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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

My first use in Zimbabwe

Some news from Zimbabwe! This Monday was my first big day! We had our first meeting with all of the partner organizations that I will be working with. They are eight NGO's, all of them working with Orphans and Vulnerable Children (hereafter OVC, in our NGO slang). Four of them work in Harare, the capital, and four of them in Bulawayo, 280km or 6 hours driving to the west. They all touch different aspects of these issues, street children, re-education, counselling, HIV prevention, and a big emphasis is put on psychosocial support. But what they all have in common is that they're trying to train people from the community to take care of these problems, so that they themselves try to meet the challenges. For it isn't easy.

In Zimbabwe, between 20 and 30% of the adult population is HIV positif. The life expectancy has dropped in ten years to an average of 35 years! More than a million children are orphans, often taking care of siblings, which forms one tenth of the population. Before, these children were taken in by family structures, but these are now stretched far beyond their capacity. Putting them in in orphanages is also impossible and would certainly not guarantee proper education. So, they fall back on their community, and to support the community is what our eight partnerorganisations are trying to do.

I must admit I was a bit stressed about our first meeting. First impressions matter, I know from experience, and if we would have gotten off on the wrong foot, it is always hard to correct. I was supposed to have arrived in the beginning of April, which would have allowed me to visit the organizations one by one and get to know them better in a more relaxed way, but since our departure had been delayed several times due to the elections and the resulting instability, I only arrived in the country five days before hand. And to add to my stress, the desk officer from Brussels as well as our regional coordinator, Kristien, with whom we worked in South Africa.

But it went great! Volens doesn't have a lot of money to give, so we have to make the partner organizations understand what we can sponsor (which isn't that much), and what we can't (which is a lot more)! In short, the programme that I am part of can assist them in four main ways:

- attachments: it consists of exchanges of staff members between the organisations, for often, they tend to ignore or worse, compete with organizations active in the same field. This was the mean item on the agenda, to see who wanted to offer what, and I must say, it was amazing! Truly, I have rarely had to facilitate such an enthusiasm and interesting topics that each ONG offered. Specific methodology to do counselling, to work with peers, assure child participation etc. Honestly, impressive! The local expertise definitely sounds great. Now, we had about 15 attachments to offer, but after they all stated their areas of expertise or specific activities that could be interesting for the others, and we went round per month to see who wanted to send a number of staff to attend, well, we got to 332 attachments planned! But I believe we can make most of them happen, even with our limited means, if the ONG themselves also contribute. This can be done evry easily, if they take accommodation or board upon them, instead of putting them in expensive hotels.

- scholarships: staff members can follow trainings regarding specific issues, so that they can improve their functioning.

- specific capacity building on Monitoring & Evaluation and Financial Management: we have two cooperants that are working specifically on these issues, essential in nowadays working with projects and development, so they are there to

- the overall coordinating of the network: that would be yours truly, together with Veerle, the former coordinator for this region. First task will be to visit all of the organisations and document the different trainings that are provided, in one comprehensive basic package. We are also going to integrate a platform started up by UNICEF in September 2007, which is specifically regarding psychosocial support and capacity building.

All of this has to do with our work on three levels, the capacity building on the level of

- people: better trained staff etc.
- organizations: better equipped to follow up the projects,
- interinstitutionnal: they work together, share experiences etc...

All sounds a bit complicated and much NGO vocabulary right? Anyway, it is really looking good and I love it for the moment, so I suppose for my readers that is the most important, no?

Thursday, April 24, 2008

All is well in Zimbabwe... Well, we at least are!

Internet is scare, so this message will not be a long one. Thomas and me arrived in Zimbabwe after the 15h flight on Tuesday, where we were greeted by Fred, employe of CTDT, wich is the partnerorganisation of Thomas. He first took us to have a look at the offices of CTDT, but after we displayed all of our fatigue, we were swiflty taken to our guesthouse. Yes, an informal guesthouse, run by Charity, one of the collegues of Thomas. It is a really nice house in the newly built suburbs of Harare, which even has a swimming ppol (which we have not yet been able to enjoy ;-(. We enjoyed charity's hospitality and good food and went to bed early. It already is dark here at 18.30 so that might have contributed to the fact of feeling tired so quickly.

