A conference bringing together Zimbabwean women's groups in the United Kingdom will kick off this weekend at the London School of Economics. Under the theme 'Zimbabwe Diaspora Women Stand Up and be Counted,' the speakers lined up include Yvonne Marimo (Zimbabwe Women's Network UK), Lois Davis (WOZA Solidarity-UK) and Wiz Bishop from the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum.

Carys Afoko from Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA Dignity Period Campaign) will also be there, as will Kat Stark and Hind Hassan from the National Union of Students in the UK. The conference comes on the sidelines of 16 days of activism against gender violence, an international campaign started by the Centre for Women's Global Leadership in 1991.

The Zimbabwean female activists will be seeking a diaspora strategy to deal with violence, HIV/AIDS issues and to create opportunities for women living in marginalised communities. Zimbabwean women in the diaspora have been urged to play a bigger role in shaping the destiny of their motherland, despite the many challenges they face.

Yeukai Taruvinga from the women's wing of the Free-Zim Youth pressure group said women bear the brunt of the crisis at home and away, and this made it important for them to be more actively involved in decision-making that will help solve the country's problems. She urged women to convert their majority status in population figures into real political muscle.

The plight of marginalised communities often tends to be ignored in many crises around the world, including Zimbabwe, and Taruvinga said they were eager to highlight these issues. She said as people focus on daily survival the rights of women and children are easily put to one side. The average woman in Zimbabwe will dead by the time she is 34 - the lowest life expectancy in the world. 1.6 million children are AIDS orphans, the highest rate in the world for the size of the population.

Turning to the recent decision by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in the UK, effectively clearing the way for the UK Home Office to deport failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers, Taruvinga said over 50 percent of these were women and now constituted a very vulnerable group needing support from the community.