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Telling your stories
Susan Pietrzyk & Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ)
Extracted from Whazzup Magazine, February 2008

The GALZ Gender Office, working in collaboration with American researcher Susan Pietrzyk, wants to hear what the female members of GALZ, have to say. Tell us your stories. We want to hear about your experiences, ambitions, struggles, and how you feel about being part of the Zimbabwean LGBTI community. Gathering this information is part of the research project called Nyaya dzedu, which is now underway. Research projects such as this one are important as they assist GALZ in promoting awareness locally, regionally, and internationally with respect to issues that affect the Zimbabwean LGBTI community.

To make this exercise a success we need your help, we would like to conduct interviews with female GALZ members, which would take place at the GALZ centre. The interview will take about one hour and involve specific questions as well as leave room to let the conversation flow. This is an opportunity to share your stories and describe the experiences you have had in your lifetime.

As an association, the overall mission of GALZ as described in the constitution is to act on behalf of and to represent LGBTI persons, generally and individually. The pursuit of this mission involves a great many activities. Often the most apparent roles of GALZ are in relation to the services it provides for its members. These services include maintaining an LGBTI Community Centre that will provide venues for social, recreational, and educational activities as well as managing programmes which provide legal assistance, health services, and counseling Sometimes less apparent to the membership-at-large are the roles GALZ plays in promoting awareness of issues that affect LGBTI communities and advocating for the attainment of full and equal human, social, and economic rights in all aspects of life for LGBTI persons.

As researchers, we respect the comfort-level and right to privacy for each individual interview. I will begin each interview by explaining my research project and ensuring participants understand I will potentially use their comments as part of my PhD dissertation/thesis and scholarly publications. Each participant will have the option of anonymity. I will under no circumstances question or challenge their choice and will respect their wishes, as it would be unethical for me to do otherwise.

With permission from each participant, the interview will be tape-recorded. The purpose of the tape recording is to ensure documentation of the precise words of each participant. At no time, will share or divulge to curious bystanders any information concerning the content of interviews. The content of the interviews is solely for the purposes of the research project.

We hope to conduct twenty-five interviews. It's true I am collecting data, but at the same time, GALZ members might find being interviewed an interesting and important endeavor, potentially even therapeutic.

If you would like to participate in this important research project and/or if you would like further information contact the following. Each participant will be reimbursed for their transportation expenses and given a small payment in appreciation.

Fadzai Muparutsa, Programme Manager
GALZ Gender Office
gender@galz.co.zw
+263 4 741 736
+263 912 261 038

Susan Pietrzyk, PhD Candidate
Department of Anthropology
Binghamton University
Binghamton, NY 13902-6000
spietrz1@binghamton.edu
+263 4 252 684
+263 912 428 952

Visit the GALZ fact sheet

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