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WOZA
walk update
Women of
Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)
September 20, 2004
Women of Zimbabwe
Arise (WOZA) members embarked upon a 440-kilometer walk from Bulawayo
to Harare on Sunday 19 September 2004. The women activists, numbering
numbering 35, left Bulawayo at 6:20 am on Sunday and by 5 pm, 20
September the group had set up camp at the Matabele War Memorial
107 kilometers from Bulawayo. They will continue walking along the
highway covering
30-50 km per
day. They are spending the night out in the open and had showers
to content with last night and the weather has remained inclement
today. Suitable for walking but not for sleeping out in the open.
Aged between
20 and 60 years old, and in all shapes and sizes, the walkers averaged
6 kilometers an hour proving their walk message - 'You strike a
woman and you have struck a rock'! A Zulu saying - Uthinte Umfazi
Uthinte Imbokodo!
The NGO Bill
if passed in its current form will have struck at the lives and
very survival of women and their families. Most of the women are
beneficiaries of donor food and have HIV/Aids orphans that they
care for. This walk symbolizes a defending of the kindness of the
donor community and way of saying how much their help has meant
to Zimbabweans.
A Methodist
Reverend, from the outspoken Christians Together for Justice and
Peace blessed the walkers at a prayer Service on Friday. He called
on the women to "defend those doing good and not allow doing good
to become criminalized". The NGO Bill seeks to exert tight-fisted
control over human rights and governance activities undertaken by
organizations. Such activities were hitherto able to operate under
international Human Rights protocols and norms. The Church community
has described the bill as an "overkill' Bill and Civic society has
adopted a unified position in dubbing the NGO Bill - "the Bill that
kills when Zimbabweans want life". Background: The NGO Bill is due
to become a law in October and over 200 community activists will
loose a source of income. Their families and the orphans they care
for will suffer hardship. WOZA is conducting a sponsored walk to
raise money for the welfare of activists.
Members will
each walk 60 kilometers, with some attempting to walk all the way.
Please donate or sponsor us to help lessen the suffering caused
by this unjust law. As it is drafted now, this Bill will KILL instead
of bringing us more LIFE. IT affects us, and the caring people who
help us with food when we are hungry, medicine when we are sick,
development, which gives us opportunities. NGO's and Civic Society
organizations give us knowledge. KNOWLEDGE is POWER so the Bill
wants to make us powerless.
Visit the Women
of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) fact
sheet
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