Eco Africa Social Ventures

Eco Africa - creating crafting jobs for women in Zimbabwe.mov

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Sun, 23 May 2010 14:31:00 +0000

Zimbabwe Faces Corn, Wheat Shortage After Dry Weather

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:56:00 +0000

Zimbabwe is facing corn and wheat shortages after a prolonged period of dry weather, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report.

The corn crop probably won’t exceed 600,000 metric tons, while the wheat crop won’t be more than 18,000 tons, the USDA said. Zimbabwe has an annual corn requirement of 1.2 million metric tons, according to the report.
While access to farming inputs in Zimbabwe has greatly improved after the implementation of subsidies, the country is “experiencing prolonged dry spells that are threatening corn production,” the USDA said. The number of Zimbabweans facing hunger will rise to 2.17 million in the first quarter of this year from 1.74 million in the previous three months, the U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Famine Early Warning Network said yesterday. Zimbabwe has depended on food aid from donor nations since 2001.

The country’s agriculture ministry and farmers’ organizations put the annual corn requirement at 1.8 million tons, including corn used in livestock feed. In addition to donor-funded aid to small-scale farmers, the Zimbabwe government provided $210 million in loans to both small and large-scale farmers to boost production, the USDA report said.

Corn and corn meal, the staple food, remain “generally available,” with corn grain prices averaging 28 U.S. cents a kilogram (2.2 pounds) since May 2009. “A number of factors such as the liberalization of grain trade, waiver of import duties on basic foods and the dollarization of the economy have contributed positively to food availability,” said the USDA.

Zimbabwe abandoned its own currency in February 2009, opting to use mainly the U.S. dollar and the South African rand. The move came after inflation reached more than a million percent and helped refill shop shelves after 10 years of shortages.

Source

Students Drop Out Because of Unaffordable Fees

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:04:00 +0000

Zimbabwe student leaders held a crisis meeting with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last week after it emerged that 28% of students had dropped out of the country's leading university because of a lack of foreign currency to settle tuition fees.

The University of Zimbabwe opened on Monday but students have been struggling to raise fees of between US$300 and $1,500 in a country where the highest paid civil servant earns less than US$200 per month and unemployment is pegged at 90%.

Zimbabwe abolished the use of the Zimbabwe dollar in February last year at the formation of an inclusive government between long-time ruler President Mugabe and Tsvangirai, who is the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The United States dollar, South African Rand and Botswana Pula were declared legal tender. The adoption of the multi-currencies has been credited with reducing inflation from a world-record 231 million percent to just 7%. But it has caused major problems for students, who have struggled to find the required funds.

Some institutions of higher learning, such as Mutare Polytechnic College, have declined to release the examination results of students who failed to pay last year's tuition fees - a development that has affected an estimated 90% of its students.

The Zimbabwe National Students Union, Zinasu, confirmed last week that its leaders had held a crisis meeting with the Prime Minister and raised a number of issues.

Besides the problem of unaffordable fees, they discussed the continued victimisation of student leaders by the security forces, mechanisms and proposals to re-introduce the "learn now pay later scheme" to cater for underprivileged students, and the role of students in the constitution-making process.

Tsvangirai had "welcomed the issues raised and promised to look into the challenges even if it means sourcing international assistance," said Zinasu in a statement, adding that the union would "continuously follow-up on these issues to ensure that action is taken. The same issues will also been tabled with the Ministry of Higher Education in forthcoming meetings."

Zinasu also complained that the new semester had opened at the University of Zimbabwe with no students able to stay in campus residences due to lack of water and dilapidated infrastructure. Renovations are in progress. Last year the university was closed because of lack of water, prompting the United Nations Children Fund to drill boreholes.

Students have been forced to look for alternative accommodation off-campus, where many are living in squalid and grossly overcrowded conditions - as many as 56 in a house - posing health hazards, said the statement.

"The students cannot continue to be held at ransom and they have vowed to stage a massive demonstration until the halls of residence are opened," Zinasu added.

http://www.universityworldnews.com/

Unions for Zimbabwe State Workers Set Deadline for Action on Salaries

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:29:00 +0000

Negotiations deadlocked this week following a government offer of pay increases from US$7 to U$21 a month, for a top salary of US$236 a month and entry-level compensation of US$150

Zimbabwe’s restive civil servants have given the three top figures in the unity government in Harare 14 days to increase public employee salaries or risk the enforcement of pay demands through labor actions. Economists warned that a strike could shake the cash-strapped government to its roots. President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara are on leave until February.

Negotiations deadlocked this week after the public service commission offered increases ranging from US$7 to U$21 a month. The highest-paid civil servant would earn US$236 a month, entry-level workers just US$150. State employees have demanded a total entry-level wage of US$630 a month – US$460 plus housing and transportation allowances.

The Public Service Association, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association and the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe in a news conference Wednesday called the state offer “ridiculous and out of sync with the cost of living.”

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Eco Africa: 2009 Accomplishments

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:32:00 +0000

This year has been a tough one financially, in Zimbabwe as always and here in New York for non profits including ours, (and many other individuals and companies, as we are all too aware).

In Zimbabwe sadly the great expectations for change with the coming of the new “Unity Government” are slowly fading as business-as-usual still seems to be the order of the day right now.

Food prices took a huge hike when the USD and SA Rand were declared the official currencies and the Zim dollar finally expired in a puff of smoke after the issue of the $1,000,000,000,000 bill. Only the top 15% in Zimbaweans have access to US dollars. Most ordinary people in the countryside are reduced to bartering; a chicken for a ride into town or worse; often their only currency of value women have are their bodies.

Eco Africa still struggles financially to stay operational but on the other hand has made great inroads in building our infrastructure with the help of a fantastic group of skilled volunteers.

We have this year

• Joined the online e-commerce community with our new Helping Hand for Africa Website

•   Updated Eco Africa Social Ventures website

•   Created an Eco Africa You Tube channel with our interview with Business Week and our Eco Africa Slide Show

•   Created a new market for the artisans products through our new School Fundraising Program.

•   Created a PR strategy and are just starting a media campaign to publicize the new Schools Fundraising Programs.

•   We were invited by a number of prominent New York churches to set up tables of products for Fundraising Sales Events at gatherings they held.

•   Will be shortly starting an Eco Africa Day Care Center project in Zimbabwe with the generous financial help of one of our friends and supporters.

•   Received our first donation - from The US Embassy in Harare - to start building our new Crafting Center in Chitungwiza.

A big thanks to other wonderful friends who helped us out when we needed it most.

Images of Chitungwiza Zimbabwe - Christmas morning 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:49:00 +0000

I am starting this post with a photograph taken on the steps of a family home in the township of Chitungwiza which is where Eco Africa workshops are based. You must agree it is extraordinary, like a painting. This image and the others below were taken on Christmas morning 2008 by three women who were among those to whom I handed six disposable cameras, you know, the kind that you shoot, hand the whole camera back to the store for processing and later collect a CD containing the digital images. I asked the women to record some of the ways in which residents of Chitungwiza spend Christmas 2008. There were many other photos taken, also wonderful and these seven I chose as part of our newsletter are the results of a difficult selection process. The artisans themselves wrote the comments beneath the images.

