PYD staff and community leaders pose for a picture with the winners
Friday, 22 June 2012
PYD NEWS FLASH-CHISUMBANJE
Despite the prevailing sombre atmosphere as the people of Chisumbanje are battling to adjust to the tragic loss of Noel Mundeta (Chipinge District Administrator),a provocation is brewing.
Early this morning 21/06/12 flyers have been distributed urging the residents of Chisumbanje to support the reopening of the Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant unconditionally. Not only that, a group of unidentified individuals have been visiting traditional leadership overnight threatening them with death if their subjects would dare oppose the reopening of the plant. Workers at the plant have been couched on how to speak in support of the project. As you read, those patronised employees are being carried by the company buses to the venue of the meeting in Chisumbanje. Many unknowing and uninformed members of the community have been promised heaven on earth if they are able to speak in favour of the reopening.
The meeting which is expected to be attended by Minister of Agriculture Joseph Made, Minister of Energy Elton Mangoma and other government delegation is expected start at 1000hrs at Chisumbanje primary school. The flyers are emanating from the offices of the investor. This is clearly provocative as it undermines the objective discussion that is supposed to take place at the planned meeting. We are no longer confident if the views of the community will be respected. Barely on Saturday the 16th of June 2012, had over 2 500 people in Chisumbanje clearly articulated their recorded worries against the reopening.
PYD position is clear. The people of Chipinge should be given respect and their worries attended to before the plant reopens. We demand the consideration of employment to the locals, we demand that the Investor be guided by a well published and communicated Memorandum of Understanding, We demand a clear boundary resolution between the investor and the people of Chisumbanje. All these demands should be the basis of discussion and agreements.
The problem created by the investor and partners is to abuse people who are non resident in Chisumbanje to speak. We are concerned that people who are uninformed and unpatriotic are being given space to decide on this controversy. We condemn the intimidation of traditional leadership, who are being coerced to unilaterally support oppression and displacement of their subjects.
This meeting today should have been postponed to allow the people of Chisumbanje to mourn their late D.A Noel Mundeta.People of Chipinge deserve respect.
We are sure the voice of people in Chisumbanje will prevail and be heard.
Inserted by PYD Information Department
Despite the prevailing sombre atmosphere as the people of Chisumbanje are battling to adjust to the tragic loss of Noel Mundeta (Chipinge District Administrator),a provocation is brewing.
Early this morning 21/06/12 flyers have been distributed urging the residents of Chisumbanje to support the reopening of the Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant unconditionally. Not only that, a group of unidentified individuals have been visiting traditional leadership overnight threatening them with death if their subjects would dare oppose the reopening of the plant. Workers at the plant have been couched on how to speak in support of the project. As you read, those patronised employees are being carried by the company buses to the venue of the meeting in Chisumbanje. Many unknowing and uninformed members of the community have been promised heaven on earth if they are able to speak in favour of the reopening.
The meeting which is expected to be attended by Minister of Agriculture Joseph Made, Minister of Energy Elton Mangoma and other government delegation is expected start at 1000hrs at Chisumbanje primary school. The flyers are emanating from the offices of the investor. This is clearly provocative as it undermines the objective discussion that is supposed to take place at the planned meeting. We are no longer confident if the views of the community will be respected. Barely on Saturday the 16th of June 2012, had over 2 500 people in Chisumbanje clearly articulated their recorded worries against the reopening.
PYD position is clear. The people of Chipinge should be given respect and their worries attended to before the plant reopens. We demand the consideration of employment to the locals, we demand that the Investor be guided by a well published and communicated Memorandum of Understanding, We demand a clear boundary resolution between the investor and the people of Chisumbanje. All these demands should be the basis of discussion and agreements.
The problem created by the investor and partners is to abuse people who are non resident in Chisumbanje to speak. We are concerned that people who are uninformed and unpatriotic are being given space to decide on this controversy. We condemn the intimidation of traditional leadership, who are being coerced to unilaterally support oppression and displacement of their subjects.
This meeting today should have been postponed to allow the people of Chisumbanje to mourn their late D.A Noel Mundeta.People of Chipinge deserve respect.
We are sure the voice of people in Chisumbanje will prevail and be heard.
Inserted by PYD Information Department
Statement on the commemoration for the Day of the African Child
Platform for Youth Development Trust (PYD) joins Africa and the rest of the world in commemorating the Day of the African Child. This year’s theme: The right of children with disability, the duty to protect, promote and fulfil is well meaning and fits well with the work PYD is undertaking. Children and young people all over Africa have suffered from neglect, abuse while being taken for granted mainly by governments and political leadership. The Day of the African Child provides PYD with a rare opportunity to evaluate what governments, political leadership and local communities are doing for the children and young people.
