Women Advocacy Project (WAP) has been a partner of Rockflower since 2016. In 2018 they secured a Peace Fellow from The Advocacy Project (AP) in Washington DC. Rockflower and AP have continued to work together to ensure that WAP is able to progress in their vision to reduce the prevalence of child marriage in their communities. AP has sent two peace fellows since the beginning of their partnership with WAP. Iain Guest, Founder and Director of AP, visited WAP last November and produced the video of Evelyn found at the end of this news item. WAP was making great progress with their soapmaking business and was set to scale before the threat of COVID-19 shut everything down.
Zimbabwe
Beginning on March 30, Zimbabwe was put into a 21-day lockdown.
Concerns and Challenges
Women Advocacy Project’s main concern is the state of the Zimbabwean health system. There is a “dire shortage of ventilators, oxygen tanks, biohazard suits and N95 face masks for healthcare professionals fighting the coronavirus pandemic.” Additionally, there are inadequate screenings across the country and a lack of quarantine and isolation facilities.
Adaptation Measures
Constance Mugari, Executive Director of WAP, is already making soap in her home to distribute to beneficiaries. Once the lockdown is lifted, Women Advocacy Project is planning to train the women and girls to make hand sanitizer and masks.
Emergency Fund
Rockflower has sent funds to the Women Advocacy Project, to combine with those from AP and others supporting their work. This will help cover the cost of printing information pages on the virus, delivering small food parcels and making masks.
Update from June 2020
In addition to the continuous support from our Emergency Fund, WAP also received funds from Action for World Solidarity, The Advocacy Project, and the Pollination Project. This combined aid resulted in distribution of essential item parcels, including 10 kgs of maize meal, 2 liters of cooking oil, 2 bottles of hand washing soap, 5 face masks, and 1 informative poster, to 100 families in Epworth and Chitungwiza. Additionally donations were made, 200 masks, 150 bottles of soap, and 100 copies of information posters, to St Mary Primary Clinic in Chitungwiza and, 350 masks, 250 bottles of soap, 100 information pages, to Epworth Mission Clinic in Epworth respectively.
