The Girl Child Initiative
This initiative is about giving the girl child the value and dignity she needs in the society. Research has shown that 80 % of girls in rural Africa don’t have access to education, we realize the problems of the current approach to development. Existing efforts largely emanate from the top, with little impact at the grass-roots level. We as Chisuma Foundation at the grassroot level would want to make sure that we turn around the events through the various initiatives we have instored for the girl Child.
Donate to Educate the girl Child
Make a great impact by donating to educate the girl child. You may also choose to sponsor a girl of your choice and of any grade. Chisuma Primary school is an education hub for more than 400 school girls. These girls need support in terms of education materials, school fees and other consumables that make their learning process easy. The initiative is now open to boys who perform exceptionally well and these may be inducted to secondary and high schools so that their dreams may be nurtured.
Chisuma Primary School Block
It is a fact that the Chisuma Primary School is lagging behind in terms of the infrastructure to support the amazing kids that learn at the school. The Chisuma Foundation has put it on its shoulders to make sure that it mobilises resources to build another block, adding to the two that were completed in 2018. For this project, donors are welcome to contribute in cash or materials they deem necessary to aid in the success of the project.No amount is too small, anything will go a long way to make this a success.
Bringing the Community together through Sports
We have identified that communal areas’ growth is centred around the central growth point, which is dominated by beer venues and loud music. With great respect for those who engage, this seems to be the only form of entertainment that the young tend to see and endeavour to be part of when they are of mature age. This has resulted with a majority of young people in the village losing their inspirations to make something of their lives. Therefore we aim to provide some other form of entertainment that will provide meaningful and enthusing entertainment for the young and the community as a whole. We are inviting you and/or your company to join us in organising a Two-Day Sports Extravaganza at the Chisuma grounds. This will include soccer and netball for all ages.
Join Us as we use Sport as an agent of Social Change
As most of us recognize, education is the key for the world’s long term progress. However, learning should not be left only for the classroom. Currently, children and adolescents in developing countries have too much leisure time, and some don’t even attend school. Many come from broken families which makes it easy to join gangs or participate in illegal activities because of lack of direction. Children and teens that seem abandoned by the formal education systems can be sheltered from the many backdrops that are more available in their communities by the implementation of “sports for development” programs.
The Foundation needs resources to start an all year round soccer and netball league that will keep the teens busy and minimise chances of engaging in character damaging and criminal activities. Like we always say, an idle mind is a devil's playground. We seek some donations to make this come through. Donors may help with sporting merchandise like sports kits, soccer balls among other sport consumables.
Water and Sanitation
Although access to clean water and basic sanitation is considered to be a fundamental right according to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6), 2.5 billion people lack improved sanitation facilities and 784 million people still use unsafe drinking water sources globally. As a result approximately 1400 children under the age of 5 die every day from waterborne illnesses and diarrheal diseases globally.
This is very unfortunate because every minute a child is dying from a disease that can be prevented by providing proper water and sanitation facilities. The Chidobe community’s strategic vision is for every child in the Mvuthu Chiefdom to have sustainable clean water and dignified sanitation and to practice healthy hygiene behaviors by 2020. Meeting this goal will ensure children are able to realize a fundamental human right, decrease their likelihood of illness and disease and increase their ability to live full and productive lives.
Apart from poor health outcomes, consequences of inadequate WASH reverberate in every aspect of a child's life. Mahatma Gandhi once said provision of proper sanitation is better than independence, the UN Secretary- General Ban Ki- Moon said, Safe drinking water and adequate sanitation are crucial for poverty reduction, crucial for sustainable development, and crucial for achieving any and every Sustainable Development Goals. It is against this background that the Chidobe Community decided to take a leading role in the elimination of open defecation in its communities following a theme: CHIDOBE COMMUNITY ENDING OPEN DEFECATION BY 2020, LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND.
Chidobe Ward is one of the Wards in Hwange District, Matabeleland North Zimbabwe with 32% sanitation coverage meaning 68% of the ward is practicing open defecation which results in the rise of diarrheal diseases and helminthic infections. This project seeks to address the challenge of sanitation facilities through a multi sector approach leaving no one behind.
