ROHR Zimbabwe Scotland Branch zoom meeting Saturday 12th September 2020 Report

13^th September 2020

On Saturday the 12^th September 2020, the Scotland Branch of the UK Chapter of Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe held a meeting via zoom. Vongayi Mufara (Organising Secretary) chaired the meeting.

Register of attendance
Alvina Chibhamu, Lindah Chenyama, Olivia Chamboko, Thenjiwe Ndlovu, Masciline Mzondiwa, Harriet Ndlovu, Vongayi Mufara. Guests from other branches were; Mercy Nyamuka (London) for the first half of the meeting and Silvanos Mudzvova (Manchester), Nigel Mbohwa (Birmingham) who both joined in the second half of the meeting.

Agenda
1. Confirmation and Adoption of minutes of last meeting
2. Launch Prison Jersey Campaign
3. Donations collections for Epworth Kitchen
4. Treasury Report
5.  #ZimbabweanLivesMatter Demonstration (Edinburgh)
6.  Updates on membership yearly subscriptions
7. Housekeeping eg Roles and responsibilities of posts
8. Any other business

Vongayi Mufara, the meeting chair, opened the meeting at 1400hrs and started by welcoming and introductions. She acknowledged the visiting members from other branches who also introduced themselves and their respective branches. Olivia Chamboko mentioned the passing on of one of our member’s aunt in Zimbabwe and all present paid their condolences.

1. Minutes Approval
– Alvina Chibhamu called for seconding of last month’s minutes as a true record.
– The minutes of the previous meeting were unanimously approved as distributed.

2.  Launch Prison Jersey Campaign

-  Olivia Chamboko opened by mentioning the incredible cases of citizens who are being unlawfully incarcerated by the Zanu-PF government  and cited Tawanda Muchehiwa, for one. With that said, she suggested a campaign with red and white prison jerseys against abductions and incarceration of human rights activists/citizens who speak against the government on corruption and bad governance.

-  Alvina Chibhamu seconded the idea and asked suggestions from the group with regards to the method or delivery of the campaign.

-  Masciline Mzondiwa suggested we do a campaign where we all say a few lines in a video but Alvina pointed out limitations with funds and suggested we stick with the free route of taking our own pictures for now if we can help it, as we had to pay an editor for our #StopViolenceAgainstWomen campaign, using up all the subscription money we had by then.

-  Lindah Chenyama suggested the messages be moderated by one person to avoid duplication of mentions or messages.

-  Thenjiwe Ndlovu suggested we zoom in and focus on people who have actually been incarcerated or are still in jail to really represent and highlight the prison jersey theme.

After deliberations from the group, it was decided that;

-  Each member would purchase a prison jersey, write their induvial message on a placard, and then take a picture.

-   All pictures would be collated to make a video for easier sharing across platforms, but individual pictures can also go on the blog.

All visiting members welcome to join the campaign. Campaign can be extended to the wider ROHR community after Scotland Branch template.

-Harriet enquired as to hashtag and we thought we would deliberate on the group to save time for today. 

Actions

-  Olivia Chamboko to share the link on Amazon to purchase said jerseys for £3.99 each
-   Members to inbox their sizes and address details so that person responsible for purchasing can have those details to hand. 
-   Members to inbox individual messages to Alvina for moderation
-  Alvina Chibhamu to announce deadlines of messages as well as pictures on the Committee WhatsApp group

3. Donations collections for Epworth Kitchen

Vongayi spoke about the donation we presented to Epworth Kitchen back in July serving the Kid’s Breakfast of over 1200 children daily in Epworth. At the time, we received harrowing accounts and footage of what is happening on the ground and it was so heart-breaking we resolved to keep fundraising for them. We have since been following Caroline Bushu& Sandra Chikwama (co-founders of the Kid’s Breakfast) on social media and as such, became aware that they are nearly running empty. We called for an account of what has been raised so far so that we can make another donation.