“This is grandmother Nyika and Muzambia. Its’ Christmas for them, dressed for Christmas and enjoying the sun, whilst daughter Edith takes them a photo. Edith is a single mother who has two kids, Peter and Bright. She works at Eco Africa, for the Dolls project, what a joy for them for their daughter to take photos of them. Whilst at work Edith, leaves her two kids with their grandmother”.

This is grandmother Emelda and grandson Lesley, mother to Zaina who works at Eco Africa as a bookbinder. Lesley is Zaina's last born and granny Emelda takes care of him while Zaina is away at work. Granny said she was enjoying Christmas Day, relaxing and being looked after by Zaina who is on holiday. What a Christmas with cameras taking her family”!

Hello! My Name is Hilda Mavhunga and I work as a Project Supervisor for Bookbinding at Eco Africa. I joined Eco Africa since 2003 when it opened its project in our community and ever since I never looked back. I love teaching our ladies how to do books and also do quality checking. Being the project supervisor has change me and my daughter. Being a single mother of one, I can look after my daughter and sisters. Today relaxing at home whilst my daughter plays with her friends, I can safely say thank you EASV for everything. I am coping as a single mother, working and daughter Liana goes to St Alios pre-school”.

This is the husband to January who works for Eco Africa in the dolls project. “Whilst the kids are away at school and wife January is at work, the husband Charles, works as a shoe maker and he enjoys his work. ‘Today I will retire early so that I can enjoy Christmas with my family. I have six pairs of shoes that needs to be repaired urgently as the owners need to wear them during the day as they celebrate Christmas. My wife has made it easy by bring more food from her work place’ “.

Lets share a drink!’, Its Christmas for Fortunate, Hazel and Pamela. Fortunate is the granddaughter of Taiti. Hazel and Pamela are the cousin sisters. They are happy because granny has brought some goodies from work. Taiti Marondera is our Operations Supervisor at Eco Africa and she loves her work very much. Today its Christmas and they are enjoying the day, as granny is preparing the food the whole day. ‘Thanks to EASV for making Christmas special for me, my family and grandchildren’ ”.

“Its Christmas morning for Medaline and Lazarous who are enjoying their breakfast. The mother who works at Eco Africa Papermaking is Pinato Kwenda. She expresses joy because this year she was able to prepare special breakfast for her kids. Whilst their mother is at work, little Lazarous goes to St Alois pre-school and Medaline goes to a local primary school nearby. Pinato gives thanks to Eco Africa Social Venture for all the support they gave them at Christmas time”.

This is Evergeorge, a sister to Ziana and she works for Eco Africa in the Scrapping group. She is preparing tea on this special day while her son, Worship, looks on. She says she likes her culture, kneeling down as she prepares food. Thanks to EASV for making Christmas possible with smiles everywhere”.

The collection reflects the spirit in which the people of Zimbabwe have come to accept with grace the situation in which they find themselves. Chitungwiza was until recently a modest but vibrant township populated with an above average percentage of artists and crafters many making a decent living. Shops offered affordable food, clean water on tap, decent schools, city-wide electrification and regular trash collections - most of which have now failed. The result on lives has been devastating.

Each time I visit Zimbabwe and go to our crafting workshops I am greeted by well groomed women who have made a special effort to be nicely dressed and smiling in welcome. The conditions they return to after work are not apparent to me, and it would be hard for me to insert myself into their home environments to take pictures of how they live. The money they earn at Eco Africa, instead of being used to uplift the standard of living for the individual artisan and her immediate family, almost always goes to maintain the basics of life for up to ten of her unemployed loved ones and extended families. With unemployment above 90% it is hard to climb out of the circle of poverty.

The artistic merit of these selected images is unquestionable. Were they accidents or taken with a natural instinct for composition? The images are un-cropped. Where they needed sharpening a little, or the contrast improved, that is all I have done.

It seems that new amazing artistic talent keeps presenting itself in Zimbabwe. I view the time I spend there is an ongoing journey full of discovery. Zimbabwe’s population has creativity and artistry running through their blood, Around every corner you will come across a sculptor, a wood carver or a wire artist, either tapping away at a block of stone, or a piece of wood, or twisting raw fencing wire into intricate shapes. It seems that art and artistry are what nature compels them to do no matter what – a calling if you will. It defines them. Even as there are few visitors left in Zimbabwe to buy their works, they still chip away at their stone, or twist that wire or carve that block of wood. They know nor desire any other way of life than their art.

Please feel free to contribute any Ideas on how we might use these images to further spread awareness and raise money to purchase food and essentials to keep our crafting communities healthy and free from hunger. An exhibition might be possible for example. We could perhaps commission more photographs.

Friends and supporters, I present a slice of life on Christmas morning 2008 in Chitungwiza.

If you too are moved by these images please consider donating to our food program. Remember, every person with a job supports roughly seven to ten unemployed loved ones. The monthly packages of food and essentials we provide for our artisans are feeding hundreds including their extended families. Just $60 feeds four artisans plus their extended families for a month. Please log on to our website to donate. http://www.ecoafricasocialventures.org. Or checks can be made out to Eco Africa Social Ventures, 306 West 73rd St. # B. New York NY 10023.
Our organization is designated as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity and 100% of your contribution is tax deductible according to law.

YOU MAY BE READING THAT LIFE IS GETTING EASIER IN ZIMBABWE....BUT...

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:42:00 +0000

We are hearing a lot about how Zimbabwe is becoming normal since the the start of the unity government and the US dollarization of the currency.

This might be the case for the middle class, the wealthy, the new obscenely rich and many city dwellers. Yes the stores in the cities are now brimming with luxury and imported goods. When I was there in May I could have forgotten I was in Zimbabwe for a moment, lumbering out of the supermarket with my trolley brimming over with the same selections as I could buy at Fairways near my Upper West Side apartment in New York.

BUT, go out of the cities and into the rural areas and there you see people without the means to purchase food - not because it cannot be found but because the prices have soared so high after dollarization that it has become completely unaffordable to people who have no access to US dollars. The value of what they are earning is so low in comparison to the US dollar prices that it may as well not be on display for all the ability they have to purchase it.

This is the main problem now in Zimbabwe for the poor. Before the hyper-inflation that ended with the local currency being abandoned, the money people earned would at least be enough to purchase what they needed to feed their families. Towards the end it meant speeding to the food stores within a day of receiving their wages so the prices would still be affordable. A week later if they had not already made their purchased the value of their money would have halved.

Now everything is permanently unaffordable. The funds we were sending over each month for our artisans buy only half of what they need. And here in the USA, with the economy in recession, the funds being raised are only half of what we need to send. All in all things are not good this year for our crafting artisans and we need to try ever harder to find ways to support the women and their families. We hear terrible stories of girl children selling themselves for a crust of bread, and women too, in full knowledge of the risks they take of contracting AIDS.

Sorry the news is bad readers. We have plans for future concerts and benefits - but for the moment, help us raise money by becoming a CHOC-O-HOLIC for a night on the 8th Sept. Oh... and please pass the invitation on.

