EW
CASE STUDY IN ZIMBABWE, South Eastern Africa
Primary
Objectives:
Provide an immediate safety net for vulnerable children
Prevent
HIV/AIDS via
counseling, testing, & treatment
Increase global market access for fairly traded products

Review
of "7 Stages to Sustainability" for Primary Objective
#1
Provide an immediate safety net for vulnerable children
1)
(engagement) The catalyst of this project - and Partner in Empowerment
#1 (a Social Entrepreneur) was local mother of four, artist,
child advocate, Julia Kunzekwenyika. Dedicated to helping vulnerable
children and women, Julia was selling her artwork to cover school
fees of orphans in need. T&J Designs, a textile painting
cooperative, Partner in Empowerment #2 (a Sustainable Business),
became a fundamental income generating focus with its demonstrated
commitment to providing jobs to widows.
2)
(identify local assets) To lay the foundation for longer-term
economic self reliance, Julia, T&J, and the EW project facilitator
identified local assets/ economic opportunities including hand
painted textiles, stone sculptures, and art work. As transportation
costs limited exports in the rural areas, local assets of tree
seedlings, uniform making, soap making, and cow trading were
identified.
3)
(plan collaborative action) Together they co-created a plan
to establish a community based orphan care program (more efficient
than institutional orphanages and without the stigma). EW &
local partners developed an educational curriculum honoring
tradition as well as current life-skills.
4)
(build capacity) EW assists in program design, and supported
Julia’s home with training in accounting, and other capacity
building skills to better manage local services and engaged
outside experts in child development to support the special
needs of orphans in program.
5)
(invest in appropriate tech) EW invests in sustainable agriculture
and art supplies, also financially in Community Trusts for Vulnerable
Children (micro-grants), and conducts workshops w/ village partners
- promoting food security.
6)
(sustainable trade) Local marketing and regional craft exporters
are introduced to T&J and begin test marketing of samples
to international markets.
7)
(expand) T&J
continues to seek market opportunities in the US promoting economic
sustainability and community based orphan care.
CASE
STUDY EVALUATION SUMMARY:
THIS
LOCALLY-LED PROGRAM (JULIA'S HOME & RURAL COMMUNITY OUTREACH)
WAS SUPPORTED BY EW-USA FOR 8 YEARS (2002-2008)
WHILE
IT CREATED HOPEFUL FUTURES FOR HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN, AS A SINGLE
OUTSIDE ORGANIZATION, IT HAS NOT REACH THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF
7 STAGES.
TAKE
ACTION: EW works directly with local Zimbabwean partners to ensure
your support brings hope, health and sustainable dignity
to vulnerable children and their communities.
Local
Assets > Initiatives:
1.
"Julia's Home" orphan care & community outreach
2.
T&J Designs - Beyond Fair Trade™
Zimbabwe
3.
Global
HIV research
partners for affordable treatment
“Julia’s
Home of Happy Colors” home-based
orphan care
In January 2002, EW partnered with child advocate and social entrepreneur,
Julia Kunzekwenyika to establish a home-based Orphan Care program
where children orphaned by AIDS would be nurtured in the traditions
of their birth parents.
Today, in addition to providing 15 children with nutritious meals,
health care, and education, Julia's Home is the foundation for
EW's holistic community outreach programs in marginalized rural
areas.
Community-Based
Orphan Care
(people = resources)
ACTION:
In addition to supporting school scholarships
of 250 children, which began in 2002, EW's integrative social
and economic approach empowers existing social networks of grandparents,
neighbors and educational institutions to meet the needs of Zimbabwe's
growing rural orphan population.
In
February 2007, EW asked concerned locacitizens in these areas
what they could do to meet the needs of vulnerable orphans. Building
on its Micro-grants for Social Entrepreneurs pilot project, launched
in South America, Spring 2006, EW began the Zimbabwe version,
"Community Trusts for Orphans and Vulnerable Children".
With grants starting at 200usd, women's groups, teachers, church
leaders, and grandmothers work together to build and manage locally
based income generation projects optimizing unique local skills
and natural resources. Currently there are 3 such community trusts
(ranging from community gardens, soap making, uniform sewing to
cow trading) raising funds and food for vulnerable orphans in
the rural Chivu district.
IMPACT:
In addition to contributing to improved psycho-social development,
this method, of supporting children where they ARE, is up to 6
times more cost effective when compared to orphanages or institutionalized
care in meeting the same basic needs.
Top..
.
T&J
Designs - Beyond
Fair Trade™
Zimbabwe
Every
EW country program is developed in concert with economic opportunities
for economic sustainability. EW Zimbabwe was founded in partnership
with community conscious company T&J designs, which had already
enabled Julia to sponsor up to 40 orphans' school fees and provided
livelihoods for widows in her rural village.
T&J
Designs is serving as the model for EW's Beyond Fair Trade™
initiative
to promote fairly traded products that also support health, educational
and environmental programs where they are made.
Beyond
Fair Trade™
brand products
are identified by non-profits which are responsible for monitoring
of their production and resulting social impact.
Working together with sustainable businesses (distribution &
design) and media groups (branding & marketing), BFT aims
to create a new standard for sustainable dignity. EW is currently
building this network as an official fair trade Trust
Provider for World of Good/ Ebay.
Top...
Art
4 AIDS Relief - testing, education, & treatment
In
2000 Empowerment Works effort in Zimbabwe began with
young artists living in the high density township of Mbare, Zimbabwe
(with one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world)
who were destitute by a decreasing market for their precious Shona
sculptures.
In supporting their vision to create an HIV Prevention campaign,
EW's director shipped a container of sculpture to the US, expanding
markets for their art, using that art to raise awareness of the
critical AIDS challenge, and reinvesting in voluntary counseling
and testing services, “Art for AIDS Relief” became a founding
project of EW.
Empowering
those most at risk to fight AIDS on the front lines, EW engaged
10 peer educators from Streets Ahead homeless youth center, and
10 Artists from urban cooperatives to be trained in DESERET International's
HIV prevention education course promoting voluntary testing and
counseling.
On
the treatment side, EW's director investigated the medicinal plant
based formulas of an herbalist treating himself and other AIDS
patients. To assess efficacy, EW established a local clinic, "Hope
Dzakanaka" ("Good Dreams" in local Shona language),
and conducted a monitored treatment program for informed patients
in cooperation with local physicians and testing facilities. While
the local treatment program ended in 2003, hope continues through
socially conscious research firm BioNova Medical corporation (honors
& reinvests in communities of source) which has patented the
plant based formulas. Having recently conducted research partnerships
with City of Hope and UCLA AIDS Institute, In-vitro studies at
both institutes have demonstrated anti-retro viral activity.
MORE
INFO:
Contact
EW Executive Director
Read
EW Advisor David
C. Jamali (Zimbabwe, Australia) report on local conditions:
The
visit to my land of birth May 2007
Artist,
Keith
Biele brings skills & therapy to Zimbabwe
where
EW has supported community based orphan care for over 5 years.
Read Keith's report &
see video
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