Wednesday was our first day of work for both of us. Thomas went to CTDT, where he was introduced to so many people that he has already forgotten half their names (there are 57 employes there, though some of them work in the field). He is not supposed to go in the countryside for some time, since there is too much unrest there. Me, I met with Veerle and Caroline, our responsables for Volens here and we discussed how to prepare the big meeting next Monday. How to go about it, who get's to speak or not, budget difficulties, it means hitting the ground running. But it feels so good to finally be here, to be active, to begin working! And to have collegues, people to interchange with...

Next, we went with Veerle for pizza (which costs 399 and then a LOT of zeros, but equalled about 10€) to see Gabriel, with whom I'm driving to this big meeting next Monday, cause it is in Bulawayo, which is 5h driving away and planetickets are too expensive. He will be living there so we might take over his appartment, which is actually a house, with two floors and two spatious bedrooms, one for each of us ;-)

This morning I met with Sonah, who works for Oasis Zimabwbe, which is one of my partnerorganisations and who will be in the meeting next Monday. It was nice to already meet one of them before the meeting, so that I already will have one familiar face. Since I was supposed to have arrived 1 of April, I should have already seen quite a lot of them, but due to the elections, that was all postponed! Until now!
Cool to finally be here!!

More news, whenever we have internet, which isn't a lot!

You can text me at my belgian mobistar number +32498670910 and we're trying to get a local SIM card as soon as possible, but since the compagny is state-owned and run, it is quite the bureaucracy... and hard to get through!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Another departure on the horizon, should be the one

Today Zimbabwe celebrated its independance. Mugabe made his first public speech since the elections. It doesn't seem like anything will be changing in the next couple of days, so we're taking our chances and going. Our departure date should once again be on Monday evening, arriving in Harare the Tuesday midday.
Let's see it happen this time hopefully!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

To the mountains and fjords of Bergen

Tuesday afternoon we arrived in Bergen, where we just walked around and enjoyed the sun, which is pretty rare in Bergen (285 days of rainfall/year). Wednesday we took the plane back to Oslo and straight on our connecting flight back to Amsterdam-Antwerp.
Here some more pix of our trip, which are now, together with our memories, the only things that remain of our little getaway...

Monday, April 14, 2008

Through the snow of Geilo...

Monday night we spent in a little wooden cabin, in the middle of snow and more snow. Our hitchhiking didn't go too well, so instead we took the bus to Geilo, halfway between Oslo and Bergen, where we spent the night at the youth hostel. Instead of the expected dorm, they gave us a cabin as if we were far in the woods, with kitchenette and all.The day after we took the train for the remainder of the voyage to Bergen, trainride classed in the top twenty of the worlds best trainrides, if you please! Very very impressive (and a bit expensive as well). Endless views of snow, lakes, rivers and fjords...

Sunday, April 13, 2008

From the fjords of Norway

We arrived last Saturday in Oslo, Norway. Train into town, Central Station where we squatted internet and found out zilch was available for hostels within our price range or hosting from Couch Surfing (okay, we warned only one day in advance, granted ;-).

The railway station was starting to look more and more like our room for the night, which was a scary prospect, until a link of MSN friends were mobilised and found us a curly French Mimi that was willing to take us in for the weekend. From the railway station to the highest point of Oslo, then to the nightclubs of Oslo. Sunday was spent freely discovering the city, some vikingships and public transportation, especially the number 18.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Tired of hanging around, going to Oslo this weekend

Since the wait is growing long, Thomas and me decided on a spur of the moment to have a little get-away, and we choose Oslo as our destination, where neither of us have ever been...
Just booked our flight, from Saturday morning till Wednesday evening, from Antwerp through Amsterdam to Oslo, a mere 160€ each, and are checking out our favorite entry to the locals, CouchSurfing!

It'll do us some good to get away...

Monday, April 7, 2008

And once again, not yet...

Here we are, just heared the news that we're not to be leaving for Zimbabwe this Wednesday. The wait is getting long. Volens wants to wait for a definite decision regarding the second round.

On the upside, Thursday and Friday, a seminar about the Volens communication and also the africa part of their website is held here in Brussels, so that could be interesting for us to participate as well... And maybe afterwards, if Zimbabwe isn't quieting down, maybe first go to Zambia and do some needs assesments for the partnerorganisations there?
Whatever will be, will be....

Friday, April 4, 2008

Zim postponed once again....

