impacting communities

Dear friends,

I have been part of exciting meetings in Harare with organizations working in Early Childhood and Development as well as humanitarian aid organizations. Since last Thursday we have been trying to coordinate each other to see how we can best respond to the impending food crisis. Zimbabwe did not have a good farming season due to a variety of factors topmost being inadequate preparations and poor knowledge on the changing climate. I am pleased that though funding options for our work is limited, there is a lot of commitment by small organizations to help poor families who face starvation because of the crisis. We are planning as Nhaka Foundation to provide additional feeding to the under 5s through the preschool centers in our area of operation.

In the conversations I have been involved in I have been disheartened but not surprised that the bigger aid organizations operating in this country (sorry, no names to be mentioned) are not reaching out to the really vulnerable people on the ground because of their operational policies, staff compliments, how they get caught up in politics etc, among a host of other issues. These are things that I have always known especially since I used to work for a big aid agency myself. General consensus that has come out in my interactions with fellow colleagues in development buttresses my view that small organizations are in the lead and indeed are the champions in improving the welfare, livelihood and general living conditions of the poor and vulnerable in society. These small organizations are the ones knocking on doors in high density suburbs, in remote villages and tending to the daily issues affecting communities. A case in point, as I wondered aloud to my colleagues one afternoon is that I wonder, how many of these "big" aid organizations receive people from the villages on foot, with their children on their backs or in tow behind them, or receive daily calls on their mobile phones from headmasters in the villages talking about the list of children being sent home because of non payment of a $5 sports affiliation fee? how many of these organizations are welcoming enough and responding to these desperate situations?

Strange enough though, these organizations have funding to pay for high security walls and security guards to not only guard their premises and keep staff "safe" but literally the very same guards chase away the guardians and children who approach their offices for assistance! I am not in any measure trying to start a "war" here but maybe opening up room for discussion on how effectively a dollar is being used by these organizations. I know this does not make me friends in the big organizations operating in this country but let the truth be told. I rest my case.

I am excited to be part of a group of organizations here in Zimbabwe championing for the establishment of a network of small grassroots organizations working in early childhood development. Nhaka Foundation is the lead agency in this effort and we will be updating you, Friends of Nhaka on the progress the consortium makes.

Enjoy the reading and look forward to your feedback.

There is really nothing more to say except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.
-Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye


Patrick Makokoro


patrick@nhakafoundation.org