Zimbabwe

Transforming education, transforming lives in Southern Africa with Oxfam Australia

Supporting girls to stay in school is essential in the fight against child marriage and pregnancy, gender-based violence, and economic inequity.

Our partnership with Oxfam Australia is investing in girls’ education in Malawi and Zimbabwe to create safe and inclusive learning environments for adolescent girls, young women, and children in vulnerable situations. Working alongside governments and local communities, Oxfam is rolling out essential learning resources, improving access to sexual and reproductive health services, installing girl-friendly toilets, and establishing social support networks for mothers and girls.

Oxfam’s approach challenges and changes the conditions that limit girls’ educational opportunities, working towards a more equitable world where every child has the chance to learn, grow and thrive. Learn more about Oxfam in Malawi and Zimbabwe at their website.

The Akashinga, which means ‘The Brave Ones’ in Shona, are a remarkable team of women wildlife rangers. They protect nature conservation areas across 9 million acres in Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania.

Akashinga began in Zimbabwe with a group of just 16 women, all survivors of assault or impacted by AIDS or HIV. Through the organisation’s investment in local infrastructure and social impact, the lives of the Akashinga women have been transformed. Additionally, their communities have experienced significant improvements in healthcare, education, access to clean water, and sustainable employment opportunities.

The Akashinga rangers are changing perceptions of women in conservation, proving time and time again that women can and should lead in the protection of nature and wildlife. If you would like to learn more, please visit their website.

In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, the King George VI Centre is bringing equitable access to quality education to students with disabilities.

The King George IV School integrates disabled and non-disabled students, providing a vocational curriculum that nurtures independence and self-reliance to shift societal norms. We are proud to partner with King George VI Centre and share in their vision of integrating and promoting disability inclusion in the education sector. To learn more, visit their website. 

Clinton Health Access Initiative in Zimbabwe is making preventative care for cervical cancer more accessible for women, particularly in rural areas. Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates of cervical cancer in the world, a disease which is almost entirely preventable. Women with HIV are five times more likely to develop cervical cancer, and cervical cancer is the leading cause of death for these women in Zimbabwe.

Clinton Health Access Initiative is helping to address the barriers that prevent women from accessing cervical cancer screening and treatment, by reducing the cost and the burden on women travelling distances of up to 50km to reach these services. This includes providing screening test kits which allow for self-collection at the community level, rolling out devices using new technologies that treat pre-cancerous cervical lesions, and developing an inexpensive artificial intelligence-based tool to assist healthcare professionals with screening.

Our partnership with the Clinton Health Access Initiative will expand affordable access to these vital prevention services and increase the accuracy of testing with the goal of reducing the burden of disease and allowing future generations of women to live free from cervical cancer. If you would like to learn more, please visit their website.