The 2012 edition of the day of the African child is yet another sad chapter as the welfare of children is still to be a top priority of many African governments. Reports of child rape, kidnapping of pupils coming from schools, child trafficking, and political violence cases have resurfaced in the press. The talks of elections as well as the inconclusive constitutional reform have all contributed to shrink the available space for the young people, while increasing their vulnerability to abuse and patronage.
It should be the duty of society to protect children with disabilities who continue to be victims of abuse. Society has shown a lack of respect for the children with disabilities. African governments and civic groups should work hard to promote the rights of disabled children as society looks failing to accept as equal members.
Like every other child, disabled children have ambitions and goals in life. It is our utmost desire to see society working hard to ensure that everyone helps to fulfil the ambitions of the disabled. Disability is not inability and it should be everyone’s challenge to see to it that those disabled members of society are integrated in all initiatives as this goes a long way in motivating them to work for the fulfilment of their visions and goals.
The constitutional reform process which was expected to be the life blood of youth empowerment is proving to be a dead end. The Copac team has literally failed to produce an agreed draft document, while important national issues are getting PARKED. In addition to having excluded the young people in the committee and outreach processes, the leaked draft is clearly not youth friendly.
As we commemorate the Day of the African Child we wish to reiterate that it is that time young people find their space in all national democratic, social and economic processes. Time has come for young people to start championing for their inclusion in all processes and negotiations that seeks to map and shape the present and future of Zimbabwe.
PYD is glad to commemorate the day while basking in the glory of much added relevance culminating from the developments at the Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant. Having been vocal and poignant against the Green fuel/Macdom behaviour towards the community, the organisation has already been vindicated.
The Chisumbanje investor whose relationship with the government of Zimbabwe was not in any formal and binding had no right to destabilise the livelihoods of the local communities by grabbing their land. The investor has continued to disregard local youths in its activities as they continue to play second fiddle to expatriates and manpower from faraway places.
We receive the message that the government of Zimbabwe has taken over the administration of Green fuel with a sigh of relief. However we are quick to remind the government to quickly resolve the land dispute with the community as well as address the disparity in the awarding employment contracts at the company. Young people in the area have been demonstrating and complaining with no action being taken.
The Zimbabwe government has literally failed to honour the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on health as well as the Abuja declaration that compels governments to target 15% of the national budget on health funding. This has a large bearing on young people who are make up more than 60% of new HIV infections in Africa and world over.
We commend the government and stakeholders to continue in the fight against HIV/AIDS. While the disease seems manageable in the urban set up due to increased knowledge, this has not been the case with the rural areas. We have cases of this pandemic affecting young people and children the most. Statistics point that around 60% of the affected and infected are young people.
PYD is very much disturbed by the continuous talk of elections without clear evidence of reforms that seeks to guard against violence and rigging. While we acknowledge that the GNU must finally be concluded because of the involved parties’ inherent differences, constitutional reform must be given proper mindset not compromises and concessions that are only detrimental to the progress of our great country.
NB-PYD is commemorating the day of the African Child at Takwirira High School grounds in Chisumbanje, Chipinge from 0900hrs to 1700hrs. The day will start with a cleanup campaign followed by the main activity that will be filled with poems, dramas and entertainment to be provided by selected primary and secondary schools from Chipinge district. The main entertainment shall be provided by Poets for Human Rights as well as Savannah Arts .In addition to the local traditional dances of Muchongoyo, there shall also be a soccer and netball gala pitting six local high schools. Over 1000 members of the community are expected to grace the occasion where Professor Lovemore Madhuku will be the Guest of Honour.
Inserted by the Information department
For more information contact PYD Director
Email: platformtrust@gmail.com ; director.platformtrust@gmail.c
Mobile phone: +263773010331
Platform for Youth Development Trust (PYD) joins Africa and the rest of the world in commemorating the Day of the African Child. This year’s theme: The right of children with disability, the duty to protect, promote and fulfil is well meaning and fits well with the work PYD is undertaking. Children and young people all over Africa have suffered from neglect, abuse while being taken for granted mainly by governments and political leadership. The Day of the African Child provides PYD with a rare opportunity to evaluate what governments, political leadership and local communities are doing for the children and young people.
The 2012 edition of the day of the African child is yet another sad chapter as the welfare of children is still to be a top priority of many African governments. Reports of child rape, kidnapping of pupils coming from schools, child trafficking, and political violence cases have resurfaced in the press. The talks of elections as well as the inconclusive constitutional reform have all contributed to shrink the available space for the young people, while increasing their vulnerability to abuse and patronage.
It should be the duty of society to protect children with disabilities who continue to be victims of abuse. Society has shown a lack of respect for the children with disabilities. African governments and civic groups should work hard to promote the rights of disabled children as society looks failing to accept as equal members.