4. Treasury Report

Harriet Ndlovu reported on what we have in our kitty for subscriptions and fundraising. Current fundraising is as follows:
-  Alvina Chibhamu-£100 + £30 (Proceeds of Flag sales at #31July2020 demonstration-Glasgow),
-  Harriet Ndlovu-£20 

5. #ZimbabweanLivesMatter Demo (Edinburgh 5^th September 2020)

It was attended by Alvina Chibhamu, Harriet Ndlovu, Vongayi Mufara, Edward Rhappozzoh, Paul Westwood and Brenda Westwood

Alvina Chibhamu gave a report on what happened at the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter demonstration in Edinburgh. The attendance was really good, and we had a ROHR group photo at some point as there were also non-ROHR members on the day. Alvina Chibhamu and Vongayi Mufara addressed the crowd on the day. The event was also shared live on Facebook on the day and videos of speakers were shared on YouTube.

We also took the opportunity to fundraise at the event and raised the following;-

·         Linda Chenyama £10 from Peanuts sales (#ZimbabweanLivesMatter demonstration-Edinburgh)

·         Alvina Chibhamu £40 from Zimbabwe Flag sales (#ZimbabweanLivesMatter demonstration-Edinburgh)

We got £200 to date from our fundraising efforts. Harriet asked how much we ended up donating last time we donated. It was about £150, so it was decided £200 is a decent amount to send over to the kitchen. Alvina suggested we put a call out on the ROHR business and community groups to top up what we have raised.

6. Updates on membership yearly subscriptions

Olivia Chamboko explained the membership process and reminded all members to sort out their annual membership with ROHR Zimbabwe. Vongayi Mufara encouraged all members to take ownership of updating themselves as each member is likely more aware of when exactly they paid last year. Olivia will reach out to the ROHR executive to get each member’s validity details and dates.

7. Housekeeping (Roles and responsibilities of posts)
-  Alvina Chibhamu addressed the meeting and urged every member of the Scotland Committee to revisit their roles and responsibilities as contained in a  document each received from  the executive  upon assuming office. She also advised them to reach out to their corresponding portfolios either in another ROHR branch or the Executive Committee of the UK Chapter to get ideas of how to be more effective in their roles.

-  Alvina pointed out how the Chairperson has removed non active members from the Scotland branch WhatsApp group. She reminded everyone of the constitution which states that non-attendance for 3 consecutive months will warrant being struck out.

-  Alvina urged all members to be proactive and come up with campaign ideas as there are a lot of things going on in Zimbabwe that we can tackle.

-  Olivia reiterated that all members should acknowledge messages on the WhatsApp group. This is mostly how we determine which contacts to put on the flier so that anyone wanting more information about the meeting can get confident answers to their questions.

-  Vongayi also commented that we all make ROHR Scotland branch - not to let 2 or 3 members carry the branch and to help each other out if some of us are struggling in our roles.

-Thenjiwe Ndlovu pointed out what her expectations of her role were when she was appointed and that she needs a lot of help within her role. Most members rose to offer assistance with some of her challenges and this will go on behind the scenes.

8. Any Other Business

Vongayi Mufara reminded members of the Bootcamp she and Alvina attended back in February 2020  which, among other things taught them how to become more effective campaigners. This was organised by Tripod. Following that training, Tripod offered media and Video editing training which was carried out over 2 zoom sessions. Attendees were; Masciline Mzondiwa, Alvina Chibhamu, Vongayi Mufara, Lindah Chenyama and Harriet Ndlovu. Vongayi announced the exciting news that Tripod will release a small fund for our branch to support us implement the training they have been giving us. All of us to come up with ideas on how to spend the funds as there is also accountability needed by Tripod.
Masciline Mzondiwa enquired about the ROHR t-shorts as discussed at the last meeting. We will make a follow up on that.
Thenjiwe enquired about the letter to the first lady of Zimbabwe as discussed last month as she has collected a lot of information we can use. To discuss with Alvina which ideas to ply from her research. Everyone was encouraged to contribute at least a paragraph so that we can collate all ideas for the letter. 
Mr Silvanos Mudzvova, among other things, mentioned that he was happy to attend and observe. He also commended us with the work we are doing as a branch.
Vongayi Mufara, meeting chair, announced the date of the next branch meeting as Saturday 10^th October 2020.

All agenda items and any other business having been exhausted, Vongayi Mufara thanked everyone for attending and declared the meeting closed at 1530hrs

To view pictures taken at the event, follow the link below.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rohr_zimbabwe__manchester/albums/72157715946239892

By: Information & Publicity Department