An early flight the next morning for the field trip to Zimbabwe. The flight departure board was filled with alluring names and unfamiliar ones as well as ours to Harare. First stop was a meeting with the British Embassy and DFID at a slightly out of town block. Next stop was the VSO office in Harare and to meet the team there. Another good experience of putting names to faces, and seeing the purple logo in an urban block of offices, next to Maggie's Alterations this time.

In the evening we met three volunteers from Zimbabwe, all very qualified but not in employment due to the economic situation. The education level in Zimbabwe is high, but so is the unemployment rate - around 90%. These volunteers, Justice, Mercy, John, were working on health and livelihoods programmes. There are graduates from Zimbabwe who work in South Africa as waiters, and we were told of two restaurants that had eight midwives working in one and 22 qualified primary school teachers in another. Also with us was a UK young volunteer, who had previously volunteered in Zambia and was now on his second stint as a leader. He loves the country and was excitedly awaiting the eight young people from the UK who were arriving in the morning.

Wednesday and dawn broke with the sound of strange birds rather than traffic and sirens as is usually the case for me. An early start for a big day: 170 kms to the east and to Rusape district, to meet one of the partner organisations who we work with on our HIV & AIDS, and livelihoods work. On the way, as we passed through beautiful countryside we discussed life in Zimbabwe. Most families have at least one person who is in a neighbouring African country, Europe or the USA, and who sends money home to support the family. It's a high price that's paid though with families not being together. Tales of families being together maybe at Christmas but with family members married to Americans and Europeans who now have their own children a long way from Zimbabwe who a generation or two hence may lose that connection to their homeland. We heard stories of young children braving the crocodiles in the Limpopo to cross to South Africa, to be met with a demand for payment or worse as they reached the shore. We talked too of the beauty of Zimbabwe, not least the Victoria Falls, and the possibility of economic prosperity through tourism as other nearby African countries have done.

We passed the town of Marondera, where Mercy the volunteer we met the night before works, and commutes to daily. She works on home based care, largely for those with HIV & AIDS, but also with other illnesses such as cancer. Seemingly there is a correlation between HIV & AIDS and other cancers and illnesses which is being increasingly notices and is now being investigated. We passed a local peanut butter project, where, using local sourced peanuts, and locally made machines, orphan children who have lost their parents to HIV & AIDS work on making and selling peanut butter after school. Much further away we heard of rural communities who grow and husband all they need to eat and live, who are apparently not aware of the economic straits of some of their fellow country people, but never participated in the prosperity at the time either. Stopping for a coffee we talked about how Zimbabwe used to grow this plant but now, with the farming ownership transition, the land was often owned and used by those who didn't necessarily know how to grow some crops such as coffee, and a story of a family member who'd cut down his coffee plants on the farm allocated to him, to grow the more ubiquitous maize.

A couple of hours later we reached Rusape and the office of partner, a community based organisation who works with local people on HIV & AIDS prevention, now more common than home care, and gives small grants for livelihoods work - we were soon to see how important this economic empowerment work is. We were briefed about the work and joined by representatives of the government ministries and the provincial office of the President before we set off to meet the communities.

One of the key aspects of the programme is care-givers and we met some of them, some of whom are living positive themselves. The incidence of HIV & AIDS is high in Zimbabwe, with UN estimates of 24% of 18-24 year olds living with HIV & AIDS. The care-givers told us their stories as we sat in the open air, a community garden, with views of mountains and plains. They talked of the care and support they gave to those who were living with the stigma of AIDS/HIV, and those who gradually trusted them and reached out to help. Home-based support is now less required with more widespread availability of anti-retrovirals. This has meant that more people can live with the condition and be active, though life is often compromised with people unable to afford to travel to the clinic or to afford the food necessary to accompany the drugs. A group of young women told us how they had been able to stop being sex workers to earn money and were now earning through the income generation projects. The community also operates a small lending scheme whereby a woman can for example, borrow $50 and buy cloth or vegetables to sell, pay back the loan, and use the profit for sustenance and reinvestment. The women told us how more and more of them are now involved and their businesses are growing. Then as we were leaving this open-air community vegetable garden, we were told a little boy was coming to join us. His mother was in her 30s when she died after contracting AIDS, and the family couldn't support the baby. So the two ladies in front of us, care givers, proudly held him up as he walked along amongst the vegetable, now a toddler, who owed his life to them.

A short jeep ride away and we'd been invited to meet disabled man and his family who were also part of the community loans scheme. He proudly showed us the brick house, up to roof level now, and with electricity in part of the building. It is so clear, that he, the women we met, the stories we heard, they all just wanted a chance to make their own way, to work and support their families.

Jumping back in the jeep we headed for a group of women, gathered together on the hillside, 30 km away, in the rural area, with a little shelter for some under the tree. They were having a community market that day, bringing the clothes they have made and the vegetables they have grown, to trade with each other. As we approached the welcome songs began and we sat at the 'top table' all under the winter sun, and were introduced to each other - the local dignitaries, district officials, VSO, partner organisations, government reps, and the women from community groups and representing local districts. The women told us of their small livelihoods projects and proudly declared their income growth.

Then time for something different, a drama about a man who spent the money his wife had earned, on a night out drinking and with another woman, who we then discovered was sick with TB. The story was about preventative measures to avoid AIDS and also about the necessary economic independence of women. As the, at times funny tale, was played out, and danced out, it was easy to see how much of it resonated with the woman in the group. A small group of men, shifted uneasily on their feet off to the side. The male Chief and the Elders sat there too and listened and watched. The group leader then turned to us: and told us loudly strongly and in English, how they just wanted to make their own way, earn a living, look after their families, and we had to take this message back to the UK. We promised to tell her story, the story of all the brave and strong women gathered there, who faced challenges we find it difficult to even imagine, and still fight for a living for themselves, their families, their communities.

We were also shown a goat project, livelihood project managed by a support group of 15 women living with HIV & AIDS. The women had initially received 4 goats from a small grant. A year later, they now had 22 goats; they shared the other goats for sale to raise money for school fees for the orphans and vulnerable children.

We finally returned to office to meet with 8 ICS volunteers who had just arrived to be placed at with the partner organisation for the next three months. This is the time when they learn who their host mum and dad and family will be, and meet their 'counterpart', a young person who they will work very closely with for the next 3 months. They were greeted by singing and drumming and dancing by the local young people.

The journey back then to Harare, the big yellow sun setting on the beautiful landscape. Thoughts of the women, their lives, what VSO could do, running around my brain.

The next morning we met with more partners who work on HIV and AIDS prevention, and support people in the community, some of whom are living positively themselves and have declared their status. Together with VSO they increase the access to treatment, care and support, to those with AIDS and HIV, particularly women and children; and support livelihoods. Thousands of women and girls have been supported, and thousands of community volunteers mobilised.

The final stop to meet with the Minister of Health from the ruling party to talk about work that VSO is doing in the country and the region.

So we had done what we set out to do, met with the British and Zimbabwean and US government representatives, to see what funding might be available and what work we could do together to fight poverty: had met and spent time with country colleagues and volunteers, but mainly we had met those women, children, men, who so urgently need a fairer share, a chance. We heard about some truly awful situations which some live in, saw people fighting for a life with dignity, and had a taste of a very different society. My head and heart are full of stories and pictures and more reasons, the people I met, to work on the VSO mission to bring people together to fight poverty.

Here are some photos too:

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A25fk75vFWnrA