Eco Africa Volunteer Tour De Force

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:15:00 +0000

Our recent Craigs List outreach for volunteers brought a flood of help to Eco Africa as we organize fundraisers and prepare the effective tools we need to spread the word and raise funds. The desperate situation in Zimbabwe requires substantial dollars each month to pay for food packages for the families to survive starvation. We need help ongoing in all areas. Fundraising, PR, Web, film making. Contact me if you want to join Eco Africa Volunteer Tour De Force.

Tues night fun to help Zimbabwe

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 06:56:00 +0000

If you are in town next week Eco Africa is the cause of choice by a friend of mine Katrina for an event at Xai Xai South African Wine Bar on Tuesday evening and we are anxious to make sure there are enough people coming to make it worthwhile. It should be a really nice evening with South African snacks and interesting people to meet. Might you come? We really need support for this event and our Zimbabwe artisans. Hope to see you there.

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs035/1011278242068/archive/1102613225582.html

Pass the invite on to your friends and family!

Re-defining our mission

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:30:00 +0000

I am thrilled to tell you all, that here in Zimbabwe, at a Chitungwiza City Council meeting last Friday, 3.5 hectares of land was officially approved to be handed over to Eco Africa Charitable Trust, our Zimbabwe based sister charity organization, to develop as a new Crafting Center.

Although I was assured by our local director who has been nurturing the process along, that this was a rubber stamp exercise, I couldn’t help but have some anxious moments until the meeting actually took place. (This is, after all, Zimbabwe).

I am having an exciting time here working on the plans which now are becoming quite ambitious. With the enthusiastic involvement of some high level participants here in Zim the vision of the project is expanding.

Back home in New York, to those of you who participated in the defining and writing up of our evolving purpose – thank you. We are now focused on the two entities based in the USA that are essential to keeping our mission alive in Zimbabwe.

Eco Africa Social Ventures
A US based 501c3 Non-Profit that directly funds and supports an artisan handicraft center in Zimbabwe. The cooperative produces high quality handmade paper-crafts for the specialty gift market around the world. In 1998, the founder of Eco-Africa began training artisans in the paper making/paper crafting production process, and by 2003 established a crafting center near Chitungwiza, the largest urban township in Zimbabwe. The center since then has trained several thousand mostly-female artisans and today is directly supporting around 150 artisans, both on campus and around the country with income producing work enabling them to care for their families. Eco Africa also supports a wide range of infrastructure needs including; craft training, day care, daily hot lunches, and monthly food parcels. Eco-Africa continues to operate in Zimbabwe and serves as a symbol of hope despite unthinkable economic and social hardships faced by its people (i.e. 94% unemployment and 231 million percent rate of inflation).

Helping Hands For Africa Inc
A U.S.-based for-profit corporation with a social mission. Formed in 2007 Helping Hands for Africa serves as the marketing and distribution channel for handicrafts and art produced by Eco-Africa’s artisans and lately other Zimbabwean artists and crafters. The mission of Helping Hands is to help revitalize the broader crafting industry and ensure a viable growth market for Zimbabwe’s world-class crafting culture. Helping Hands for Africa finances the costs of overhead, materials and production of Eco Africa’s paper craft center. HHA exports the finished crafts to market and oversees the marketing and distribution of these and other Zimbabwe art through a range of sales channels including community sales events and retail gift markets. Together with other forms of seed funding donated by HHA, 10% of net proceeds of all retail sales are donated back to Eco-Africa to help support the vulnerable crafting center infrastructure in Zimbabwe.

The exercise of re-defining our mission helped me focus on what our vision has become here in Zim since the wonderful donation of land from the municipality of Chitungwiza.

Our objective over here in Zim is to build our new Eco Africa Crafting Centre to become a nucleus and a lynchpin to help revive and resuscitate the world class crafting culture of Zimbabwe. We will be including a Craft Training component and may even approach various art schools in the USA such as Parsons School Of Design to offer a graduation certificate, a route that might lead to many educational channels of support. The concept is already attracting some powerful local supporters here. One of the reasons is as follows.

Last week while talking to some sculptors at HIFA - (Harare International Festival Of The Arts) where I attended the final four days, I started to learn for the first time how much of a terrible setback the arts and crafts culture took several years ago when, during a spate of political unrest thousands of artists and crafter’s homes and work places were bulldozed and destroyed (“Operation Clean Up The Trash”) including much of the bodies of work they had built up and had been living off. Apparently most of the artists went underground, many just gave up and became builders assistants and suchlike, or left the country.

I believe the positive reaction I am getting to this concept of a broader-based Crafting Center in Chitungwiza (where a large proportion of artists and crafters live and work), is because we can make a huge difference by providing a place of renewed hope for the Zimbabwe crafting world. There needs to be a concerted effort to bring back the arts and crafts culture to what it was. International bodies with centers here such as the foreign embassies, the UN, the EU all have funds set aside for grass roots capacity building improvement projects such as this.

A key component will be a crafting school where people of all ages can come to be trained in arts and crafts.

We will include areas for Shona sculptures, basket weaving, sewing and embroidery, metal work, wood carving, wire and bead art, and various other uniquely Zimbabwean art skills. Our own Eco Africa Paper Makers and Paper Crafters will benefit greatly as it will include larger, more well planned workshop buildings, and secure storage for their finished products and materials. All participants will benefit from a day care center, a food growing garden, and accommodation for volunteers from around the world.

The Center, (the land of which includes some stunning balancing rock formations), will be built village-style among the rocky outcrops and be built of natural stone and thatch and include creative local art features that will call upon tribal architectural concepts and decorative arts. Already we have help offered by both a New York architect and a local design luminary.

It’s thanks to all of you through all of your inspiring and generous contributions of your time, skills and wise advice, and of course funding, that we are growing something really wonderful on both sides of the world. We hope to continue to inspire more of you to actively participate in our mission.

Zimbabwe's fabulous wire bead art project arrives at Tavern On The Green

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:12:00 +0000

In January I spent a fascinating time working on an exciting project with a team of the incredibly talented wire artists of Zimbabwe, in the township of Chitungwiza. (This is the high density township near our crafting workshops, (and one of the worst hit areas of the current cholera epidemic).

In December 2008 Donna Katzin – executive director of Shared Interest, a non profit focusing on micro investment in Africa, commissioned Eco Africa Social Ventures to produce three hundred and fifty wire and bead African animals. They were to be crafted to form centerpieces on the tables for their annual fundraising gala event on March 30th 2009 at New York’s famous Tavern On The Green.

This was our first such project involving craftspeople other than our own paper makers and paper crafters. But it was in keeping with our new plans to expand our reach to help other crafting communities and finding markets for the fruits of their talents too.

I was honored and a little anxious as I set off in December on my first trip to Zimbabwe in nine months. Part of that nine months was the period between the two elections when much violence and upheaval had occurred.

