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What really inspired us - part 1

There I am sitting in my home in a rather dusty town of Mvurwi, some 100 kilometres north of the capital. In front of me is a laptop and a diary where I scribble down notes whenever I meet something inspiring. I had just been selected as a candidate under consideration for a volunteer assignment with one of the biggest conglomerates in the country, I needed all the inspiration I could get. The magnitude of the parties involved – Masawara and UNDP, through UNV and Youth Connekt, is enough evidence of the task at hand.

I have just been empowered by Youth Connekt’s goal of promoting formal employment, and I was soon going to be working with one of the biggest organisations in development programmes that are aimed at improving human lives and the environment. As if to remind me for the last time of the challenges being faced in my community, I hear the sound like that of a bunch of firewood falling; children celebrating the return of their mother from the forests. At this moment, I am reminded of several women in my community who lacked sustainable opportunities to feed and provide for their families. Most of them were resorting to cutting down trees to generate income through firewood sales; they have also realised the inaccessibility/scarcity of heating and lighting sources as a business opportunity in the same community they live in. But can one preach morality and sustainable goals to a mother whose children may die of malnutrition and/or hunger if they don’t find food by any means.

I realised how vulnerable these women were and how they were also jeopardising the future of the same children they were trying to protect. The community is a playground for diseases, owing to the standard of living experienced in most of the households – lack of proper sanitation, overpopulated homes, substance use and abuse by youths and other adults. As if to add fuel to the fire, the environment lacks proper biodiversity, with few trees per unit area and bare soils which are never stingy to give off dust during the windy days.

Unless the rather uninformed community is educated on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, they may be victims of their own actions.

Munyaradzi Kanjera

'I believe if we are in better circumstances, it is our civic duty to help those that are less-priviledged'