Our world, your world too

I just came across this publication for IRIN, a UN agency, about orphans and HIV, called 'Our world'. I found it quite touching and therefore wanted to share it with you. Go to their website or download a first chapter through this link. 

They also give some radio reports: 

Giving children a chance to live
 'I don't want to die alone' - the challenge of prevention
 Looking forward to life
 Children bear the brunt of AIDS crisis

SPECIAL SPECIAL, READ ALL ABOUT IT: The Zims n°5 are out

Yep, our little Easter Egg, The Zims Issue 5, hatched especially for you.

Download the latest news on our lives as development workers in Zimbabwe and Zambia here.

Issue 5 - April 2009: EN - FR - NL

Away for the Easter weekend: to Nyanga

This long Easter weekend, since we'd worked so hard before, with all the reporting and everything, Thomas and me decided to leave the stress of Harare behind us and go to Nyanga, about 3h away to the east. It has beautiful sights, high up, with rocks and mountains. It used to be very touristy and still has a lot of infrastructure, but with the external image of Zimbabwe, there are hardly any international tourists and with the dollarisation of the economy, most locals can't afford it. 

The first night, we stayed at the Inn at Rupurara (a rock which translated means bald head). It also boasts a small game park, with girafs, zebras and kudus. Very nice views and luxurious. We went for a horse ride which allowed us to get really really close to the girafs.

The second night we stayed at the National Park lodges, which are really still very affordable (only 20USD for a lodge for two people). It is all self catering, so we had to look for food to cook on Easter Saturday, and wait till 19.30 before the electricity came to be able to cook, but that was largely compensated by the open fire and the space. Until at 7.45 on Easter Sunday, the caretaker just walked in without knocking and found Thomas and me sleeping in front of the fireplace...

Work work work... What is in a report....

This period is an administrative nightmare for cooperants. April is the month in which we have to combine two things: 

• the reporting of 2008(financial and narrative) and 
  
• the planning for 2010 (activities and budget).

Two very different frames of mind and hard to combine, but necessary, if we want to receive the funding for 2009. Biggest chunk  is of course the reporting, which we have to do on soooo many levels, it almost becomes funny (notice how I stress the 'almost'). 

• for each cooperant: a report on all his/her activities and how this contributed to the results Volens wanted to achieve (bijlage 5).
• a compilation of all of these reports (bijlage 6)
• for each cooperant: planning for 2009 (bijlage 4)
• a compilation of all of these plannings (bijlage 3)
• For each Partnerorganisation: how they contributed (bijlage 2)
• a compilation of this (bijlage 1)
• an AFAU 4 document, which each cooperant has to fill in to explain what contributions he/she made to the regional dynamics and the south-north dialogue
• an R8 for each cooperant: giving a brief narrative summary of activities.

Then, regarding the orphans and vulnerable children programme I am facilitating:

• a logical framework (P10 AFAU 2 F LK) 
• a planning of the activities for 2010, (P10 AFAU 2 F)
• a specific file for the entire region, Zimbabwe and Zambia, R8P10 AFAU, which gives a general overview of our activities (R8 AFAU);
• a file with pictures that illustrate our activities (R8-AFAU-2-F-fotomateriaal).
• a financial report for all the money spent in 2008, according to whether it was spent in Belgium (modele 7a) or in Zimbabwe (modele 7b)  (and of course taking into consideration the varying exchange rate, which is in...modèle 7c). Thank God mom was here to carry all of the receipts back to Belgium. Just hope they will be approved... And, before I forget, of course, there are also separate accounts and reporting to be done if the activities consisted of:

1.  attachments (look and learn visits between the partner organisations) or 
2. scholarships (bursaries to go abroad and study something).

And of course, all of this has to be coherent, not only with all the cooperants involved in the programme, but also with the other programmes (Caroline's and Kristien's). Needless to say, it means a lot of emails back and forth, small changes, numerous versions of the same documents and all. But the end of the tunnel is in sight, as we would say in Belgium, with most of the documents finalized (or almost). Now let's see what Volens Brussels is going to give for comments....

Beside all this, we also have a monthly overview with planning that we do to keep track of what is happening in the programme, extra funding proposals we introduce with provinces and cities in Belgium, etc... Amazing how much paperwork we have to produce... And how little of it will really be read. Of course, I understand we have to be held accountable for the funds we receive, which is a good thing, and though they might not read all of it, the Belgian government does do checks on randoms files, so all of them have to be in order. It is just frustrating to spend so much time doing paperwork and not focussing on the objectives of your programmes...

Fototentoonstelling in Halle over landbouw in Zimbabwe

Met de hulp van ons programma gaat er in het stadhuis van Halle een fototentoonstelling door betreffende de landbouw in Zimbabwe van de 20ste april tot de 30ste april.

Landbouw in Zimbabwe: Een stap verder...

Sinds 2000 ligt de landbouwsector in Zimbabwe in puin! President Mugabe voerde een landbouwhervorming door. Eigenaars van grote landbouwbedrijven werden verdreven. Kleine landbouwfamilies kregen meer land. Maar de regeringssteun viel bijna volledig weg. Zaden en meststoffen zijn nog maar moeilijk te krijgen. Dit alles leidde tot de instorting van de landbouwsector en veroorzaakte enorme voedseltekorten. Bijna de helft van de Zimbabwanen (meer dan 5 miljoen mensen) is vandaag afhankelijk van voedselhulp. Bovendien is de ecologische degradatie, veroorzaakt door de huidige manier van boeren, enorm.

Als gevolg, met de steun van internationale en lokale NGOs, zijn duurzame, ecologisch verantwoorde landbouwpraktijken erg populair geworden in Zimbabwe.

De duurzame landbouwactiviteiten van kleine familiale boeren in Zimbabwe zijn redelijk productief, maar de gewassen worden nauwelijks verwerkt. Boeren missen de kennis, de ervaring, contacten en middelen om landbouwproducten te verwerken en te vermarkten. Het toevoegen van waarde aan hun producten en de verkoop ervan bieden echter enorme mogelijkheden: een grotere productiviteit en grotere verscheidenheid aan geteelde gewassen, een meer gebalanceerd dieet bij eigen gebruik, extra inkomsten en het stimuleren van de lokale economie.

VOLENS tracht daar verandering in te brengen door een netwerk van lokale NGOs de mogelijkheid te bieden om hun ervaring in verwerking en vermarkting van landbouwprodukten te vergroten.

Meer info op de website: http://volens.be/expo/