12th
October 2020
On
Sunday 11th October 2020, a meeting of the Chairpersons and
Secretaries of ROHR Zimbabwe’s UK Chapter’s structures was held via Zoom. The
meeting was chaired by National Chairperson, Nicolate Gwati.
Register
of Attendance
Olivia
Chamboko, Alvina Chibhamu, Nicolate Gwati, Nomagugu Sibanda, Delina Mutyambizi,
Billie Nedie
No apologies were received from non-attending members.
Agenda
1.
Non-attendance/participation at Branch level
2.
Problems within ROHR
3.
Solution
3.
AOB
Meeting
started at 17:00hrs
Nikki asked the chairs to suggest what to do for
non-attending members
Scotland Branch
· Olivia Chamboko cited problems with members not
doing their duties, excuses being no experience sometimes, or short notice. She
noted that some people seem to just want to collect information without participating
and it is weighing heavily on the few members that had to carry the burden of
making things work. She had raised the matter with the Board of Trustees and
had been advised to remove any non-committed member from the Branch Committee
provided she followed due process and that the Branch Executive Committee has
passed a resolution to remove such members. Olivia stated that the Scotland
Branch Executive Committee had held a meeting yesterday, 10th October
2020 and had resolved, among other things, to give non-committed members a
month’s notice to either pull up their
socks or be risk being stripped of their portfolios.
· Alvina Chibhamu stated that they had raised this
matter recurrently and that they had now reached the end of their tethers, hence
the notice to non-committed members. Only a few people seemed to toil for the
branch. The others seemed content with just piggybacking on the few despite
everyone knowing what their role entails. Even when they have been fed with
ideas, deadlines are still missed and they have to be chased up.
What has been working?
·
Alvina, Vongayi and Olivia are doing all the work
and carrying the branch and this has become too taxing.
North Branch
Nicolate Gwati cited non activity from the North
Branch for a while. Karen responded by saying they have revamped the committee
but still face the same problems as before where only a handful of people do
all the work. This is hugely discouraging as usually one person ends up taking
up multiple roles to make the branch work.
There was need to address this as a (new)
committee, but even when the meeting was called to try and re-strategize-only
three people attended.
Midlands Branch
Nicolate also stated that members are also not
active. Only the same three people in
the Branch Executive Committee tend to participate
Nomagugu Sibanda also noted that not many people seem
committed. Some give the excuse of
having work commitments, others have given the pandemic as an excuse, some are
experiencing digital poverty and cannot participate on zoom calls.
Recommendations sought from Board members with all their vast experience
as the current situation is non-sustainable.
· Delina commented this has been a long-standing
attitude since she came on board in 2009. Sadly, the commitment we rely on is
from a handful of willing members. This attitude extends to the wider Zimbabwe
populace, Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono for instance complained that people literally
wage a war, commenting only on social media about issues but not acted on the
information.
· Mr Nedie pointed out that turnout was high and huge
when ROHR started as most people did not have documentation. However, the ‘2020
challenge’, stemmed from a “forensic interpretation” of the future of ROHR he
did in 2009,where membership was predicted to dwindle and then revamped, which
is where we are now.
·
Mr Nedie commended the Scotland branch for the work
it is doing, together with other members who are still focused.
Challenges facing ROHR
We are perceived as an Asylum-seeking
organisation and as such we struggle to attract membership from people with
some form of right to remain.
§ We need to address attitudinal challenges. We could start by engaging
all Zimbabweans, especially old members, including British citizens as well as
those without status. Mr Nedie bemoaned the apathy in the Zimbabwean diaspora
in general when it came to standing up for human rights. He said that we need
to take a leaf from west Africans who always unite for a common cause.
§ On that note, Nikki cited the #EndSARSmovement in Nigeria where its
government is buckling due to mounted pressure from the whole country, they
managed to rope in the international community through social media.
§ The Covid-19 pandemic issue has taken us backwards as there is no face
to face contact. In some branches, members may have been demotivated by not
seeing ROHR longstanding members, mostly board members coming to in support their
branch meetings. Current restrictions have meant the non-appearance of familiar
faces/ ROHR members in these branches.
Proposed way forward
§ We need ROHR foot soldiers on the ground in Zimbabwe-wearing ROHR
t-shirts, being seen on television, radio, and social media to put ROHR on the
map
§ Zimbabweans are not united, we need to change that narrative and have
every member change the way we are seen in their own circles, in and outside of
ROHR.
§ Delina commended Scotland and Midlands branches for their contributions
towards the visibility of ROHR as a human rights organisation. Scotland Branch’s
fundraising efforts in support of the Epworth kitchen in Zimbabwe through
reaching out to the communities outside of Zimbabweans to solicit funds is
commendable. We need to be aware of what
is happening around and continue to support initiatives that foster a change in
attitude towards human rights and welfare issues of the Zimbabwean populace
thereby enhancing the image of ROHR Zimbabwe as a human rights organization.
§ Alvina added that the Scotland Branch discussed Black History Month, in
particular, the relevance of countless unsung heroes in Zimbabwe. She also
suggested we market ROHR Zimbabwe beyond Zimbabwean circles and hope to collaborate
with like-minded international human rights organizations.
§ Alvina suggested to take advantage of the pandemic situation and hold a
National zoom meeting
§ Some members give the excuse of lack of training. Mr Nedie offered to
mentor anyone who felt they needed help in performing their role.
§ Nicolate said we need to find a way of speaking to members. Take it to
task to start calling members to try and re-engage them and map ways forward.
Survey underway from the Executive Committee to try and bring people back to
the fold from all the issues being raised by members
§ Delina spoke on the area of educating members as some do not understand
their rights etc. Campaigns such as #MeetYourMP helped raise awareness. When
approached, MPs are usually keen to know learn more about the human rights
situation in Zimbabwe and tend to be very cooperative. A good example is when
Alvina’s MP came to a Scotland Branch meeting to discuss the situation in
Zimbabwe. This followed the meeting Alvina had with the MP. We need to keep on
knocking on doors and keep making noise as ROHR. We should be nonpartisan so
that we are in good position to challenge any office if they are in breach of
human rights.
§ Mr Nedie suggested organising capacity building- education exercise
about what it means to be a Human Rights Activists and all the questions
surrounding, retraining of members, motivation, and other workshops for members.
(Olivia asked if we could have the trainings on meetings)
AOB
Nicolate announced we will reconvene in 2 weeks. The
date for the next meeting was set and announced as 18thOctober 2020
With
all agenda items having been exhausted, the meeting was declared closed by
Nicolate Gwati at 1800hrs.
Alvina
Chibhamu-Secretary of UK Chapter took minutes.
To
see screenshots of the meeting please follow the link below; -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rohr_zimbabwe__manchester/albums/72157716364044822
By Information &
Publicity Department