It was a relief to find that the talented wire artists were still around despite the upheaval and in mid January we put together a small team of eight artists all anxious to make a start on what they do best - to twist, bend and fashion lengths of plain fencing wire into complex anatomically correct animal shapes and thread them with a surface of intricately woven tiny jewel-like glass beads. Tools - their own strong hands and a pair of needle-nosed pliers.

They soon formed themselves into a group, deep inside the township of Chitungwiza and settled themselves under a shady tree with a snack bar on hand to keep them refreshed. They were given two weeks to complete the task and to my astonishment they met their deadline! (in my mind I had allowed a second two weeks). We managed to find a courier service to fast ship the four boxes to the USA and on March 30th the stunning collection of jewel-like beaded animals were gracing the tables of the glittering Shared Interest gala event.

Below are some reflections of the exciting and rewarding-for-all project that took place.

THE WIRE AND BEAD TEAM FIND A TREE TO SIT UNDER - WHERE THEY WILL CRAFT OVER 350 WIRE AND BEAD ANIMALS IN JUST UNDER TWO WEEKS. A SNACK BAR SETS UP NEARBY TO KEEP THEM REFRESHED.

FIRST COUNT

TAVERN ON THE GREEN – MARCH 30th 2009 – event photographs by Anna Morris / AnnaShoots.com

CBS News correspondent, Michelle Miller, who emceed the evening, fell in love with our beaded animals as did all the guests, some of who wanted to place immediate orders.

To order these beautiful wire beaded animals call us at 917 493 9515.
Delivery at this time is approximately 2 months. For the future, due to popular demand, Helping Hands For Africa, the social enterprise that does the sales and marketing for the artisans products, will be bringing them over with their next container and delivery time will be within days of the order.

Our many thanks to Shared Interest for enabling us to expand our reach to help other crafting communities.

Message From Zimbabwe

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:53:00 +0000

I have to report that this, my latest African sojourn, has probably been the most emotionally draining and challenging of all my visits to Zimbabwe.

In fact, it has been a roller coaster ride of events that have been both shattering and inspirational.

Zimbabwe is a country in a permanent state of serial crises. Every week brings a set of unfathomable new laws crashing down on the heads of it’s hard pressed citizens. They seem designed specifically to sabotage any possibility of a reversal in the current deadly food crisis, or halting the gazillion percent inflation, or of turning around the conditions that are fueling the lethal cholera and AIDS epidemics, or of saving many of the remaining businesses and industries from demise. The peoples under siege are as usual prompt to come up with innovative ways to attempt to survive and address all the obstacles and minefields being thrown in their paths.

I am sorry to inform you that Eco Africa Papercraft this time around, did not emerge from this chaos unscathed.

Our beloved mission station replete with redbrick church and beautiful shady flowering trees, is lost to us. The chaotic economic circumstances of Zimbabwe encourage immoral behaviors from unlikely sources.

We were invited in 2003 by a kind elderly parish priest in St Marys parish Chitungwiza to make two church halls on St Alois Mission home to our paper-crafters. He knew that the mission’s proximity to the high density township of Chitungwiza would result in a positive impact on the local community and create income for many of the unemployed and unskilled women of the parish – which indeed it has for the past six years. The rental for our two church halls was low and the benefits to hundreds of families living nearby were high. That was his vision in inviting us.

Several years ago a new parish priest succeeded the retiring father and has increased rentals in leaps and bounds. Due to hyper-inflation Zimbabwe’s currency is now worthless and the regime last month converted the country officially to US dollars. As far back as November 08 the priest started demanding his latest increase from Eco Africa Papercrafters - up by nearly one thousand per cent per month to be paid in cash USD.

The Day Care Center’s two small rooms rental was increased by five hundred per cent per month in USD, and as we are taking care of that rental too the total amount he attempted to extort was completely unaffordable for HHA (Helping Hands For Africa is pre-funding all expenses other than the food we raised funds for).

We noted with disbelief that he was demanding USD cash too for presiding over funerals, normally a service offered free of charge to the grieving families by the church, but a brisk business opportunity these days with the amount of funerals being conducted.

We tried but failed to get the support of the Archdiocese to whom he was supposed to report. Sadly the main churches in Zimbabwe have split, with compassionate genuine church members and officials doing as best they can to help on the one side, and ambitious people acting under the guise of the church on the other. Eco Africa fell on the wrong side of this split and after we refused to come up with the cash the “good father” closed us down when our crafters tried to return from the Christmas break, sending several hundred women to join the other 95 per cent of the population into joblessness.

That was the bad news.

BUT... Sometimes something good comes from something bad.

We rose again like a phoenix from the ashes!

First, after I spent some time paralyzed and in mourning for our lost home, our director Trust in his own brisk, more business-like reaction, found an empty dilapidated building nearby which the council has now rented to Eco Africa crafters for a normal affordable cost per month. The entire team then quickly got busy to do running repairs to the buildings and the grounds. By the time I got back to Zim from Christmas in Cape Town with my family, the new place was spic and span, the grass cut, even a rockery and flowers planted in the garden, our goods moved over from the mission, and the teams of crafters, although crowded into much smaller rooms, were hard at work continuing their paper-crafting.

Eco Africa’s crafters at least have a temporary home, a tribute to their tenacity and their determination not to be defeated by their circumstances.

Then came a totally unexpected piece of wonderful news.

The municipality of Chitungwiza, on hearing of the plight of Eco Africa’s paper-crafters, donated 3.5 hectares (approx. 8 1/2 acres) of stunningly beautiful land nearby on which to build a brand new Crafting Center, a place of their own with no landlord to answer to.

We are overwhelmed! Suddenly a whole new future has opened up for us. Above is a panoramic picture of the land we have been allocated, which is situated right opposite the perimeter of the township of Chitungwiza. Everyone is within walking distance. It contains several magnificent outcrops of Zimbabwe’s famous Balancing Stones which will become a feature of the new Crafting Centre as one enters the campus. The picture at the top is a panoramic view of our new parcel of land complete with rocky outcrops of balancing stones.

Harare is home to over 50 foreign embassies. Many have funds available for Self Help initiatives such as Eco Africa. Even before we started doing the plans and the costings several of them encouraged us with suggestions of possible support to help build. The idea is that the campus will have a number of buildings. Each will become a project for one donor organization and each will have a plaque acknowledging their participation in that part of the project. Even smaller donations will be sought - one solar panel for example - or the building of a few meters of perimeter wall - or a clean water borehole. We want our center to be a model for natural energy and re-cycling.

As well as being the home and headquarters of Eco Africa Paper Makers and Paper Crafters, we will expand the concept to include other crafters workshops including a stone sculpture garden, basket weaving, wire and bead work and various different art forms to assist other hard-pressed but talented crafters by showcasing their work.

We will have lodgings for volunteers from around the world who will come and learn about papermaking, and designers who will stay for a while and share their skills with the locals to expand the lines of products. There will be a Day Care Center and a vegetable garden, kitchens and recreation areas – the concept will grow as new ideas blossom forth.

The style for the center will be African rural thatch and stone, maybe some wonderful Ndbele art and architectural features too, all natural materials to blend with the landscape. The campus will have a borehole to serve the crafting community and craft training centers. So many ideas, so much to do. I can’t help but get carried away.

