“I am seeing a change in conflict transformation through a decrease in gender-based violence and domestic violence and we attribute this to Envision Zimbabwe trainings, knowledge was imparted to us as a community on conflict transformation. More so, as a young woman who chose to marry early I am also noticing an increase in the awareness of the need to protect the girl child in the community from social and traditional ills such as early child marriage“
Picture 1: Grace Musvuti next to her cattle kraal at her homestead.
A story of growth from an under aged marriage to becoming a financially empowered woman, acquiring negotiating skills through conflict transformation training in a remote village in Hurungwe District of Zimbabwe.
This is Grace Musvuti’s Story
My name is Grace Musvuti and I have been living in Nyamaromo village in the community since 2016. I am married and I have 2 children. I am a housewife. At household level my husband and I earn our livelihood surviving through subsistence farming, keeping cattle and gardening. In my personal capacity as a young woman, I contribute to our income through my chicken rearing project.
I attained some secondary education but left school at the age of 15 which is when I got married. Unfortunately, the community lacked awareness on child marriages and I was allowed to get married at that age. Since we got married at a young age, my husband and I were not able to support ourselves financially. For our sustenance we relied on gardening and later became subsistence farmers and kept a few cows. I have had the privilege of taking part in the trainings carried out by Envision Zimbabwe together with my husband in the past several years. I managed to take part in the Conflict Transformation trainings and the Internal Savings and Lending project (ISALs). My husband and I benefitted immensely from conflict transformation skills. We now have knowledge such as negotiation and mediation skills to resolve our challenges as a young couple in our marriage and we have been able to negotiate on what works for us or not, which is generally hard for a lot of couples to do. We are able to find a mediator and talk our issues out whenever we fail to reach an understanding instead of resorting to domestic violence as is often the case with other couples in our village. I was lucky to be part of the ISALs where I learnt how to generate income, the proceeds from this project have helped us to raise money and buy a small car.
This has been a big achievement for us here in the rural area. We use the car to make extra income as a taxi. My chicken project is doing very well since I gained the skills to run my business through the trainings.
“I have gained a lot of knowledge and the trainings have been an eye opener in helping me see that as a woman I should not wait to get money from my husband or a man. I need to work with my own hands and invest in projects be it gardening or chicken rearing.”
Picture 2: Grace Musvuti in her chicken coop with chicks.
As a young woman I am happy with my progress and have learnt to live and maintain harmony. The trainings for me were crucial in shaping my young marriage. I have also gained friends from these experiences and am able to share knowledge and information whenever it is needed.