Young Women's Pink Foundation

13/07/2026

We cannot separate and leave behind women's stories, pain, and power, especially grassroots women, when it comes to making decisions on critical minerals.

By Pauline Simiyu At the close of a three-day Ecofeminist Convening that brought together grassroots women leaders, Indigenous women, environmental defenders, legal experts, researchers, and civil society organisations from across Africa and beyond, participants issued a united call for governments,...

13/07/2026

Young Women's Pink Foundation, represented by its Team Lead Tatenda Wachenuka, joined feminist leaders, grassroots activists, researchers, and movement builders from across Africa at the Regional Ecofeminist Convening hosted by in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The convening, themed "Planting the Seeds of an African Ecofeminist Future: Rooting Resistance, Growing Solidarity and Cultivating Just Transitions," provided a collaborative space to deepen understanding of ecofeminism and strengthen regional solidarity. Through this convening, participants used feminist methodologies such as participatory dialogue, storytelling, strategy laboratories, to reflect on the interconnected impacts of climate change, extractivism, care work, gender inequality, and environmental justice on African women and communities.

Over the three-day learning journey, we:

i) Explored ecofeminist principles and analysed the political landscape shaping climate and energy justice in Africa.

ii) Shared lived experiences and community-led responses to environmental and social injustices.

iii) Co-created strategies for advancing feminist alternatives centred on care, regeneration, and climate justice.

iv) Developed practical action plans and contributed to the drafting of a collective Regional Ecofeminist Declaration outlining shared priorities and commitments for future collaboration.

The convening reinforced the importance of locally led, feminist approaches to climate action and highlighted the need for stronger regional partnerships to advance gender-responsive and just energy transitions. A special thanks to the amazing and powerful women of Hanyanya who echoed the importance of women’s community voices in confronting extractivism in community contexts, values that we hold dear as YWPF.

Young Women's Pink Foundation is proud to be part of this growing movement and remains committed to amplifying the voices of young women at the forefront of climate justice, environmental stewardship, and transformative leadership across Africa.

AmplifyChange Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism Ireen Madara Takudzwa Masvikeni HOPE For Adolescents and Youth

25/06/2026

Every morning across Zimbabwe, millions of women and girls begin their workday long before sunrise. They fetch water, prepare meals, and manage households. Yet much of this work remains invisible, absent from GDP calculations, and undervalued in public policy. Unpaid care work is not simply a women's issue, it is a macroeconomic barrier.

Data from the UN Women Landscape of Care Work in Zimbabwe highlights a stark imbalance:

The Time Gap: Zimbabwean women spend an average of 25.9 hours per week on unpaid caring activities for young children and ill adults, compared to just 16.1 hours spent by men.

Household Chores: Women spend double the amount of time preparing meals (12 hours per week) compared to men (5.4 hours).

The Fatherhood Gap: The 2024 Zimbabwe State of the Father’s Report revealed that up to 56% of Zimbabwean men have never participated in core domestic care tasks like preparing food, cleaning, or looking after children, often stepping in only as a "last resort" when a spouse is seriously ill.

The Cost of Inaction

With Zimbabwe’s massive informal sector, where 74.6% of women work in vulnerable employment, the double burden of survivalist work and intense "time poverty" traps women in a cycle of economic exclusion. It dictates who can run a business, who can attend community leadership meetings, and who is forced to drop out of school.

As Zimbabwe pursues its Vision 2030 and Upper-Middle-Income Country aspirations, investing in the care economy must be a priority. True economic transformation requires public policy to commit to the 3Rs:

Recognize: Measure unpaid care in national statistics and integrate it into national budgeting.

Reduce: Invest in clean water, sanitation, and rural energy infrastructure to drastically cut down domestic labor time.

Redistribute: Expand affordable community-based childcare and shift cultural mindsets to promote shared household responsibilities between men and women.

Gender equality will not be achieved solely by creating opportunities for women. It requires removing the invisible structural barriers that prevent them from accessing those opportunities in the first place.

It is time to make the invisible visible.

05/06/2026

We cannot speak of climate solutions without speaking of women. We cannot heal the Earth without healing our women. We cannot speak of justice without honoring the memory held within the land. The soil remembers. The rivers remember. The women remember.

Their stories are woven into the landscapes we seek to restore. To heal the land is to honor those who have nurtured it. To achieve climate justice is to pursue gender justice. To restore our future, we must first restore the dignity, power, and voices of women. These were the conversations that we were a part of recently with amazing colleagues who are actively challenging capitalist and extractivist systems in climate and environmental justice.

