By Eugenia Masimba Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, 2018 – 19 Diploma course
I am Eugenia Masimba, a mother of two and a born and bred Catholic. I work for the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJPZ) in Gweru Diocese Zimbabwe. Our organisation is mandated by the Zimbabwe Bishops Conference to monitor incidences of injustices in our Diocese as part of the Catholic Church’s evangelisation mission. Our vision is to see to it that people live in a peaceful, democratic and God fearing just nation. I am employed by CCJPZ as a Finance & Administration Officer / Acting Co-ordinator and have been with the organisation for the past 10 years.
The TFT Diploma has brought complete turn-around both in my work and home life. I decided to enrol to it after completing a certificate in Training for Transformation in 2016 in Zimbabwe. The Diploma training gave me a solid foundation on aspects of Development and working in the community. It transformed my life and the lives of others, taught me to think critically and enabled me to ask the Why Questions. Currently I am acting Coordinator of all Programs in the Diocese of Gweru. Because of TFT, I am now able to write proposals for the organisation, to look for funding, to monitor injustices and human rights abuses in our Diocese. I have written five funding proposals and three have been a success of which the main highlight was the EU proposal. I was chosen to be part of the technical team that wrote the proposal to EU representing all the churches in Zimbabwe, ZHOCD, and was a success. I will forever be grateful to the Directors and TFT team and my organisation for allowing me to do such an important course. Before the Diploma I was shy and could not speak or stand in front of the public but, because of TFT, I can now facilitate using the participatory methods.
My communication and writing skills have greatly improved thanks to TFT with the journals that we used to write every morning during the Diploma.
REGISTERING A TRUST
I have registered an organisation called International Women Development Trust to cater for disadvantaged women and the girl child. The Trust will help these women with income generating projects and improving their livelihoods not only for Zimbabwean women but for all women across the world. I have since acquired land and am now looking for funding to start the organisation. TFT has made me realize that Development Work is my life and am born to help the disadvantaged and the marginalized.
ZIMBABWEAN CONSTITUTION
CCJPZ workers were all trained in the TFT Certificate course in Zimbabwe, in 2016. I was among the workers who were first trained at Certificate Level. At CCJP throughout Zimbabwe we are all now facilitating using the TFT approach and it has made a great impact to the communities that we serve and the country at large. In 2018 CCJPZ managed to do listening surveys and wrote bi-monthly reports. We informed the National Office that people in the communities cannot understand the constitution that was written in English. CCJPZ in collaboration with the ministry of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs rewrote the Constitution in 16 local languages spoken in Zimbabwe and it was distributed to most communities and the exercise is still ongoing. The ordinary person now in the remote areas of Zimbabwe is able to read the constitution and to help them exercise their human rights. TFT – A LUTA CONTINUA.