If anyone of our circle of friends and supporters has ideas for funding this project from organizations or individuals from around the world all ideas will be welcome. We realize that in this awful world economy fundraising will be a tough call but I am full of optimism. Matt Damon has been touring the South African refugee camps housing Zimbabwean asylum seekers so if anyone happens to know him personally.....networking.... six degrees of separation.... Oprah Winfrey..... We have many diverse friends and supporters these days. Please send our story on to journalists you may know, and I welcome any other ideas you might think of.

Last week I drove all the way down to Cape Town from Harare in convoy with some friends. It was a fun drive taking four nights, except through the Karoo desert when our air-conditioning broke down in 40 degrees C (104°F) heat. I am now on the last leg of my trip before returning to New York mid March and have been signing up new customers here for our paper-crafters. Excited to report enthusiastic reception to the latest line of products by the retailers to whom I have presented. South Africa is opening up as we knew it would one day.

All for now. Back in NYC on Saturday 14th March.

The Beachhead Expanded by Eddie Cross

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:29:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

Eddie Cross is a passionate writer and commentator on the situation in Zimbabwe.

He is a Member of Parliament for Bulawayo South, and a renowned Zimbabwean economist and founder member of the mainstream Movement for Democratic Change party led by Morgan Tsvangirai. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Cross

I am passing on this piece posted on http://www.zimbabwesituation.com, to share with all who might be interested. It is an eloquent overview of the status quo going on in Zimbabwe right now. We who know first hand of the ongoing suffering that 95% of the population are still going through, live in hopes that he is correct.

The Beachhead Expanded
- Eddie Cross

The situation in Zimbabwe is really difficult to read right now. I have journalists and analyst friends who are watchers with a lifetime of experience and knowledge and they simply cannot make out what is going on.

One of my early ancestors fought with Robert the Bruce in Scotland against the English and I can just imagine what that must have been like - thousands of men with simple arms running at each other and doing battle. From the sidelines the men in command would be watching and I am sure that it would not be clear for some time, who was winning.

When the Allies landed at Normandy, even though they had prepared meticulously and used deceit and guile to confuse those defending the beaches of Normandy, they could not have guaranteed what the early outcome would be. The smoke and confusion, noise and the inevitable muddles that accompany such an operation would guarantee that progress could not be reported on for many hours - maybe days.

So it is in Zimbabwe. MDC has opened a beachhead in hostile territory that has been under Zanu PF control for 29 years. Anyone who thought that those who did not want this would give up and lie down, are naïve. Many argued that we should never have gone in - should have waited until the collapse in the country beyond the beachhead would soften up the opposition. Our problem was that our invasion fleet was already at sea and turning back was not an option, we had to take our chances on the
beaches.

The opposition had been trying for a couple of years to get us to abandon the landings. They tried every ruse in the book, even holding some of our troops for ransom and exerting every provocation. When we eventually went in, they were taken by surprise and were then forced to fight back. By then it was too late for them - we were on their territory and were well prepared and equipped.

What we found when we landed was a seriously disillusioned population and a force whose rank and file no longer had the stomach for the fight. Although their elite forces and many senior officers were still loyal and had some resources and weapons, they are greatly outnumbered by those who quickly changed sides.

The opposition elite have a great deal of cunning and experience and have reformed what is left of their forces and are fighting back. Like all such conflicts it eventually rests on logistics - who can fight on longest and who has the better reinforcement capability. In 1944/5 that rested with the USA even though the majority of the troops on the ground were European. It was the factories of the US that actually eventually gained ascendancy at Normandy, although it was the courage of the men on the beaches that caught our attention and won our admiration.

The key to understanding what is going on in this fight lay in six chairs that were empty at Morgan Tsvangirai's swearing in at State House 10 days ago. Their occupants were invited, came and left before the ceremony. They meet daily, in secret to plan their fight back and have financial and civilian support. The beaches are found in the Courts of the land where Bennett and Mukoko and their lawyers do battle, in the
government buildings of Harare and out on the farms where skirmishes rage.

We know where their funding is coming from and who their foot soldiers are.

We know who the key players are and what they are doing; we are not deceived by their seeming acquiescence in meetings with our team on the beaches. We also have two huge advantages, we are on the right side of history, are fighting to defend our own freedoms and values and our cause is just.

They seek to defend tyranny, corrupt and inept administration and vast secret abuse of basic humanity. That they are good fighters is not in dispute, that they are ruthless and willing to go to extreme lengths to get their way, is also not disputed. It's just that they have nothing but greed and power to defend and in the end that is not enough.

Another lesson from the beaches of Normandy and perhaps my ancestors is that the men in the battle knew they were winning before it became apparent to the commanders on the hills. When they secured the beachhead and then climbed the cliffs, they found only light armour and resistance - the hard battle reinforcements were still critical days away. When they gained a village or a town and were greeted with joy and
happiness by those who had cowed and cooperated with the occupation forces, the men on the ground knew they were winning.

Battles still to fight ahead and another year of conflict before Hitler died in his bunker, but they were on their way and eventually they knew victory was certain. They mourned the casualties but honoured their courage and determination. Most important of all, they knew the factories at home were working and they were not alone.

I feel the same way. Those watching from the hills cannot see what is happening on the ground - it's covered by smoke and dust. We are beyond the beachhead and are encountering resistance but nothing that we cannot handle.

As we fight inland, further from the beach we watch anxiously to see if the logistics are working - because we are using our ammunition and food rations fast.

Right now the international community are watching from the hills and saying they will wait and see who wins before they send additional supplies. They are giving us the basics, but that is not enough to win. Our regional friends are coming to our aid but they do not have the capacity to really push us into a commanding position. It's time for faith and courage. They should put their faith in our ground troops,
after all we have been at it for ten years - twice as long as in the Second World War and I think we have proved our commitment to the key principles of freedom and democracy. They must exert the courage of their convictions and back us in this fight.

As for us, we are in this for as long as it takes. I can remember an interview with Golda Meier after the Six Day War in the Middle East. She was asked what the secret of the Israeli Army was. She replied, "We have nowhere else to go". What a privilege to be a part of the landing that brought freedom, democracy, the rule of law and justice to our own country at a time when it really mattered. Final victory is still a long way off, but at last, we are on our way.

Eddie Cross

Business Week features interview with Janice Ashby - Eco Africa: Going Beyond Business

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 02:09:00 +0000

Social entrepreneur Janice Ashby realized that providing jobs to the women of Zimbabwe wasn't enough

On one of her many trips from New York to Zimbabwe, former Saatchi & Saatchi employee Janice Ashby was staying in a quaint hotel on the edge of Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. She was struck by both the natural beauty of the Falls and the items for sale in the hotel gift shop, especially the work of local artisans fashioned out of handmade paper from the region. Ashby says the paper caught her eye (she had left Saatchi & Saatchi in 1995 to found her own line of handmade paper gifts and stationery)—and sparked her imagination. In 1997, Ashby started a new venture, Eco Africa Craft, partnering with local artisans in Zimbabwe to make paper crafts, working out of a former mission house.

