These are the women that have the creativity to imagine original design schemes and the skill to translate those ideas into woven form. They are also DEEPLY competitive with their peers in other groups! All of this is what they pass along to the younger women that participate in these basket-weaving women’s cooperatives. Cool stuff.
Mawadze
Despite the cold drizzly weather, the Zienzele Women’s Cooperative in Mawadze showed up in good numbers!
Several of our women’s groups took important initiative during the past twenty months- when it became clear that Prisca (and obviously Nancy) would not be able to visit each village as regularly as usual, many of our basket-weaving groups established connections with local traders and were able to sell their baskets that way. Which is EXACTLY how we would hope for: women responding collectively to a challenge with flexibility and self-determination!
They clearly prefer their baskets to go with Zienzele (and to compete for prizes in the Zienzele basket show!) but under the exceptionally hard circumstances of the past year and a half, we are SO heartened to see these women take the initiative to find new opportunities.
UPDATES FROM CHIKOFA AND MUPAGAMURI!
So far, we are impressed by the vaccination rates and fastidious mask-wearing and hand-sanitizer availability we are seeing! That said, it is very clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the broader sense of hopefulness in these communities. It has been challenging for our weavers to acquire the materials needed for basket-weaving, and perhaps more importantly, women have not been able to gather together to weave- we cannot help but appreciate the meaningful social aspect of basket-weaving, and understand the impact pandemic social isolation has had on the numbers of baskets our women’s cooperatives have been able to produce. Like all of us, these communities have been living through COVID, VERY luckily without significant infection rates!!!! But for our already vulnerable communities, the impacts have been profound.
”masks on faces! two-meter spaces! uncrowded places!” Thanks Dr. Levine for this great learning tool!
A sign that things are improving: sisal fiber for sale at our meeting in Mupagamuri!
In Mupagamuri, far fewer baskets to buy than pre-pandemic. But our weavers showed up, the baskets are high quality, and we had a productive conversation about rebuilding motivation and a sense of community after COVID.
During a brief visit to the now-complete Zienzele Community Center in Berejena, we were extra-impressed with the traditional roofing system on the cooking space! This Community Center and the one we are starting to build in Mupagamuri will play a key role in post-COVID rebuilding of community in these villages. Prisca and I are SO glad that Berejena took the initiative to be our first ZCC community.
AUTUMN 2021 FIELD VISITS
NANCY AND PRISCA ARE IN MASVINGO! (VAXXED AND BOOSTERED)
They have a very busy month ahead- deliveries of food, clothing, medical supplies and COVID-19 prevention supplies, testing, and info; basket-buying, which is a much-needed influx of financial resources for our women’s cooperatives; delivering supplies and checking in with our Child-Headed Households; and the official opening of the first Zienzele Community Center!
Stay tuned for blog posts with updates and photos!
TATENDA
Shona for ‘thank you’ and a term of gratitude!
The Mtechani tree provides color, nice shade, and its seed pods provide a lovely grey color for baskets
Our biggest gathering EVER!
We can hardly believe it: FOUR HUNDRED WOMEN came to our basket show/ grand finale gathering!!!
We cannot understate: conditions in Zimbabwe right now are so SO difficult.
Yet, as hard as conditions are, in the stunningly resilient women and children we work with, we are seeing so much that gives us hope and keeps us motivated!
The Basket Show: our grand finale!!
We will not tease you: here are our Fall 2019 First and Second place winners!!!
(once these prize winning sets of baskets make their way back to the US, they will be available for purchase- if you would like to buy these beauties, check out our upcoming basket sale schedule OR if none of our venues are within reach, email us- if we still have them, we can ship them to you)
“ma woko ma woko” Rebecca Utete got the celebration started!
Edith Mamute
Edith Mamute and Talent, her beautiful one-year old.
Edith is a very smart and talented alum of Zienzele who will help us with workshops in March. It feels great when those we supported as young girls return to us as healthy mature strong women!
Child-Headed Household visits
“I want our CHH sponsors to understand: thanks to your generosity, this visit we have delivered material supplies and support to SIXTY child-headed households. Words cannot describe how huge your impact is- for our most vulnerable children, $300 a year changes their WORLD.”
Every Child-Headed Household receives:
10kg of mealy meal for sadza, sugar, salt, soap, peanut butter, cooking oil, beans, and a selection of clothes and shoes donated to us (thank you so much!) and Zienzele pays school fees and the cost of the required uniforms.
Want to be a part of this wonderful program?
