Darlington Mafa is the founder of the Community Open Climate and Agriculture Initiative (COCAI), which seeks to increase community access and exposure to climate justice and agriculture information. His project is located in Mutare, Zimbabwe. He is driven by a passion to ensure community inclusion, knowledgeable communities and inequality reduction.
Hazvinei Martha Mwanaka is a freelance journalist based in Masvingo who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Media studies. Mwanaka was inspired into reporting on humanitarian issues by her passion for community service, development and desire to and the silent suffering of those people who get less attention. Hazvinei is the co-founder of the Humanitarian Media Focus in Zimbabwe (HUMFOZ), a media site that seeks to highlight the plight of ordinary citizens and keep politicians and office bearers in Masvingo and beyond accountable for development issues.
Lemuel Chekai is a Harare-based journalist and co-founder of Environmental Gist Online, an online media outlet that focuses on climate and environmental reportage. Chief among the 2020-founded organization’s goals is to spread information on an ecological way forward - which has proved essential as the world grapples with the scourges of climate change, environmental degradation and unsustainable living that threatens human existence.
Natsiraishe Maritsa, eighteen years old, is the founder of the Vulnerable Under-Aged Peoples Auditorium Trust. Her initiative seeks to create an early marriage free nation through taekwondo. Natsiraishe incorporates moral education with training of taekwondo, and uses the sport as a platform for discourse and advocacy against early marriage. As a civic actor, Natsiraishe’s passion is for the betterment of the lives of young girls in her community in Epworth, Harare, using the tenets of taekwondo to address child marriage and child pregnancy.
Nomqhele Samantha Siziba is a Victoria Falls-based Development Practitioner enthusiastic about youth and women empowerment, financial inclusion and enterprise development. As Founder and Executive Director of Youth Invest, a youth-led and feminist-oriented Non-Governmental Organization, Nomqhele implements research, capacity building, and advocacy programs on socio-political and economic development. Nomqhele has over seven years’ experience in developing and implementing entrepreneurship, civic engagement and financial inclusion programs, which have benefitted over 900 youth and women in Zimbabwe. Through Youth Invest, Nomqhele seeks to promote the meaningful participation of youth and women in the economy and governance processes. Additionally, she envisages increasing their knowledge [...]
Roselilly N. Ushewokunze is an ecofeminist with particular interest in social and economic justice issues mainly affecting the youth and women. She is based in Victoria falls and is currently leading the Litebulwa Initiative which seeks to alleviate poverty, mobilize citizens for sustainable development as well as build a people led agency for social accountability. The initiative also focuses on gendered climate action in attaining food security and food sovereignty. She is driven by a passion to address challenges from the rising inequality, shrinking and shifting civic space that is threatening citizens’ agency in Zimbabwe.
Simbarashe Hunzvi hails from Marondera in Mashonaland East province. He will be incubating with Accountability Incubator in 2022 a project that aims to see and measure efficiency of the local authority, while at the same time fostering citizen driven participation and action oriented advocacy. This will be done through a unique 100% efficiency toolkit so as to strive for peak level of performance and attain a balanced form of governance where measurement of the level of efficiency on one hand empowers citizens to seek for accountability. The initiative also seeks to empower young citizens to play an active role in [...]
Tongai Dana is young development practitioner and disability, youth and women inclusive development activist who is based in Chitungwiza. He is the founder of an organization named Inclusive Development Center (IDC), a one stop center for national and regional disability, women and youths development research, advocacy and a forum for dialogue for the promotion of inclusive development. Through IDC Tongai Dana is implementing an initiative to advocate, lobby and campaign for disability inclusive elections in Zimbabwe. The initiative is called Disability Inclusive Elections 2023 and will see the partnership of organization of similar objectives mainly, disabled people and youth organizations [...]
Vimbai Nhengu hails from Buhera District (Ward 19) in Zimbabwe’s Manicaland Province. Vimbai is the founder of Mupopa Pachedu Rural Development Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to achieve food security and improved nutrition in the community through emancipation of subsistence farmers. This is done by promoting full utilization of agricultural land and inputs, access to appropriate technologies and markets while making use of resilient agricultural practices for a sustainable food production system. Vimbai is a development practitioner with an inborn inclination to conserve the environment for the now and future generations. She has a passion for the welfare [...]
Yollander Millin, who hails from the city of Bulawayo describes herself as an educator, a facilitator, a communicator, community journalist and writer. Yollander is invested in the betterment of the living conditions of all people including those from the marginalized communities and the welfare of women and children. Her aim is to create documentation platforms, that allow for people to record their lived experiences, for the purpose of demanding accountability and transparency for their livelihoods, to influence the formulation and implementation of policies that favor the people and to keep evidence of what people have gone through. As a social [...]
