WOZA calls for an end to Torment
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Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: The WALK to FREEDOM and support for calls to end the TORMENT!

In Zimbabwe 56% of the population is female and traditionally it is
the mother who must provide sustenance despite meager budget. We be-
lieve that it is the women who are at the end of the suffering chain
and it is they who suffer in silence. The time has come for women to
arm themselves NOT WITH WEAPONS OF WAR AND DESTRUCTION but with their
God given weapons their hearts, minds and their voices. Women of
Zimbabwe Arise, (WOZA) was formed to end that silence and lobby to
end the suffering.

We, the women of Zimbabwe, who are wives, mothers and sisters, appeal
to you to assist us to vocalize this torment. We seek not feminist
ideals but rather to make it known that we will not stand by and let
the torment continue unabated. It is in our homes that we tend the
tortured and sadly turn away the starving.

We talk of our concern for our families, of our pain when we see
their pain. We, the women, sit for days and weeks and months in
queues waiting and waiting for food that does not arrive. While we
wait, our children wander the forests searching for roots and seeds
and even insects to eat.

Share our despair, the men we love and rely on, face the humiliation
because they cannot provide for us. Eight out of ten of our husbands
are without formal employment. Those in jobs earn so little money
that they can barely buy basic foods. 200% inflation has made wages
meaningless. Some of our husbands rise at 4 am to walk 20 km to work,
to avoid the taxi fares. They work all day on nothing to eat and ar-
rive home so late and so tired they can do nothing. Often they beat
us up just out of frustration.

We wish to tell you of our anguish as mothers of school leavers. Our
children have no hope of work, and worse still, are now being forced
into youth militia training. Last year, we were brutalised by our own
youth in our communities. Our daughters, who were forced to train as
militia, were returned to us raped and many are diseased.

Our sons have been taught the language of violence and intolerance.
As mothers, we weep privately to see our families being divided and
our family values corrupted by the men who rule our land.

Can you imagine the horror of a mother who sees her week-old baby as-
saulted for her political beliefs?

Can you imagine the hopelessness of a mother whose child is denied
access to health care because of his parents' political beliefs?

Can you imagine the endless frustration and simmering anger when our
children cannot eat because we, their mothers, do not have the right
political party card to produce at the selling point?

We write to you as employers of the nation. We know Zimbabweans to be
people of compassion and integrity, and that you are capable of imag-
ining our pain. Our children are hungry, our men are angry and we can
no longer comfort them.

We ask that you provide a copy of this letter to your employees, both
male and female and that you work with us as we mobilise them on the
walk to FREEDOM from TORMENT. If they are late for work spare them
and if they join us in our peaceful protests, do not deduct this time
from their salaries, as it is a compassionate absence.

Before our nation is torn apart, help us to sow love where there is
hatred - this is the work of a mother! Help us to rescue our families
from poverty and repression and despair. SOKWANELE means enough is
enough means ZVAKWANA.

Signed: The Women's Council, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)
mailto:[email protected]

P.S. "Be strong! We are not here to play, to dream, to drift. We have
hard work to do and loads to lift. Shun not the struggle; face it,
'Its God's gift. Be strong it matters not how deep entrenched the
wrong, how hard the battle goes, the day how long; Faint not, fight
on! Tomorrow comes the song." By Malbie Babcock.