Like every other child, disabled children have ambitions and goals in life. It is our utmost desire to see society working hard to ensure that everyone helps to fulfil the ambitions of the disabled. Disability is not inability and it should be everyone’s challenge to see to it that those disabled members of society are integrated in all initiatives as this goes a long way in motivating them to work for the fulfilment of their visions and goals.
The constitutional reform process which was expected to be the life blood of youth empowerment is proving to be a dead end. The Copac team has literally failed to produce an agreed draft document, while important national issues are getting PARKED. In addition to having excluded the young people in the committee and outreach processes, the leaked draft is clearly not youth friendly.
As we commemorate the Day of the African Child we wish to reiterate that it is that time young people find their space in all national democratic, social and economic processes. Time has come for young people to start championing for their inclusion in all processes and negotiations that seeks to map and shape the present and future of Zimbabwe.
PYD is glad to commemorate the day while basking in the glory of much added relevance culminating from the developments at the Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant. Having been vocal and poignant against the Green fuel/Macdom behaviour towards the community, the organisation has already been vindicated.
The Chisumbanje investor whose relationship with the government of Zimbabwe was not in any formal and binding had no right to destabilise the livelihoods of the local communities by grabbing their land. The investor has continued to disregard local youths in its activities as they continue to play second fiddle to expatriates and manpower from faraway places.
We receive the message that the government of Zimbabwe has taken over the administration of Green fuel with a sigh of relief. However we are quick to remind the government to quickly resolve the land dispute with the community as well as address the disparity in the awarding employment contracts at the company. Young people in the area have been demonstrating and complaining with no action being taken.
The Zimbabwe government has literally failed to honour the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on health as well as the Abuja declaration that compels governments to target 15% of the national budget on health funding. This has a large bearing on young people who are make up more than 60% of new HIV infections in Africa and world over.
PYD is very much disturbed by the continuous talk of elections without clear evidence of reforms that seeks to guard against violence and rigging. While we acknowledge that the GNU must finally be concluded because of the involved parties’ inherent differences, constitutional reform must be given proper mindset not compromises and concessions that are only detrimental to the progress of our great country.
NB-PYD is commemorating the day of the African Child at Takwirira High School grounds in Chisumbanje, Chipinge from 0900hrs to 1700hrs. The day will start with a cleanup campaign followed by the main activity that will be filled with poems, dramas and entertainment to be provided by selected primary and secondary schools from Chipinge district. The main entertainment shall be provided by Poets for Human Rights as well as Savannah Arts .In addition to the local traditional dances of Muchongoyo, there shall also be a soccer and netball gala pitting six local high schools. Over 1000 members of the community are expected to grace the occasion where Professor Lovemore Madhuku will be the Guest of Honour.
Inserted by the Information department
For more information contact PYD Director
Email: platformtrust@gmail.com ; director.platformtrust@gmail.c
Mobile phone: +263773010331
Friday, 9 March 2012
PYD International Women Day statement
“Empower Rural Women – End Hunger and Poverty.”
Platform for Youth Development Trust (PYD) joins the rest of the world in commemorating the International Women’s day. As an organisation working with rural women, the theme could not come at a better time than now. Rural women have endured the brunt of sweating to end poverty and hunger in their respective homes. Living in a country with high unemployment, rural women have not been spared of temptations to shelve their values as they seek to make ends meet.
Rural young women have been exposed to girl pledging and other traditional social cultures without considering their right to choice. They continue to live under horrible conditions which relegate them to spectators and subjects of decision made in their absence. Claiming and fighting for their rights is translated to mean being rebellious by a culture that is not sincere to the changing demands of the 21st century.
Due to HIV/AIDS, rural young women have been exposed to breadwinning roles which in normal circumstances should be the business of elder family members. The burden of breadwinning has never been light to the extent that some of them have dropped out of school to donate their labour for survival.
Societal backwardness has also worked to deny rural young women education. Scores of societies still do not believe in the education of the girl child. Young girls are recruited from rural areas for exploitation as domestic workers sacrificing their education on the altar of money and greediness.
Our appeal to the government of Zimbabwe is to create an enabling environment for women to escape threatening poverty and hunger. The empowerment project in Zimbabwe has not been advantageous to women especially young women who have not been accorded the same opportunity to own means of production. Society has not been welcoming and receptive of women’s ideas and ventures. Successful women in business have often been tagged immoral or loose. Should we allow our society to continue to suffocate women and deny them an opportunity to leave peaceful and decent lives?
It is high time government place stringent laws that criminalise employing underage girls in domestic work. The biggest empowerment that young women need at the moment is education. If they are educated they are automatically extricated from poverty and hunger. We can end poverty and hunger by empowering women to be masters of their own destiny.
Together for an equal society with empowered women, poverty and hunger can be a thing of the past. Let’s work together.