Support a child-headed household for one year with a donation of $300
Would you like to supply us with donations of school supplies and clothing? please email us to learn which school supplies and which types of clothing we can accept!
Blessing and Mai Panashe help get nine CHHs in Mawadze sorted with their supplies!
Berejena CHHs
Know what’s cool?
Seeing our most vulnerable families (our child-headed households) forming a supportive friendly and safe community with each other!
Rungai CHHs
ZCC: leaps and bounds!!
What a thrill to see this project take shape!
So much appreciation for Mr. Mutatisi, our head builder (the elevated and authoritative figure in the last image), and all the people who worked so hard on this construction!
Nemauzhe
Nemauzhe Grade Six: Everjoy (in the V-neck at the left) is number 1in her class and wants to be a doctor!
His name says it all: Confidence!
Twas a cold and drizzly day when we met with the Nemauzhe basket-weaving group…
Wowza! Amazing basket selection at Nemauzhe! Their supported-student number was raised from 31 to 35 because of this great production- high quality and many more baskets than usual!
… and that called for a Happy Dance!
Zienzele Weekend 'Camp': SIXTY-TWO STRONG!
This year 32 girls and 30 boys (actually: young men and young women!) participated in our Zienzele Weekend! Day One focused on career choices and paths. Many hoping to become doctors, lawyers, nurses, and teachers. We were pleased this year to have only one aspiring soldier. We also talked about the value of having not just one plan, but plans A B & C. Students in Forms 4 and 6 will take the national exams next week, and those results will determine options- so the timing of this discussion feels productive. Our post-secondary All-Stars again shared their stories, and they again did a great job of speaking openly about their struggles and the rewards they have seen from persistence.
The wonderful Chippewa presenting on gender inequality and gender-based violence.
Lunch break!
Faith Simbayani is the youngest member of one of our first Child-Headed Households. You might recognize Faith’s surname: she has grown up with a great role-model in Zienzele All-Star Tendai Simbayani.
Zienzele Representatives from Berejena, Mai Susan and Mai Panashe. These women have been crucial for the success of the weekend: they not only cooked for camp, but they stayed overnight to make sure everyone behaved (they are no-nonsense ladies- good thing they couldn’t see those guys goofing for the camera!)
Forgive the furtively-taken photos: Takudzwa (L) and Patrick (R) were our brave expert explainers for the nuts and bolts of reproductive anatomy. Patrick explained the female reproductive system and Takudzwa explained the male reproductive system (with exceptional comic flair)- well done!
Truth or Myth: this is a FANTASTIC game shared by Cynthia Stadler! Groups discuss whether statements re: reproductive heath are true or a myth. Each statement spurred very active intense discussions within every group- everyone learned very important information, and the winners got to get in line first for food! Nothing like a little friendly competition!
It seems simple, but this ‘unwinding game’ gives all our participants the chance to move around a bit, and communicate with each other in a relaxed way. These young men and women focus 110% on serious stuff most of the day, so this ‘game’ is good break.
Drama Workshop: four groups acted out issues re: positive /negative relationships, substance abuse, gender-based violence, gender roles, and more. Participants really engaged- everyone put their all into the acting and came up with great messages to share with their peers- SO important for such a vulnerable group of young people. GREAT END TO A GREAT CAMP WEEKEND!
ZCC: the progress continues...
Musvovi and Chomuruvati
Musvovi: a road ‘less taken’
Musvovi Grade Seven students: they had just finished a FOUR HOUR national exam. The results of these tests determine their ability to continue on to secondary school. Today was the Math exam and they all said the math was easy!
Baby Alice: mother brought her 5month old to Musvovi today for the “baby clinic” done by the district health office.
In Chomuruvati, students play a few games of Nhdo Nhdo while they wait for us to get started!
Mapagamuri
The ladies of Mapagamuri greet Nancy and Prisca with a particularly enthusiastic welcome every visit, and this visit was no different! We distributed a truckload of millet that supplied both our caregivers and Child-Headed Households in Mapagamuri, and we checked in with the robust group of Zienzele students!
So: how do these women dye the sisal they use for these gorgeous baskets?!?
By knowing their world. The seed pods on this tree are the vegetable source of the dye that produces the grey that shows up in the baskets we sell both online and at events. To produce the exciting bright colors (turquoise, purple, bright blue, pink, etc) our women’s groups collectively decide to purchase dyes- but for MANY of the ocher tones, the deep browns, the darkest blacks, the grays, and the rusty reds, our basket makers use native plants and trees.