CLICK HERE to read on and see the video.

In this horrible economic world climate where there's not much good news, Zimbabwe is a country where anyone can instantly become a TRILLIONAIRE

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:42:00 +0000

I arrived back in Zimbabwe on Saturday from Cape Town just after the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank announced the latest currency denominations to be circulated this Monday.

50 trillion, 100 trillion and 200 trillion dollar notes are due to hit the streets. The number 200 trillion in Zim dollars looks like this.

Z$ 200,000,000,000,000.00

Here’s $10,000,000,000,000.00 dollar bill which happened to come my way this week..

With the continuing death spiral of the Zim dollar due to the highest-ever-recorded-in-world-history hyperinflation rate, this means that in a month or two there will be bank notes sporting numbers in the quadrillions and rising monthly. It begs the question - how will there be room for all the zeros on these notes after six months or a year? We are moving forward into the septrillions and onwards towards numbers few people on earth have ever had to pronounce - let alone deal with on a daily basis.

I asked our director here why the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank does not just knock off a few of those tiresome old zeros as it has done three times in the past. As I understand it there is a three-time-only rule against knocking off zeros.

No one has explained so far what the punishment will be if the rule was ignored or who will do the punishing and who will be the punished. Nobody I have talked to is sure who created the three-time-only rule anyway. Was it an outside body or an inside body? But it’s really not worth doing the research to find out because things will undoubtedly change once again before the research is complete. No situation stays in place longer that a few weeks here.

The bad news is, for those outside the country that bought up hundreds of the new crispy 1 billion dollar notes a few weeks back to sell on eBay, thinking they would become valuable collectors pieces, you have been trumped several times since then and will continue to be so many times more in the weeks and months to come. I wonder who is designing this never ending stream of new bank notes? It’s certainly keeping some team of artists busy. The head of the Reserve Bank has said he is happy to keep printing new denominations.

Here’s a fun example of a detail from a menu chalk board on a wall at a local restaurant I visited yesterday.
Anyone for a $320,000,000,000,000.00 Greek Salad?

As an idea of costs, the price of fish and chips for two, an ice cream, an apple pie and a coffee came to USD $40.00. More expensive than New York City for a similarly modest meal.

As local Zim dollars have become valueless, three types of currencies are being utilized -

US dollars, South African Rands and Fuel Coupons.

Yes ... I said Fuel Coupons. Here’s how it works. Some companies pay their staff in Fuel Coupons, because paying them in the other two foreign currencies is against the law (which changes every week or so, as I said) and Zim Dollars become worthless before employees can withdraw their salaries from their bank accounts where they were transferred by their companies who did not have enough Zim cash notes with which to pay them. Banks limit the daily withdrawal rate (after queuing for hours) to a value that will buy a loaf of bread. By the time the end of the week comes all that remains of their salary in the bank is an overdraft charge.

Fuel Coupons don’t lose their value (much) so people would hang around outside the shops, coupons in hand and illicit currency- dealers would sidle up and exchange their fuel coupons for Zim Dollars at the exchange rate of the moment. The customers would rush into the store, snatch their goods from the shelves (if they can find any goods for sale) and rush to the check-out desk before the prices roared upwards again from what they were marked a few minutes before. Prices change roughly five times a day.

This situation lasted until several weeks ago and had existed for the previous several months.

Lately Zimbabwe has become “US Dollarized”. Certain selected companies are now being given licenses to sell in US dollars. The country is awash with USD. (At least the cities are). The illegal currency dealers who hung around on street corners changing USD or fuel coupons into Z$ are now out of business and have disappeared back into the woodwork.

Oh, by the way, fuel is now plentiful (for the moment), only to be purchased with Fuel Coupons which can be purchased with USD or SA Rands.

So some shops are now blessed with licenses to sell in foreign currency, and others are not. The unfortunate un-blessed somehow manage to find sneaky under-hand ways in which to sell in foreign currency too. It’s the only way to keep their doors open. Shops in the cities are this week filled to capacity with goods for those who have USD to buy. Shop owners are trying to recoup all their losses from a year of not being able to offer merchandise that they were forced to sell at less than the prices they had purchased from the manufactures. Prices are sky high. A box of cornflakes can go for $18 USD or more.

The desperate middle class are staggering under the burden of just staying afloat. The new obscenely rich are peeling off the dollar bills from brand new thousand-US-dollar wads and driving off in their shiny SUV’s packed with goodies.

EXTRA – EXTRA!!!!. Here’s the latest news of the day! Listen to this. There is a rumor today that the reserve bank is going to start printing and issuing U.S. Dollar VOUCHERS!!! Everyone is scratching their heads about this one. Who the... what the.... why the....
And so it goes on.

The majority 95% poor, who live mainly in the rural areas, who are neither being looked after by their employers (as many in the cities are), or paid in fuel coupons, nor have jobs and do not have access to foreign currency, haven’t many options by which to stay alive. They are in fact dying by the hundreds of thousands, quietly of AIDS, cholera or starvation. Some are living off their last years’ subsistence-crop-produce, but even with the good rains this year seed is now unobtainable so when last years hoard runs out so does their ability to feed themselves.

Of course this is of little concern to those who have created and are benefiting from this insane system. As one was chillingly quoted as saying recently, “Zimbabwe has far too many people so a few million or so less will be fine”. There is a silent genocide going on under the world’s noses. It’s just more newsworthy when people die from guns and rockets.

Here’s a toast to innovation. When there’s no money to buy a cel phone or a phone line, there’s another alternative. A good old fashioned PAY PHONE. Thought I would share with you how, when major services fail, necessity become the mother of invention. The Pay Phones vary. No city council standardization here. There are Cellular Pay Phones and Land Line Pay Phones. Some offer booths to shelter from rain or sun. Others – less is more.

The one on the left is the Land Line Service complete with long phone wire snaking back to a house. (Cellular networks, when working, are now charging in US dollars).

I will be sending out regular e-mailed snippets containing short narratives as my current visit to Zimbabwe progresses. Eco Africa is also experiencing some major challenges, which we are working through, and over which we will prevail. Eco Africa artisans are resilient. They know we will continue helping them if they continue helping themselves, and they are continuing bravely. I will also will be posting these news letters on to our blog site. There is plenty happening and too much for one email. More will follow.

PS. PLEEEZE pass this on to all any any of your friends and colleagues who may find it interesting and/or who wish to get involved or help. We still need to purchase food packages every month for our artisans and their families so any donations will be most welcome When I am back in NYC we will continue to organize fundraising events. See below for how to donate.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM ZIMBABWE

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:40:00 +0000

Hi everyone.

Here is a picture out of Zimbabwe which is good news for a change. The distribution to our artisans of the food that was purchased with your donations of US dollars.

This means Christmas time for Eco Africa’s artisans and their families will be not spent desperately searching for food sources.

The truck arrived at St Alois mission Wednesday morning and was quickly unloaded by teams of women ready for distribution later in the day. The smiles of relief and joy on their faces made it worth all of the efforts we, together with you our friends and supporters, went to to make it happen. Then there was the Christmas Party, our fifth at Eco Africa. Finally we all went home, tired but happy, never mind that it poured sheets of rain the whole day. It’s the rainy season!