Inserted by Information and Communications Department
Thursday, 8 December 2011
PYD statement on International Human Rights Day
Platform for Youth Development (PYD) joins Zimbabwe and the rest of the world in commemorating the International Human Rights Day. On 10 December 1948 delegates from all over the world gathered in Paris and devoted themselves to drafting a declaration that would enshrine the fundamental rights and freedoms of people everywhere. In the aftermath of World War II, many nations pressed for a declaration of this kind to help ensure that we prevent future atrocities and protect the inherent humanity and dignity of all people.
On that day the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. The declaration proclaims a simple but powerful idea that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. In the declaration, it was made clear that rights are not conferred by government but they a birthright of all people. The declaration does not matter from which country one lives in. Because one is human, therefore he/she has rights. And because we have rights, governments are bound to protect them.
63 years down the line, some governments have not religiously accepted and enshrined the declaration into their local systems. Rampant abuse of human rights continues unabated. In Zimbabwe looks heading in the opposite direction, human rights defenders and civil society leaders have had to endure terrible times in prison on trumped up charges. The government is soldiering on with its disregard of the rights of all citizens as guided by the UDHR which Zimbabwe ratified.
The day marks an important chapter in the history of the world, it is indeed a day to honour and remember the works of human rights defenders and all those who died fighting for them. It is an important episode because it gives us time to remember human rights defenders across the world who continues to suffer harassment, torture, imprisonment and death because of their resolve to fight for human rights.
This year’s theme: Celebrate Human Rights resonates well with political developments witnessed especially in North African when technology played a pivotal role in displacing despotic and dictatorial rule in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. Social media has become a significant factor in the works of human rights defenders. The facebook, twitter, MySpace and many other tools have been very effective in coordinating events and activities and looks set to continue bringing results as new advancements are unleashed.
The day has come at a dark hour in Zimbabwe. Our hearts are saddened by the continued denial of freedom to the Glen View residents who were arrested on charges of murdering a police officer. We are worried on the fate of our media as the state has some kind of renewed their targeted onslaught of all media houses and personnel perceived to be against the establishment. Zimbabwe is approaching polls probably next year or 2013 and knowing the culture of violence and how the Inclusive government has failed to overturn and replace it with tolerance; we are heading for a more disastrous time for human rights defender and political activists.
Despite the gloomy picture, let’s not tire or be weakened by negative pointers. Let’s renew our commitments to fight for the respect of our human rights in Zimbabwe. The darkest hour is the hour before dawn and we should tie up our shoes and fight harder. Like any other country in the world, we Zimbabweans deserve a peaceful and democratic and tolerant society.
Human Rights belongs to everybody, let’s celebrate human rights.
Friday, 2 December 2011
PYD Statement on the World Aids Day
Platform for Youth Development (PYD) joins the rest of the world in commemorating World Aids Day. This is a day dedicated to bring awareness to those who have died from the disease and strides made in the fight against it. It is a day to reflect on progress made towards arresting the scourge that has brought more tears than joy in the world. Nevertheless it is a time to rejoice as we salute all the gallantry work aimed at ensuring increased access to treatment and prevention services.
Zimbabwe has made considerable strides in reducing the prevalence rate from a massive 24% to 13% and still working hard towards achieving a single digit and subsequently 0% prevalence.
World Aids Day should therefore be an opportunity to learn about HIV and Aids. It should be a time to rekindle and rejuvenate our fight for the total eradication of the scourge from our society. It should be a day to join hands and heighten our quest for a lasting solution. Zimbabwe stands to benefit immensely from shared vision and goal of an HIV/AIDS free generation. Our unity of purpose will definitely achieve results.
The day is significant; it is a day to remind one another to take the fight to another level as we wage a spirited war against the disease that is continuously robbing us of productive and industrious manpower. We should never give up our fight, let’s continue to mobilize resources as we work towards getting to zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero Aids related deaths. We shall conquer and only if we are united and focused.
As a youth organization, we encourage young people to be responsible and practice safer sex methods to save their life. Let’s take a moment to look at ways of getting to Zero as the theme suggests. Let’s take some time to think of the world where people die not of HIV/AIDS but of other diseases. We should not allow people to die unnecessarily because of Aids.
We preach the gospel of abstinence to all young people who are not married. Abstinence from all sex related activities. Those who are married should be faithful to their partners. Sexual networks will only serve to reverse all the gains the country had achieved in the fight against the pandemic.
Let’s shun all forms of discrimination. Stigma will not help in this fight. People should be free to discuss and share about HIV without fear of being hate, or discriminated against. We need to move towards a situation where HIV positive is seen as a condition not as a passport to death. Moreover people should stop seeing HIV as a result of promiscuous behaviors.
Together Yes We Can. Together we will get to Zero.
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