The community-led total sanitation project will improve the health and well-being of 5000 people in Chidobe Ward, Hwange District, Matabeleland North Zimbabwe by reducing the waterborne and poor sanitation related diseases. This will be achieved by increasing access to sustainable water sources and improving sanitation and hygiene practices. The percentage of the people with access to proper sanitation facilities will improve from 32% to 100% in 24 months, 80% of households will have an improved understanding of good hygiene behaviors. In addition, 100% of targeted communities will eliminate open defecation.
Work associated with this project will include: Providing appropriate sanitation facilities in households and schools Promoting elimination of open defecation in targeted communities. Empower beneficiaries to manage and sustain WASH facilities Conducting health/hygiene education as a key element to promoting health and well-being in the targeted communities. Advocating for good quality and increased quality of water through boreholes equipped with hand pumps or mechanized systems with taps. Emphasizing establishing a productive working arrangement between the communities, business community and other partners for efficient and sustainable service delivery and infrastructure management.
Sanitation Promotion
Community Led Total Sanitation: This is an integral approach to achieve and sustain community status as free of open defecation. Community Led Sanitation leads a community analysis of its sanitation profile and, its defecation practice and the consequences, leading to collective action to eliminate open defecation.In order to eliminate open defecation the project seeks to promote sanitation through the formation of sanitation clubs:
Sanitation Clubs Concept
The project will seek to form sanitation clubs in all the communities, these clubs will consist of at most 12 households per club. The club members will contribute towards the construction of uBVIPs (Upgradable Blair ventilated Improved Pit Latrine). The members contribute towards 1 bag of cement that will be used for pit lining and casting of the bottom slab, after casting and installing the vent pipe, then they use materials like grass, zinc, plastics for the super structure as they are looking for resources to build the super structure. The goal of this initiative is to ensure that in 12 months no club member is practicing open defecation and in the next 12 months they work towards building the proper super structure.
Sanitation Club Competitions
These competitions will be held on a quarterly basis as a way of motivating community members to build toilets. From a survey conducted it has been realized that the communities work well if there is something that is motivating them. This method will encourage community members to build more toilets in a short space of time using more resources than the resources that will be used to motivate them eg. If a village can have 30 sanitation clubs, it means they will be construct 90 toilets in three months with an average cost of RTGS $ 9450 and for competitions the project just puts 20% of the total cost of the toilets constructed as the price for motivating the club towards the construction of the toilets. The money that a club wins is channeled back to the construction of more toilets. The money they win is meant to help them build more toilets.
Hygiene promotion
Hygiene will be promoted through school health programs and community health club program. This will be achieved using the Participatory health and Hygiene model in the communities and Child Hygiene and Sanitation program in schools. Healthy Homes Competitions, Community and School Health Club competitions will be held biannually. This program will be coordinated by Village health Workers and School Health Coordinators.
Water sources and water quality monitoring
The project will advocate for the drilling of at least three new boreholes and rehabilitation of at least 10 of the already existing boreholes for the community during the project time line. A committee responsible for the management of water sources will be elected and trained.
Water Quality Testing
Water quality testing is very critical in the Community Led Total Sanitation program. The tests look for:
Activities
The project will work with community leadership to select the beneficial communities based on need and ability to take ownership of and sustain improvements. Selected communities will learn about their expected roles and responsibilities as well as their obligation to ensure national rules are met.
Women Empowerment program
The empowered woman is powerful beyond measure and beautiful beyond description. The Chisuma Foundation strives for a society where women are economically independent and have decision-making power. Social independence is derived from economic independence, therefore economic independence is the foundation of women's independence. Chisuma Foundationtherefore wants women entrepreneurs and low-income women laborers to be economically independent and have direct access to business markets and decent work – not just any form of employment.
Reusable Sanitary Pads Program
Spearheaded by Perpetua Rice Tshuma, from Chisuma Village, the Foundation under the women empowerment initiative are working on reusable pads sewing project. A group of 15 women from Chisuma village meet every Saturday and sew sanitary pads, we have donated some to the less privileged and we have also ventured into knitting , we have sewn some hats. The hats are being sold so that funds are generated to buy raw materials to sew sanitary pads. The project has closed the gap in the Chisuma society as women get this important asset free and are able to channel funds they were supposed to use in other areas of their livelihood. Currently the project faces the following challenges:
The material to sew the pads can only be imported from the USA (PUL and Hemp Fleece, once finished it takes about 6 months to get the material, usually acquired from Sewpportive Friends, a charity organisation in the USA.