The Sunday Mail
Kunashe Foundation is a local non-profit organisation that seeks to empower young women and girls through sustainable development programmes. It will celebrate its fifth anniversary on June 30. The Sunday Mail (SM) spoke to the Kunashe Foundation founder and executive director Ms RATIDZO NJAGU (RN) on the organisation’s work and plans to expand its reach.
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SM: What is Kunashe Foundation?
RN: Kunashe Foundation is a youth- and female-led organisation founded and operated on Christian and Ubuntu values.
When I started the foundation five years ago, I had no idea it would grow into the impactful organisation it is today.
While the journey has been full of challenges, it has been a true testament to the power of collaboration and commitment.
What began as a desire to help young women like myself has grown into a registered organisation with a strong mandate to serve thousands in communities across Zimbabwe.
The aim of the foundation is to ensure sustainable development of women and young people by facilitating access to reliable, easy-to-understand information and related resources on women’s wellness, particularly menstrual health, mental health and financial wellness.
Through our work, we have found that sustainable development for this key demography can only be achieved if what we refer to as “period poverty” is eliminated, financial literacy is sound and when emotional support structures and wellbeing are evident.
SM: What motivated you to start the foundation and how has it evolved over the past five years?
RN: Kunashe Foundation was initially formed to support women of child-bearing age, following the untimely loss of my twin boys, who were born prematurely.
This was a very painful point in my life after I had previously battled endometriosis, a female health condition affecting one in 10 women that leads to continuous hospitalisation and great mental distress.
I realised then that no one was coming to rescue me and that I had to get informed in order to take back my power.
So, I registered the organisation with nothing but support from friends and family. But what began as a response to a deep sense of loss has organically grown to become a transformative, audited and well-governed platform for women’s wellness and youth development.
Our work seeks to transform the lives of the eight million women and 4,8 million youths in Zimbabwe.
There are a number of factors — which include incomplete education, harmful cultural beliefs, limited financial literacy and poor health and wellbeing — that systematically limit the development of women and young people. Without intervention, girls miss out on opportunities for education, are at risk of abuse, unwanted pregnancies and dangerous abortions, and often have limited socioeconomic participation.
Vulnerable young people can also enter into early marriages.
UNICEF noted that 5 percent of school-going girls are marrying before attaining 15 years of age.
There is also the rising scourge of drug and substance abuse affecting young people, with 60 percent of psychiatric admissions in Zimbabwe’s health institutions being attributed to drug and substance abuse.
Kunashe Foundation seeks to tackle these issues by raising awareness through transformative programmes and advocating adequate support.
SM: How did you navigate through the Covid-19 pandemic, seeing that it hit when your organisation was in its infancy?
RN: The Covid-19 pandemic presented a myriad of challenges for us.
But I will never forget the support we received when Econet Wireless rallied behind us and funded a key programme to empower, inspire and equip young people. This gave me the hope I needed to continue the foundation’s work and also reinforced the belief that we truly are well-equipped as Africans to resolve our problems.
Equipped with renewed energy, I reached out to several Government ministries, the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) and other organisations, which supported and opened doors for us nationwide.
As we successfully completed various programmes, opportunities opened up for us to work with Steward Bank, Croco Motors, Celebration Church’s Compassion Ministries and many other organisations that rallied behind us.
As a result, we were able to support over 10 000 young people with personal development information and financial literacy resources, and help over 1 000 girls and women access safe sanitary wear.
SM: If you achieved all that during Covid, the post-pandemic period must have been even more impactful then.
RN: Indeed, I am grateful to say the pace and scale of our interventions post-Covid has increased, resulting in even greater impact.
For example, in 2022, Kunashe trained over 5 000 women and girls in sustainable female wellness management.
We also reached over 50 000 young people online through our mental health and financial wellness campaigns.
The feedback we have received from some of these programmes has been inspiring.
SM: We understand you have started to impact policy in and outside Zimbabwe through your advocacy work?
RN: Absolutely! This is something we are excited about.
As we have built capacity in specialisation and experience, we have also begun to contribute towards national policy.
Last year, we were included in the development of the National Family Planning Strategy, which was later launched by the Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Constantino Chiwenga.
We also launched a nationwide Nandos-powered programme, with the goal of improving female wellness across Zimbabwe.
In addition, we have taken our work across our borders, presenting our research findings at the International Conference on Family Planning held in Thailand in November last year.
This was a huge platform for Kunashe Foundation, where we presented alongside the world’s largest development organisations.
SM: Where do you see Kunashe Foundation in the next five years?
RN: If there has been one major takeaway for us from the past five years, it is that each one of us has the power to impact our communities for the better.
Over the next few years, we seek to reach over 100 000 women and young people in ways that leave them empowered.
A key part of this will be through the network of empowered young people we work with, who are champions in their local communities.
Through partnerships, we will provide sustainable support for our target population, ensuring inclusion and community-led programming spanning mental health, financial wellness, personal development and skills training.
The amazing thing about our work is that there is no effort that is too small; everything we do is impactful and serves communities.
