Greetings from Zimbabwe!
I’ve just finished an incredibly inspiring training workshop in Mwenezi, Zimbabwe and instead of waiting till I returned to Nairobi, I thought I’d just say hello from here, the petrol station outside Mwenezi. (Click the thumbnail below).
Four facilitators from the Tongogara Refugee Camp and four staff from SCORE Against Poverty, a local Zimbabwean NGO, participated in the training. The goal was to make each of them feel both inspired and equipped to lead a Peace Heroes 101 program about Kenyan hero Wangari Maathai in the refugee camp.
It was such an honour to hear their stories – some of them are refugees themselves and nearly every one was from a different African country – and to learn from them the unique challenges and great potential of the youth in the camp.
For me the most moving part of my time in Zimbabwe was hearing each of these participants share the ways that Wangari Maathai’s story intersected with their own. For example, Nabami, a Congolese refugee herself (far left in the photo above), talked about how inspired she was by the fact that Maathai returned to her home community and used her gifts and expertise to help relieve the suffering of the people there.
Nabami also dreams of returning some day to her home, to heal the brokenness of her people. But even now, when that return is not yet possible, she is devoting all of her time and energy to caring for the traumatized people living in the Tongogara refugee camp and she is so excited to bring this empowering story to the young people there.
Ancilla is another of the facilitators who has just recently graduated from high school herself and feels so passionately about helping other youth in the refugee camp, especially girls, achieve what she has achieved in the face of so many challenges. Below you can hear her tell you in her own words why she’s so excited to be a part of this project!
We can’t wait to tell you about the Peace Heroes clubs in the refugee camp in the coming weeks! Thank you for supporting us in this work.
With gratitude and unrelenting hope,
Kirsten, for the Peace Heroes team