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Join with us in supporting the people of Zimbabwe
Progressio
January
07, 2007
http://www.progressio.org.uk/progressio/internal/93570/join_with_us_in_supporting_the_people_of_zimbabwe/
What is it like
to live in a country with inflation pushing 1,000 per cent? You
can barely afford basic food items. What is it like to live in a
country in economic meltdown where unemployment is chronic? You
have been struggling to find a job for months. You and your family
can barely cope. Add to this that you are living with HIV, and what
would you do? For many people in Zimbabwe this is the reality. That
is why Progressio has development workers there.
Progressio works
alongside three partner organisations in Zimbabwe, supporting them
as they help the people who are living in these difficult circumstances.
Our partners work in many different ways, supporting people to have
full and active lives in their community.
We want to increase
our impact. We want to do what Progressio does best: stand shoulder
to shoulder with the marginalised, fighting for their rights and
giving them the support they need to improve their living conditions.
So we would be grateful if you could send £25, which will
help us to send another development worker to Zimbabwe.
On a recent
trip to meet our partners in Zimbabwe, I met Ivy Chibwang who greeted
me with, "My name is Ivy, I am the Chair of two support groups,
I am HIV positive and I am happy! "
Ivy, a widow,
tested positive in 2003. Since then she has gone on to run two support
groups, joined an income generating scheme, and is now trying to
organise her friends into a group that will care for children who
become orphans. She knows she has only managed to achieve this because
of the support she received from our partner, Batsirai.
Progressio Development
Worker Christopher Nyamandi is an HIV and AIDS advisor with the
Batsirai, helping them increase their ability to support the growing
number of HIV and AIDS affected individuals in the province. Part
of Christopher's work with Batsirai will be to help increase the
involvement of all sections of the local community in HIV and AIDS
prevention and care. He will be helping to find ways to ensure that
individuals live safely, especially women and children who are most
at risk of infection.
We also met
Violet Tapfuma, who is a partner in the shop that Ivy runs. Together
with four other people, they have set up the small shop that keeps
them active and provides an income. The income is vital but Violet
says that being kept busy is also important - "it stops me
from thinking about the illness all the time".
Zimbabwe is
full of people like Ivy and Violet: strong, proud people who do
not want a handout; they just want a chance to live a normal life.
This is why we at Progressio need to support our current partners
and seek out new ones.
We all know
that the problems in Zimbabwe are immense and they are not going
to improve overnight. As local organisations face the day-to-day
challenges of economic hardship, illness and food shortages, we
should do all that we can to give them the encouragement and support
that they deserve.
By recruiting
more development workers to join our current team, Progressio can
make a difference. One potential partner that Progressio is hoping
to engage with is aiming to create two new HIV and AIDS centres
for voluntary testing and counselling of individuals. This kind
of work is vital in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
Visit Progressio's fact
sheet
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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