18th July 2020
On Saturday the 18th July 2020, the Scotland Branch of
the UK Chapter of Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe held a meeting
via zoom. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, it is still imperative that we
observe lockdown guidelines, and minimise face to face gatherings where
possible hence the “Zoom” platform. Members from other branches of the UK
Chapter were also in attendance. The meeting was chaired by the branch
Chairperson, Olivia Chamboko.
Register of Attendance
Harriet Ndlovu (Deputy Treasurer), Lindah Chenyama (Fundraiser
Committee Member),Olivia Chamboko (Branch Chairperson), Masciline Mercy
Mzondiwa (Vice Secretary), Vongayi Mufara (Organising Secretary), Alvina
Chibhamu (Secretary), Thenjiwe Ndlovu, Vengai Mutsawu (Deputy Chairperson-North
Branch, UK Chapter), Nontokozo Malaba Ncube (Committee Member- North Branch, UK
Chapter), Mavis Harrison nee Tshuma, Panyika Anselm Karimanzira (Board member
& ROHR Zimbabwe Spokesperson)
No apologies were received from members who did not
attend.
Agenda
1.
Introductions.
2.
Confirmation and adoption of minutes
of previous meeting.
3.
Discuss Campaign and Strategize.
4.
Branch
Committee Nominations/ Positions to be filled.
5.
Treasury Report.
6.
Any other
business.
The meeting commenced at 1400hrs
1. Introduction
Olivia welcomed everyone and
asked each participant to introduce themselves and their portfolios in their
respective branches. Once finished, Olivia checked on how everyone was fairing
in the lockdown and if everyone had all the support they needed. Everyone
confirmed they were generally ok but will reach out if anything flags up or if
other things were too private.
2. Confirmation and adoption of
minutes of previous meeting
Alvina was asked to report on the
minutes from our last meeting. All members agreed they were a true
record and
they were adopted as such.
3. Discuss Campaign and Strategize
Following the launch of the #StopViolenceAgainstWomen campaign which we
rolled out last month, ROHR Scotland branch decided to zoom in on the campaign
and focus on Rape and Sexual violence. It is evident there is so much ground to be covered as the
violence and violations in Zimbabwe are showing no signs of abating. During an awareness campaign of activism against gender
violence, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, Margaret Sangarwe
reported that at least 20 women were raped daily in Zimbabwe.
In light of that we came up with a “pants “campaign
and communicated it across the Scotland branch membership. We also shared it
with the wider UK ROHR Community. We felt each member would be able to execute
with ease within their spaces, especially with limited resources considering we
are still under lockdown. Each member contributed their individual message
against Rape or Sexual violence that would collectively be used in this
campaign. We gave each other timelines and by the time of the meeting, every
member of the Scotland Branch had come back to the Secretary with their
contributions, save for a few members from other branches that had asked for a
bit more time. Alvina (Secretary) has passed all the pictures to the Organising
Secretary (Vongayi) who confirmed the pictures have been passed for editing.
We announced that our sub-campaign video will roll
out tomorrow (Sunday 19th July 2020), pending availability of the Information
& Publicity department for publication across all ROHR platforms. Alvina
encouraged everyone to share the video when it comes out tomorrow as widely as
we can and reported that the numbers who watched our launch campaign video on
the 6th June 2020 keep rising as we are still sharing.
Vongayi asked the visiting members to carry the
message back to their respective branches and encourage their fellow branch
members to also take part in our campaign.
Olivia approached the males on our platform to ask
them to support us on this campaign. They both confirmed to have received the
memo from the Alvina. Mr Karimanzira gave his apologies and said he has so much
work and would not be able to meet our deadline. Vengayi also said his is in
the pipeline.
The chair
acknowledged Nontokozo who opted in and thanked her for joining this campaign.
She is to
run around to get her pictures done by end of day today.
Mr Panyika Karimanzira, who is holding the fort
for the UK Information & Publicity portfolio, asked the Secretary (Alvina)
to ensure the video is accompanied by a write-up, which will help him
immensely. If left to him to do the write-up, it may delay our release dates as
he is saddled with a lot of work now.
Alvina suggested that we could perpetuate the #StopViolenceAgainstWomen campaign by posting
the same Pants Campaign pictures along with a short statement and that can go
on the blog. Examples or ideas are on our
blog, like we did with #RestoreDontIgnore campaign.
Actions
There is no deadline for the blog participation,
each member just needs to forward their individual statements to the Secretary
before sending for Publicity as and when they have done them.
4. Branch
Committee Nominations/ Positions to be filled
Olivia
announced the positions that are yet to be filled and put them out to our
latest member of the branch- Thenjiwe Ndlovu. Olivia explained the importance
of each of the vacant positions and highlighted the most important being the Information & Publicity Secretary. Thenjiwe
volunteered for the role and all present witnessed and backed these nominations
and the position was filled. Thenjiwe expressed that as the newest member, she
would need help and was reassured that we will all work together to ensure she
feels supported in the role until she is well and truly confident.
5. Treasury
Report
Harriet Ndlovu, on behalf of the
treasury, encouraged all members to make their monthly subscriptions. She
reported how much money we have in our coffers, including a further £70 that
has been raised so far by herself(£20) and Alvina(£50) towards our last month’s
project- supporting the Kids Breakfast in Epworth in what we hope will be an
ongoing venture for the foreseeable future.
Vengayi
Mutsawu asked when the deadlines for our next contributions would be for this and
Vongayi confirmed we are still fundraising and have no specific date in mind so
far. We will send when we have collected a decent figure towards the Kitchen.
6. Any
other business
Olivia encouraged everyone to
take it in turns to chair the meetings so that we can all learn and be able to
help each other out if any one of us is in indisposed. Several members have
expressed they would find it hard to do so but we have reiterated that we all started
somewhere, we will support each other where necessary. On that note, Thenjiwe Ndlovu
volunteered to chair the next meeting.
Alvina
asked Mr Karimanzira to explain the differences between subscriptions and
membership fees as there were a few members- old and new, who were finding the
lines very blurry. He clearly explained the importance of keeping one’s
subscription up to date as it is proactively managed, including 3 signatories
for anything subscription related to make sure we run a watertight and
transparent process.
Mavis
mentioned how new members like herself can easily lose track of their
subscriptions as there is so much going on. Mr Karimanzira responded by saying
that himself and Mr Mapfumo have a record of each member and they will send
each member their dates so that they can keep track of it themselves.
Pictures
were being taken throughout the course of the meeting.
Olivia announced the date of
next meeting to be the 15th August 2020
Having exhausted all agenda
items and AOB, Olivia declared the meeting closed at the end of the 40minutes
on zoom at 14:40 hrs.
To view pictures taken at the event visit;-
By: Information &
Publicity Department
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