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Latest stories from the field
January 5th, 2009, Veron Janssen
December 22nd, 2008, Clementine Noblecourt
December 18th, 2008, Ousmane
Zimbabwe, starving... for democracy
Friday, 17 Oct 2008
During the last two days, I’ve faced quite a learning experience… my first actual contact with the field took place in Zimbabwe where North Star Foundation is planning to set up a wellness center at the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe, in Beitbridge. We went up there to check out some spots where the center could potentially be established. It sounded like an easy task which ended up being a very long and shocking process…
On Tuesday afternoon, Ian and I picked up Clement Mwale at the airport. Clement is from Zambia and has been hired to take care of the establishment of two wellness centers in Zambia and in Beitbridge, Zimbabwe. Clement has a lot of experience in this field and works for the Zambian ministry of health. He has a medicine background specialized in skin diseases related to AIDS.
We were now ready to hit the road direction Musina, a six hours drive to reach the Zimbabwean border. Our mission is to check potential spots to establish the NSF center, looking at strategic locations where the truckers would feel comfortable to come around.
We arrived at our lodge late in the evening, lost in the middle of a Game park, surrounded by electric fences; I wouldn’t really feel comfortable if a lion would be in front of my door in the morning… In the end I didn’t need to see such a big animal to be scared as a lizard saw the light in my room and rushed into it, I yelled so bad that the lady from the lodge gave me another room… Everybody around had a great laugh about this as they all told me that it’s good to have such a bug in your room because it will eat all mosquitoes! I guess it will take time for me to get used to this…
The following morning, we are planning to cross the border not too late as it is easily crowded with people and the queue can be very long. The only problem is that we need help from the World Food Programme to do this, it is always much better to have the United Nations helping out in these situations although we want to go there for the good cause…
As the people from the WFP cannot help us at that moment, Ian decides to bring us to the border post on the South African side to visit a wellness center with the same purpose as North Star i.e. targeting truckers to give them AIDS prevention education and testing. This initiative called “Trucking Wellness” is based on the same concept as NSF but all their centers are based in South Africa. Lydia and Nelson, the nurse and peer educator are quite happy as a lot of truckers show up. The problem with this place is that so many trucks have to wait to obtain clearance to cross the Zimbabwean border for days that sex workers are around to help them kill some time…
We finally manage to get in touch with Andrew, who is responsible for the WFP depot in Beitbridge, to accompany us to cross the border. On our way, we pass Musina, the very last town before passing the border. This town is crowded with shops. I wonder why so many people are there and Andrew and Ian explain that most of them are Zimbabweans who walk for kilometers to reach the border and buy some food and other essential goods as the situation there is catastrophic… as Andrew said “the situation is worse day by day… they are still talking, whatever they are talking about”, I can only agree with him…
We park the car at the first border post and here starts the very long road to Zimbabwe… we can only cross by foot as very few cars are allowed and it can take ages to get authorization to bring a vehicle into Zimbabwe so we start with a first border post, “easy”… Ian smiles and tells me to be very very patient. Indeed he was right, then comes a second check and then a third where the custom officer nicely indicates that I need a visa costing 220 Rand (about 20 EUR) and that I simply have no other way than paying as I already introduced Zimbabwe… Of course, I can only admit that my French passport could not remain unnoticed as I was basically the only non African person and I guess if they read “Union Europeenne” they are aware that I can pay…
I finally get my visa without too many troubles but to spend only a few hours on the territory it was maybe a bit much… the good side of it is that they didn’t send me back and that I could join the rest of the group and I now have a beautiful sticker in my passport!
The most striking thing is the amount of people crossing the border and going back to Zimbabwe with so many bags in their arms, on their heads… In between the two border posts, every person needs to cross the very long bridge over the Limpopo River so that no one can avoid the customs… This bridge is definitely the symbol between two worlds that are so close but yet so far away from each other for all the Zimbabweans who only want to be on the other side.
A car from the World Food Programme is waiting for us on the other side to bring us to the target locations to establish the NSF wellness center. One is next to a petrol station and boutique but let’s call it petrol station as the food store is just empty, completely empty… This spot is definitely very good as a lot of truckers are waiting for clearance on this side as well. The other spot is very close to the WFP depot but the exposure is bit less strategic. Let’s hope that we will get proper authorization to set up the center very soon! Clement and Ian are very optimistic about our trip, it’s so motivating to hear so many positive feedbacks and it gives a lot of motivation to keep on pushing to achieve what we want!
We can finally walk back to South Africa; we rush a bit not to have to queue too much as lots of buses full of people will arrive soon, many people want to cross in the evening. While waiting for final entry stamp to South Africa, I’m playing Hide and Seek with a little girl who must be around 3/4 years old, she looks so happy, I hope she will keep on smiling…
Great report
Submitted on November 13th, 2008 by Samiya Roosien (not verified)Great report
Submitted on November 13th, 2008 by Samiya Roosien (not verified)beautiful
Submitted on October 18th, 2008 by markus (not verified)Zim
Submitted on October 17th, 2008 by Peter_BlackPost new comment