12 October 2009

Celebrating Rural Women and Community Caregivers

Message on Rural Women’s Day, 15 October 2009

Each year, the 15th of October is a special day, remembering and

celebrating rural women worldwide. Rozaria Memorial Trust was founded in
memory of an amazing rural woman leader, the late Mbuya Rozaria
Marumisa Dizha. Born a rural girl child in 1923, she spent raised her 11
children, spent 27 years as a widow; survived the ravages of war and
poverty in rural Murewa. As a subsistence farmer, she paid her children’s
fees through selling vegetables from her small garden. RMT was established
in her memory and honour, that of many other rural women who remain
unsung heroines in many communities.

Today Rozaria Memorial Trust is celebrating rural women and community

caregivers through its Community Based programmes on HIV and AIDS
prevention, care and support. Currently, it is working with 20 support
groups of people living with HIV and AIDS with a total membership of 250
people, three quarters of whom are women and children. The total outreach
is in 29 villages in ward 8 of Murewa, Zimbabwe, with an estimate
population of 5 000 people.

RMT provides community care and counselling support, access to medical

services to positive women, men and children, The special support for
positive children includes education and fees subsidy, supporting teachers in
five schools so that positive children have a safe and enabling learning
environment free of stigma and discrimination. It is mostly women, the old
grand mothers in rural communities who provide daily care to orphans, their
own positive children and grandchildren. It is these rural women,
community caregivers, who struggle to give a dignified life to others, even
amidst poverty and seeming hopelessness.

1
The first International Day of Rural Women was observed on 15 October
2008. This new international day, established by the United Nations General
Assembly in its resolution 62/136 of 18 December 2007, recognizes “the
critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women,
in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security
and eradicating rural poverty.” The idea of a World Rural Women's Day to
be devoted each year to honour rural women began at a UN Conference for
Women in Beijing in September 1995. This day recognises and supports for
the multiple roles of rural women who are mostly farmers, caregivers and
entrepreneurs. They contribute to the wellbeing of their families and the
development of rural economies.

Rozaria Memorial Trust (RMT) supports innovative initiatives that promote

education, health and entrepreneurship for women and young people in
poor communities. RMT was established in 2007 in memory of the late
Mbuya Rozaria Dizha, a community woman leader whose life embodied the
principles of caring, sharing and innovation. RMT celebrates the many
women and unsung heroines in our communities who are changing lives and
whose efforts are remain invisible.

You can reach us through:

P.O.BOX 114, Murewa, Zimbabwe
www.rozariatrust.org
http://rozariatrust.wordpress.com;
info@rozariatrust.org
Rozaria@africaonline.co.zw;
Twitter: /rozariatrust
Facebook: /rozariatrust
Youtube: /rozariatrust
Flickr: /rozariatrust
Tel: +263-11730213