My name is Fitzgerald Chipangura, a Catholic Priest from the Catholic diocese of Hwange, in Zimbabwe. I am currently stationed at St Francis of Assisi Mission, in Dete. I am also the Education Secretary for the Diocese of Hwange.
My first encounter with TFT was through the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. Some of their members were trained TFT facilitators. It then motivated me to also attend the 2024 Diploma Course at the Grail Center in Kleinmond. In my learnings at the Grail, what really struck me was to know that the education system I had followed was actually flawed and needed redemption. Freire’s method of teaching made a deep impact on me. Then, on the modules that we covered; the Political Economy of the Environment stuck with me. It was simply everyday things that we encounter that affect the core of our existence. With this module I realized that we had been conditioned to see our world as normal despite its awkward inequalities. There is a lot of systematic oppression going on in the countries and especially here in Africa. If not schooled you may easily miss it. I realized that the civilized world as we know it today has been created by a group of individuals to suit their own needs and wants.
With this knowledge I have now started thinking broadly about the challenges that our communities face. Using the TFT facilitation method, we have been discussing the challenges we face and ways of overcoming them. The communities are slowly realizing they are able to help themselves in most of the challenges they face. They have a grown sense of responsibility and ownership because of this some communities have even built their own dip tanks for their cattle and making sure they learn more ways of farming their own food. After Covid 19, people realized that growing your own food is one of the major steps towards self-reliance.
As a Catholic priest I have realized that some challenges in our communities have been perpetuated because the Church in the name of helping the poor has actually increased the dependency syndrome. Most people actually associate the Catholic Church with money and wealth. Thus, for them the Church is more like their donor organisation that pays their fees and bills. It is a place to go when you need assistance.
This has been one of the challenges I face. As a village priest it has been my duty to help people in different forums to realize that there is life in their villages and that they need to sit, think and come up with locally grown solutions. My TFT education has helped a lot in this regard. I now have more facts to help the assession that we are poor by design. There is a system that has made sure we remain poor and begging from the so-called first world countries and the elite. It is time for this to change, and it starts with me.
The political climate has not made it easy either. With the authorities having eyes and ears in the whole, asking why people are poor is then viewed as a direct challenge to the ruling elite. Thus as we find safer ways to advocate for zero tolerance on poverty, we use kid gloves to deal with the situations we encounter every day. We then use more dialogue than confrontation, even on cases where we feel confrontation would have been the best. Hopefully as I perfect my TFT methods, I will also grow the equivalent strength and bravery needed to deal with the challenges our country faces each and every day. I have the confidence that I will achieve my goal and I am not giving up. With a vast multitude of exemplary TFT facilitators and advocates I also feel I have enough support to face my challenges. The struggle continues and we are not giving up! Aluta Continua! Asante sana.