I thought I would make this more of a Holiday Picture Show than a newsletter. I went deep into the township of Chitungwiza on Sunday and saw first hand the horrible effects of the total breakdown of services there. The huge piles of trash that line the roads uncollected, the streams of raw sewage that runs down each side of the streets and collects in fetid pools. I have graphic pictures that would horrify and sadden you – but instead I chose these. While parked outside the tiny modest cottage, home to one of our artisans, I contemplated the devastating neglect that has caused the sickness and extreme hardships in these peoples lives.

Then - a moment that brightened my day – a tribute to the resilience of children. Even in intolerable circumstances - kids will be kids!

PETER GODWIN BOOK SIGNING FUNDRAISER FOR ZIMBABWE

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:25:00 +0000

The night of Wednesday 12th November marked the Peter Godwin Book-Signing event to raise money for a community of crafting artisans and their families in Zimbabwe. The event served to both raise funds and further spread awareness of the evolving humanitarian disaster taking place in that beleaguered land.

Peter Godwin's fine book "When A Crocodile Eats The Sun" narrates the downward spiral of events in Zimbabwe leading to the situation several years ago when his book was published. Since then the inflation rate, the worst ever recorded in world history, has reduced the local currency to ashes, destroyed the once fine infrastructure on every level, ruined the education system, devastated the hospitals, wiped out the food and clean water supplies, and created a raging cholera epidemic to add to the ongoing unabated AIDS pandemic. Life expectancy is now down to 34 years for women, 37 for men, millions of whom have fled across the borders to neighboring countries leaving their wives and children to survive alone.

Leila and Mickey Straus opened their beautiful home on Central Park West, New York City to the event and over ninety people were riveted by Peter's book reading and his perceptive and sometimes gut-wrenching accounts of life in today's Zimbabwe, not far back the breadbasket of Africa and the model of literacy, with a heath and education system once enviable throughout Africa. He gathered this latest information during his visit to Zimbabwe for his stunning piece published in August's Vanity Fair Magazine after he spent several months undercover at great risk to his personal safety. Journalists report from there at their peril.

The evening included several silent auction items including a fabulous safari, a large-scale wildlife canvas, and a series of stunning gift baskets made up of the the papercraft products produced by the artisans of Eco Africa crafting communities. The funds raised will be used to maintain the artisans and their families with food supplies and other essentials to keep them healthy and motivated and able to continue to be economically empowered through the crafting skills they love.

For a slide show of photos from the event and the previous four summer fundraisers check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecoafricasocialventures/show/

To help spread the word about Eco Africa Social Venture's activities to help women in Zimbabwe and what is happening in that beleaguered land please pass on this URL to your friends, colleagues and anyone you feel would be interested.

To hold a Home Party or Church/Synagogue/Office/School Sales Event to offer the work of the artisans to the public and your friends, to support the women artisan communities in Zimbabwe, please contact Isaac at Helping Hands For Africa. isaac@helpinghandsforafrica.com Telephone: 973 648 0777

LAST WEDNESDAYS FUNDRAISER FOR ZIMBABWE featuring PETER GODWIN

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 13:42:00 +0000

Our much anticipated fundraiser for Zimbabwe took place at the home of our friend and supporter Leila Straus. It was a fabulous evening and there were many highlights. As the photos are still being processed I am writing this short piece as a run up to my main blog which will have a minute by minute description of the proceeding and links to Flikr with a host of great images.

HALLOWEEN ELECTION RELIEF IN NEW YORK CITY

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:23:00 +0000

As a little light relief from the 24/7 election media bombardment, New Yorkers came out in a night of heightened silliness this year. Having been in Zimbabwe on Halloween for the past three years I set forth last evening sporting a funny hat, a point-&- shoot camera and a press pass - to join the parade. And what did I find? People were out in their hundreds of thousands, milling through the streets in the bizaarest of costumes, some stunningly beautiful, some hilariously political and some simply weird. It all looked so out of place but somehow appropriate that people should let go of their dignities and self importance for one night of laughter and exuberance. These were normally sane serious people, grown adults suddenly transformed into mad, wild, funny, abandoned individuals outdoing each other in demented behavior, living out their inner child.

They say New Yorkers are competitive but for a change, on Halloween, this often unattractive personality trait offers for the onlookers a plethora of riches. This was one such night. People were divided into two groups. Those in fancy dress, and those with cameras. Those posing and those clicking. The thing I loved was that the mean streets were transformed into an extraordinary fantasy environment created entirely by humanity shedding its serious side and embarking on an escape into sheer uninhibited madness for one uproarious night of the year.

I found myself in some outlandish situations. The subway for example, is normally a place where people keep to themselves and look down at their newspapers or gaze into space - self-involved with their iPods and busy creating for themselves serious future hearing-loss. Tonight the subways were infested with strange sites. I found myself pressed up close and personal to a man painted blood red and stark naked except for a codpiece, a tail and horns, trying to look nonchalant by reading a book, maybe hoping no one would notice him??? There was a couple loudly doing a fair impression of Sarah Palin and John McCain earnestly being interviewed by someone doing a fair impression of Larry King. They were drawing a big crowd of shutterbugs on the cramped environment of the platform filled to the maximum with packed jostlers teetering alarmingly close to the edge and certain death. Nervous NYPD officers looked on hoping not-on-their-watch.

The weather was almost balmy, which was good for the many nearly naked but painted individuals who were doing what should be considered normal types of activities such as sitting at tables at outdoor cafes ordering food, The waiters in serious clothes seemed completely oblivious to the incongruousness of the situation and were creatively reciting the menus as usual as if nothing was wrong or different to any other night of the year.

After the relentless press bombardment of the last days of election fever, the lunacy was a welcome relief.

Now back to the seriousness of event preparations for our Peter Godwin Book-signing fundraiser on the 12th November.

Fab event on 12th November

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:14:00 +0000

A FUN EVENT FOR A SERIOUS CAUSE is coming up on 12th November on Central Park West in NYC to raise money to provide food for crafting artisans (mainly women and children) in Zimbabwe. Leila Straus has chosen Eco Africa Social Ventures as her holiday season cause.

Her home will be open for New Yorkers who are keen to make a difference in the lives of hundreds of crafting women in Zimbabwe. The unimaginable 150 million per cent inflation rate has caused food to disappear completely from the shelves of shops in the areas where poor people live and fuel prices have made travel to shops that cater to the rich elite an impossible dream.

Even if the women could be magically transported to a well stocked supermarket, they would find a 2 liter bottle of cooking oil costs $66.00 USD. These almost obscenely overstocked stores are patronized by people who have access to foreign currency only. The vast majority of the population are scrabbling to survive.

Funds raised at this event will be used to purchase food supplies by sending a truck across the borders to neighboring countries where food is plentiful and relatively inexpensive. The food will be distributed to the women crafting artisans who come to the campus each day and are part of the craft training programs that have empowered them with the income-producing skills of Paper-making and Paper-crafting.