This was a start to more thought-provoking conversations around community and feminist climate solutions. Congratulations to Melania Chiponda and the amazing team at Shine Collab, for launching two amazing reads that anyone doing feminist climate justice work should read. Sun Soil and Sisterhood and Regaining the Currents, these two reads remind us that power comes not from guns but from women who keep nations alive!
Mela Chiponda Tatenda Wachenuka

04/05/2026

Climate change is not just an environmental issue, it is a human rights crisis!

​If the world wants to solve the climate question, we have to talk about Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. From the impact of extreme heat on maternal health to the disruption of healthcare during floods, the climate crisis is actively undermining reproductive freedom.

​Our call to Action? Holistic policies that protect both our planet and our right to bodily autonomy.

​Let’s stop silos and start connecting the dots. 🔗🌱

23/04/2026

Access is a powerful tool and strategy that addresses the interconnected challenges that women face on a day to day. Access plays a critical role in readdressing power and where it lies within communities, it reframes notions of inclusion what it means to be meaningfully involved in development additionally access sets the tone on whose voices are heard in setting the development agenda.

For the Young Women’s Pink Foundation (YWPF), women's access is not abstract but a deliberate tool that we mainstream in our work with young women. Our previous experience within communities continues to demonstrate that barriers that hinder women’s effectiveness are deeply gendered and socially embedded. Many are excluded from the very spaces where decisions are made. This undermines not only individual rights, but also social cohesion, because communities cannot thrive where exclusion persists.

By centering young women’s voices, advancing inclusion, and creating platforms for participation, YWPF is contributing to more cohesive, just communities where everyone has a stake and a say.

Because access is not separate from justice. Access is justice.

Mela Chiponda Tendai Doreen Femnet Secretariat HOPE For Adolescents and Youth Embassy of Sweden in Harare Embassy of the Netherlands in Zimbabwe

31/03/2026

📍

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: AU-YVC 2026!

Are you a young African professional ready to gain hands-on experience, broaden your horizons, and contribute to continental development?

The African Union Youth Volunteer Corps (AU-YVC) invites applications for its 2026 cohort. This fully funded 12-month programme places young professionals in AU Member States to serve, learn, and make a tangible impact in line with ( ).

We are looking for candidates who:
🎯 Are citizens of an AU Member State
🎯 Are aged 18–35 years
🎯 Hold a post-secondary qualification
🎯 Have at least one year of verifiable volunteer or professional experience

This is a unique chance to:
• Build professional skills across diverse sectors
• Gain cross-border work experience
• Connect with a Pan-African network of changemakers

🔗 Apply now: https://shorturl.at/jbjBm

🕒 Deadline: April 26, 2026

23/02/2026

Hello Monday,

Art-inspired therapy is a powerful pathway to community healing. At Young Women’s Pink Foundation, we use creative expression as a safe space for young women and communities to process trauma, share lived experiences, and rebuild connection. Through art, participants do more than express themselves—they reclaim their voices, strengthen resilience, and nurture collective hope.

HOPE For Adolescents and Youth ShamwariYemwanasikana Embassy of Sweden in Harare Institute for Young Women Development

13/02/2026

Security in the development sector is more than protocols and risk registers—it is about protecting people, preserving trust, and ensuring that our work can continue where it is needed most.

We operate in environments shaped by vulnerability, inequality, and uncertainty. When institutions prioritize security, they safeguard staff, partners, and the communities they serve, enabling programmes to be delivered consistently, ethically, and without harm.

At YWPF, security means dignity, reliability, and confidence support that will not disappear in times of crisis. For us, security plays a major role in ensuring accountability, resilience, and the ability to sustain trust with those we work with. Embedding security into development practice is not optional—it is foundational to achieving meaningful, lasting change.

Institute for Young Women Development HOPE For Adolescents and Youth Tatenda Wachenuka Betty Chihota

03/02/2026

At Young Women’s Pink Foundation, we believe that the voices of young women and women form the bedrock of meaningful public life and democratic transformation. Public institutions and policies gain legitimacy and relevance only when they are shaped by the lived realities of those most affected by inequality and exclusion. By centering the voices of young women, communities, and other marginalized groups, we challenge elite-driven decision-making and ensure that public processes reflect real needs, aspirations, and experiences rather than abstract or imposed solutions.

For us amplifying young women’s voices is a strategy for accountability, social justice, and systemic change. When young women speak for themselves, they expose structural injustices, contest harmful norms, and demand responsive, gender-just policies and resource allocation.

Our previous work continues to remind us that collective voice strengthens civic ownership, builds community power, and drives transformative change across social, economic, and political spheres. YWPF through its Feminist Circles continues to create, protect, and expand spaces for voice—so that young women are not only heard in public life, but are recognized as leaders, decision-makers, and agents of change.