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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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 Panyika 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 Panyika 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 https://www.flickr.com/photos/rohr_zimbabwe__manchester/albums/72157715155628387

By: Information & Publicity Department