Volens, our Belgian sending NGO, has decided once again to postpone our departure. First it was for Monday 7th, but since the results for the presidential elections have still not been made public, Volens prefers to wait. All good and well, but if we are supposed to hold till everything is a-okay down there, we'll probably never leave. So we suggested Wednesday 9th to fly to Harare, and also mentionning that we could go outside of the capital if a second round was declared, where we could learn Shona and get familiar with the culture. Let's wait and see what happens, and what gets accepted ;-)

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Matéo: rassemblement 6 avril devant centre fermé 127bis

COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE

Les parents de Matéo Illiu,

EN grève de la faim au centre fermé 127bis, sont en danger de mort.

Rassemblement dimanche 6 avril devant le centre fermé 127bis

Médecins du Monde vient de mettre en garde Julian et Dhuratha contre les séquelles irréversibles de la grève de la faim qu’ils ont débutée le 4 mars. Ils sont extrêmement affaiblis après bientôt 1 mois de jeun dans des conditions très précaires. Pour les médecins qui les ont consultés, dans dix jours, ils peuvent mourir ou développer des séquelles irréversibles. Médecins du Monde leur a demandé de se réalimenter, mais Julian et Dhuratha, désespérés par l’injustice de leur enfermement et l’acharnement de l’Office des Etrangers, refusent tous les deux de le faire.

Leur seul espoir actuel réside dans une décision de la justice, devant laquelle ils seront présentés jeudi 3 avril prochain pour une nouvelle demande de mise en liberté. L’avocat a demandé à l’office et au tribunal qu’ils ne soient pas présents au tribunal, car leur transfert en voiture devient quasi impossible et risque de mettre leur santé encore plus en danger.

S’ils essuient un nouveau refus, Julian et Dhuratha iront jusqu’au bout de leur désespoir, en toute conscience des risques. Ils considèrent qu’ils ne peuvent plus faire marche arrière. Ils sont dans un tel état que Julian organise d’ores et déjà leur fin, et a décidé de confier Matéo à la sœur de Dhuratha, s’ils disparaissent, tout en demandant à leurs amis belges de choisir une « bonne école » pour la scolarité de leur petit garçon.

Ces projets de Julian font office de testament.

NOUS REFUSONS D’ETRE COMPLICES DE CETTE BARBARIE D’ETAT QUI POUSSE CETTE FAMILLE A UN DESESPOIR SANS FOND.

Comment peut on rester insensible à un désespoir aussi flagrant au nom de LA loi et de laisser souffrir et même peut être mourir des personnes toujours au nom de cette même loi.

NOUS REFUSONS QUE LA VIE D’HOMMES, FEMMES, ENFANTS SOIT MISE EN DANGER, AU NOM D’UNE POLITIQUE D’IMMIGRATION DANS LES MAINS DE DIRIGEANTS QUE NOUS CONSIDERONS MENTALEMENT DERANGES.

IL RESTE 10 JOURS POUR SAUVER LA FAMILLE ILLIU !

LA COURSE CONTRE LA MONTRE, CONTRE L’OFFICE DES ETRANGERS ET CONTRE L’INHUMANITE DE L’ETAT BELGE A COMMENCE.

Nous irons protester devant le centre fermé de Steenokkerzeel

pour redire NON AUX CENTRES FERMES

pour dire NON aux agissements incontrôlables de l’Office des Etrangers

et pour soutenir la famille Illiu ( en espérant qu’ils auront été libérés)

Zone de Texte: RASSEMBLEMENT DIMANCHE 6 AVRIL  A 12 Heures Devant le centre fermé 127bis à Steenokkerzeel 300, Tervuursesteenweg - 1820 Steenokkerzeel (train gare du Nord vers leuven 11 :47- arrêt Nossegem)

Nous demandons à tous les citoyens de ce pays de téléphoner, d’adresser fax et e-mails à ceux qui tiennent la vie de cette famille entre leurs mains.

Dewael (minister de l’intérieur) : Fax : + 32 2 504 85 00 Email : patrick.dewael@ibz.fgov.be

Office des Etrangers : tel : +32 2 205 59 23 fax : 02 205 59 23 -

E mail : helpdesk.dvzoe@dofi.fgov.be

Centre fermé 127bis : fax : +32 2759 81 68 tel:+32 2 755 00 00

Continuez à signer la pétition à http://2006.lapetition.be

RESF en Belgique – Contact pour ce dossier : 0473 51 59 23