Desperate to address mounting socio-economic challenges, the Chipinge community has formed
a Development Trust to spearhead a campaign to harness local human and natural resources. The Kanyi Redu Development Association (KREDA) initiated the campaign to recruit members
through social media (especially WhatsApp) from the 6th of June 2020. KREDA was borne out of
deliberations on social media and a
fter extensive discussions, it was agreed to transform words
into accounts, hence the call to have a community initiative that would facilitate local
development. The conception of the initiative was long overdue since the community requires a home-grown
the solution to a myriad of challenges threatening people’s lives. For example, around March 2019
the district was plunged into deep sorrow after large sections of the communities were tragically swept away by the Cyclone Idai flood. Three hundred and fourth four (344) lives were lost in addition to property worth billions of dollars when the floods affected parts of Chipinge and the nearby district of Chimanimani. The situation has also been aggravated by the current pandemic caused by COVID 19. The disease has ravaged the already fragile Zimbabwean economy. In turn, this has inflicted misery on people’s lives in the district. The decision to launch this initiative could not have come at any better time. For example, the cyclone destroyed playing grounds and a block of Blair toilets at Samhutsa high school in the Chipinge West constituency. Niesbert Zaba, the school’s deputy headmaster
confirmed the school has not recovered from the effects of the cyclone. Mr Zaba said there were no plans yet for the reconstruction of a playing ground due to lack of flat land and the school cannot afford to hire earthmoving equipment. Chipinge also sits on the seismically active ground and have experienced a series of earthquakes since
December 2018. At the of 2018 there was one earthquake that measured 5.5 on the Richter scale, leaving a trail of destruction. Weak buildings that include granaries and other pole and daga huts from about 40 households collapsed due to the tremors. The district also experienced a 3.8 magnitude earthquake hours before the devastating cyclone Idai in March 2019 barely four months after that of 2018. On 24 March 2020 around 5 am another earthquake of 4.0 magnitude which was confirmed by the local people and the Meteorological department of Zimbabwe rattled the community and jolted its people into a panic mode. Given that trend it is clear that the community is prone to disasters and so there is a reason to celebrate the birth of a community organisation that does not only complement government efforts in alleviating the consequences but can act as an interlink between the victims and other individuals and/or institutions wishing to help in case of disaster striking. The community Trust also wishes to self-empower the local people to reduce reliance on external handouts. Leaders of the Trust say that by learning from other communities who were making headway after forming similar organisations to spearhead development in their localities, they realised that their own community had all it needed to bail itself out of the socio-economic quagmire it found itself in. They, therefore, chose to borrow the idea of forming a community Trust in
addressing challenges in their own community. Chairman of the Trust Mr Sailas Chawira said that the idea of starting a community Trust flashed through his mind when he learned that some communities like Mutoko and Mhondoro Ngezi through such community initiatives were creating employment for themselves, producing basic
necessities and managed to mitigate their socio-economic challenges. Mr Chawira went on to say he admired how the said communities were successfully manipulating the localised resources to promote economic development in their areas and thought of how that could be good for Chipinge community which is blessed with vast natural resources."In short what I saw was that those communities had all what it took for them to self-develop as well as sustain their economic livelihood. I found out that our situation only requires us to be innovative. Most of the time we receive handouts of finished products, yet we have all the necessary skills and raw materials like tomatoes, beans, avocado pears among others to produce finished products," Said Mr Chawira. Chipinge community is endowed with good climatic conditions suitable for agriculture in its eastern parts bordering Mozambique and rich alluvial soils along the Sabi catchment area which can produce vast agricultural products that cannot only guarantee food security in the area but play a significant role in turning around the troubled economy of Zimbabwe if put to good use. The district is also endowed with mineral resources whose extraction and subsequent processing will not only create multiple jobs but go a long way in developing the community as well as play a part in turning around the national economy. Mr Chawira said he was moved by the fact that Chipinge has vast human resources that could be manipulated towards the exploitation of the said natural resources that were lying idle or forced out of the community in search of employment yet multiple jobs could be created locally through
starting processing industries to produce finished goods from existing natural resources. The community organisation, known as KREDA is a multifaceted organisation with different commissions that are utilising variable skills to determine and implement ways of dealing with the socio-economic challenges the community was facing. "Different commissions are meant to harness different skills to deal with different challenges the community was facing as well as to determine how available materials and resources can be tailored to meet public needs. It is noted and sadly that most of the time we receive end products,
yet we have all the necessary skills and resources to turn our natural resources into finished goods" Mr Chawira said. He added that this was to boost the community and may be national economy through feeding the national, regional, and global market with finished goods and secure better returns as
compared to when the resources are sold raw."The finished products may be sold to other parts of the country and/or exported to other
countries within the region, Africa and across the globe" Mr Chawira said. The organisation which is still fledgling is flowing smoothly with no hurdles stalling progress noted so far and has a potential of growing into a large institution as many community members and well-wishers have shown interest in the initiative through donating their financial, human and
material resources. Asked whether he was facing any challenges in chairing the community initiative, Mr Chawira said teething challenges always characterise new initiatives but he could not say KREDA has any hurdle already noted since it was still taking off and receiving all the necessary resources in the form
of money and ideas from community members. "As you know establishing a new thing has its own challenges, teething problems are always there. However, right now there are no visible problems confronting KREDA. We are still in the infancy of our development as KREDA. Our members are full of vigor and want to see successful community-driven projects such as KREDA. Our members have been making donations both in local and foreign currency,” said Mr Chawira. Mr Chawira went on to say he was appealing to those from Chipinge community and others who think they can help in any way to make KREDA a success to come forward and donate their expertise, time and resources as the program was open to all who shared a similar vision. Chipinge is likely to benefit in variable ways if the community initiative fully gets into operation since its multifaceted structures are versatile and inspired to meet different needs of the community and its people. However, Mr Chawira said the major prospective benefit of KREDA would be employment creation for members within their locality as well as offering opportunities not only to work for their families but also to enjoy working from home. "We foresee a number of ways through which KREDA will promote development in Chipinge District. For instance, very few people will leave their rural homes in search of economic livelihood in urban areas such as Mutare, Harare, Gweru, Bulawayo to mention but a few. KREDA is going to create employment within the community using own community produce from raw to final product” said Mr Chawira. Therefore, with such a community initiative in their community, Chipinge residents who are eager to promote development through donating their financial, material, and human resources now have a platform through which they can do so. However, the door is also open to non-Chipinge residents who love Chipinge and would like to help it surmount its challenges.