There are great opportunities to bid at silent auctions featuring a fabulous ten day African safari, a magnificent large format art image of Wildlife by a famous photographer, and huge gift baskets of fab Papercraft products lovingly crafted by the women artisans in Zimbabwe.

RSVP to janice@ecoafricasocialventures.org

Surviving A Zimbabwe Fuel Crisis (while keeping your sense of humor)

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:02:00 +0000

Hi everyone

If you have ever wondered what it must be like living in a world without fuel, for those in my circle living in the normal world I thought that a slice of life from fuel-challenged Zimbabwe might be of interest.

With fuel and how to obtain it dominating one’s every move in Zimbabwe, you find yourself in some unexpected situations. You have to see the funny side.

Take yesterday - Friday for example.

We left our mission campus at 2.30 pm. The heat was getting to me and by accident I had left my Zimbabwe Personal Air-Conditioning System at home (T-shirt soaked in cold water and worn till it dries - then soaked again - very effective if you can handle the incredulous looks from all around)

My driver Ivan looks twelve but is actually married with two children. He has a high voice and speaks in both English and Shona at two hundred words a minute. He also has a joyful and optimistic personality. The intention is to go home to Harare and do food shopping on the way. Now we remember the fuel gauge is nearly on empty - not enough to get home let alone last me the weekend.

Twenty two cel-phone redials later we reach our operations director. We are happy - that's quite quick for the normal Zimbabwe network overload. He is en route half way between our paper making operation and the mission. He gives us instructions for a rendezvous at a certain nearby service station. We head up the highway towards Chitungwiza, the satellite town near where our paper-craft workshops are located.

These days all the regular BP’s and TOTAL’s etc., service stations are closed and dead. When I was here last there were two-mile lines of vehicles winding from the ones that rumour had it were expecting a tanker. Now, unless you know someone, or something, or have access to scarce foreign currency, there is no fuel available al all. What continually astounds me is that there are so many vehicle owners who must know someone or something because there are STILL traffic jams at rush hour in spite of sky high black market prices. Unfathomable!

The deadly mix of fuel illegally stored in homes-and power cuts, has resulted in the sharp rise of houses complete with occupants exploding in deadly conflagrations as sparks from cooking fires ignite petrol fumes. Anyway on with the story....

We turn off the highway into a road on the edge of Chitungwiza. It is lined with several dead service stations. Now-days if one happens to pull up near one, a flock of black-marketeers descend on one's car all jostling for business. When a suitable price is agreed the approved vendor slips into the back seat and directs one to a less conspicuous location where plastic canisters appear - fuel is furtively siphoned - money changes hands and off one goes for another couple of hundred kilometers.

The rendezvous is to be at a new service station and Ivan does not know the location so on this occasion we stop only to ask directions. We are descended upon by the flock, directions are given, and disappointed at the lost opportunity, they turn away.

We head off into a small side road leading directly into the bowels of Chitungwiza.

Several enquiries later we pull over to the side of a narrow street. On the one side is a bar that is blaring out deafening pop music, and on the other is an unmarked high wall with a gap. The rear end of a giant fuel tanker is facing us through the gap. Heaven alone knows how it got in through the gap from the narrow street. Among the crowd outside, with relief I spot our ops director, a 25 year old pillar of calm among the chaos, holding on to his battered laptop bag. (The bag - not the laptop, is battered, for disguise). He jostles over to us. "Ten minutes", he reports, "When the tanker has offloaded"

Forty-five minutes later the Zimbabwe ten minutes is up and I am now frying under the pitiless sun. Natural instincts to keep all windows and doors closed and locked under such circumstances are abandoned and they are all flung wide open, The crowds are genial. Ivan and our ops director are happily chatting nearby with various friends and acquaintances. I am now beyond nervous and into amiable acceptance, responding cheerfully to various Hallo-how-are-you’s from passing strangers.

Suddenly the tanker moves forward and out through another gap further along in the wall. Ivan leaps into the car. We slip into a compound where a strangely out of place, shiny new fuel pump is waiting to fill us up with petrol, all just previously arranged by our ops director together with the owner. He explains that this is a recently opened legal service station (go figure – don’t ask), with which he is now acquainted for future transactions.

The pump attendant, an attractive girl, fills our tank to the brim for the first time since I arrived in Harare. Ivan is totally exultant, as if he has just eaten his first proper meal in weeks. "We can go anywhere," he screams joyfully. “We can drive to Bulawayo, or South Africa”!

I bring him down to earth saying all I want is enough fuel to go food shopping over the weekend. Shopping means driving from supermarket to supermarket in various suburbs seeking scarce necessities. One advantage for me of the latest food shortages is involuntary weight loss. No bread, no ice cream, no chocolate bars. This does not stop one from vainly scanning the empty shelves in hope.

We drive home, no longer on the smell of an oil rag wondering whether we will make it.

Another day - another tank of petrol.

Living in Zimbabwe with 20 million % inflation.

noreply@blogger.com (Eco Africa Social Ventures) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:30:00 +0000

For ordinary Zimbabweans, particularly if you are an average women living in a nice house in the suburbs of cities, life has become a nightmare.

Imagine this as your regular everyday routine, whether as a homemaker or if you are lucky enough to have a job. (90% of the population hasn't)

You awake in the morning and what is your day plan looking like? For Zimbabwean middle class women the first thing on their minds is the evening meal for the family, or how to have one.

The plan, after dropping the kids off at school, is to pop into the bank to withdraw money to buy food for tonight. Simple? Not in Zimbabwe right now. First, your plan must include visits to all five banks where you have set up accounts recently. The reason for this is that banks are only permitted to hand out a maximum of the equivalent of $0.50 cents (USD) of ones own money per day. That's not enough for the evening meal for five in the family. Off you go to the first bank.

What's that, a line around the block?

You join the line and two hours later you leave clutching your 15 billion Zim dollars in crisp 500 million dollar notes, then it's off to the next bank, to be repeated 4 times at four different banks.

By the time you get to a supermarket, after finding one that does not have totally empty shelves, the value of your money has dropped considerably. Aha! You spot a packet marked Economy Meat, just enough for a beef stew. You pick it up to check the price.

Wow....the price!!! That will be $3,425,000,000,000.00, (or 3 trillion, 425 billion dollars). The equivalent of $130.00 USD. If you stay in the store for another hour the price will have risen dramatically.

You turn and leave. Sigh.. another evening of stewed veggies bought on a street corner from a vendor which takes up the entire six hours worth of money collected from lining up at banks all day. This is but one of the ways where life has become impossible for the average person to live normally under 20 million percent inflation.

And this is for the middle class educated person. Imagine what it must be like for a poor person living in the countryside, dealing daily with currency in the trillions and losing its value by the hour.

By the way, did I mention the fact that the balance of your salary left over in your account will probably be worthless in a month? In fact you will be probably in overdraft through the bank charges.

Check out our website for more information on what EASV is doing in Zimbabwe to give hope to women to enable them to take care of their families, and how you too can help: http://www.ecoafricasocialventures.org