Lazarus Sauti

Lazarus Sauti The government of Japan is committed to work with tourism authorities in Zimbabwe to fortify goodwill which already exist in the tourism sector. This pledge emerged from across-the-board dialogue between Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Tourism, Anastancia Ndhlovu, and Yasuto Kawarabayashi, Vice Commissioner of the Japan Tourism Agency at the Tokyo headquarters of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, on Friday 23 September. “The Japanese tourism authorities, working in collaboration with the Japan’s International Cooperation Agency (JICA), are interested in expanding their support for our community-based tourism projects. “They fully appreciate the importance of the programme, as well as the fact that communities, especially in rural areas, need to derive direct benefit from tourist activities and attractions which are located within their midst,” Ndhlovu said. She added that JICA is already working with the country in su...

Lazarus Sauti In this global world, technology has taken the place of human beings. Children, for example, are more attached to their gadgets than perhaps with their parents. Because of this, t echnology is fast becoming a curse in disguise, as it is exposing these children to pornography. Most children are accessing pornography via mobile devices such as smart phones, and t his is worrisome considering the number of individuals who have cell phone services in Zimbabwe. At national level, the proportion of individuals aged 3 years and above who used a mobile cellular telephone in the last three months was about 68 percent, according to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Household Survey, 2014, by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat). The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MISC) 2014 also asserts that 85.2 percent of young women aged 14-24 years and 85.6 percent of young men aged 15-24 years used mobile or non-mobile phones during the la...

Lazarus Sauti Until last year, the primary crop in villages within and across Wedza District in the province of Mashonaland East was maize. But now, farmers, especially women in the district, grow other crops such as potatoes, onions, beans, carrots and tomatoes thanks to nutritious gardens introduced and supported by Women and Land in Zimbabwe. “Most people used to grow only maize, but we are now producing nutritious crops like potatoes, beans and tomatoes thanks to nutritious gardens introduced by Women and Land in Zimbabwe,” says Chipo Manyere (47) from Pfumbi village.   She adds that the organisation supported the establishment of a 2,5 hectare Ruzave gardening project, which consists of 40 members 37 of whom are females whilst three are males, after realising that the nutritional status of children under five years of age was extremely poor due to biting poverty and food insecurity. True to her assertions, one in every three children in Wedza and other par...

Lazarus Sauti Women in Wedza District, Mashonaland East Province of Zimbabwe have welcomed gardening projects established in some parts of the area to fight hunger and lift families from the jaws of poverty. The gardening projects come at a time when Zimbabwe and other countries in southern Africa are grappling food challenges caused by El Nino-induced drought. The El Nino-induced drought, notes the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), has devastated crops as well as livestock, dried up sources of livelihoods, and left an estimated four million people in need of assistance. As a result, most villagers in Zimbabwe are depending on food handouts from the government and non-governmental organisations. Conversely, to counter drought and other problems in Wedza, Women and Land in Zimbabwe, working with Rural Women’s Assembly in Zimbabwe, empowered women to establish nutritious gardening projects. One such initiative to enable villagers to be self-reliant as well...