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as evidenced by roofs that have carved in, broken windows and vegetation that has grown wild around the homesteads.
This I thought could be the effects of HIV and Aid that have killed the husband and the wife, leaving children who are too young to stay on their own.
I saw some children going to school, some with shoes and some without.

They were those with uniforms others without. One could not help but wonder what strategies can be employed that could help to improve the lives of these children.
You know with winter the vegetation looks dry and the land barren.
This tends to exaggerate the general state of lack that people in the rural areas live with.

I remember asking the ladies who were with me what could be done to reduce the level of poverty of our people. The reply that I got was that it is unfortunate as poverty is part of the world order.
This brought the conversation to an end but not a closure of the matter in my thoughts. I found myself thinking about issues around poverty and how can the evil be eradicated or reduced in line with Millennium Development Goals.

Despite this gloomy picture, I noticed that the cattle, goats and the free range pigs looked very healthy.
I could see some maize stalks on the raised platforms “dara” kept for fodder.
This plus the cotton bales by the roadside showed that people had harvested something for consumption as well as for income generation.

In today world money is what makes the economy go round. Yet we know that cattle, goats, chickens, pigs and food constitute the rural economy.
From our history we learn that people who were considered rich were those with more cattle and could produce more food. These were well respected members of society known as “hurudza.”
I therefore wondered at the applicability of the term poverty to a community that had all these symbols of wealth in the Africa context.

How then is poverty defined in the African context?
Could I be right therefore to conclude that culturally money is very foreign?
If it is so then it is possible that people do not hold the right beliefs and value systems about money.

Thus it is not surprising that those who have made money are often accused of bewitching others in the family or community.
Similarly there are some who do not know the laws of making money and think that it comes through magic hence they employ unethical ways to get it.
Thus we hear of ritual killings or weird things happening in the name of money. As a result some people see money as an evil and would rather remain poor.

If this analysis is right then it would mean that fighting poverty has to begin in the mind.
People need to be taught the right attitudes and beliefs towards money.
The other day I found myself going back memory lane recalling childhood dreams or wishes.

I recalled what one of my form two teachers shared with us.
He said that his wish was to spend a large chunk of his first pay on choice assorted biscuits.
What interested me most was what my sister told me one day as we were having a girl’s chart before we dozed off to sleep.

As a young lady who loved to dress up, she said she was going to spend her money on clothing.
She said she would rather sleep under sacks than buy blankets and use her money on clothes. Thank God she it did not turn out that way. Unfortunately there are people who have never learnt to prioritise things in life.

I am sure we know of someone who when they get money blow it all up on luxurious living.
They buy the unnecessary things that have no long term value or enhance living standards.
They spend money on people who will disappear as soon as the money disappears.

We have heard stories that happen in the tobacco and cotton selling seasons. People toil for months hoping to enjoy the fruit of their labour at harvest time.
When the time comes they are too excited to be rational on expenditure patterns.
Another extreme is that of people who are so tight fisted that their earnings do not benefit them.

Nothing changes around them with the additional income; it is as if suffering is a virtue.
Others also have assets such as cattle or goats that they can convert to cash but they would rather suffer than let them go.
Sadly these things become a source of disputes upon the person’s death as people fight over the inheritance. Sad isn’t after having lived a life of poverty yet holding on to things that could have transformed life.

I have also noted that without a vision and plan money comes and goes without leaving an impact on the holder. As a result people live a substandard life which could have been better.
How many people do we know who ask for startup capital but never get started?
If they do they cannot separate capital from profit hence they always come back for more.

To me this serves to show that there is need to create awareness in people of the right beliefs about money and proper stewardship of resources.
The book of Proverbs in the Bible speaks a lot on poverty.
Some of the root causes of poverty are laziness, indiscipline, empty talk and no action, fantasies and undue withholding of things from others (kunyima).

If we look closely at these we see that these are products of attitude, which in turn create mindsets.
There is need for a change from a poverty mindset to an abundant mindset.
Tell me, is it standard to have poorly lit and very small toilets in the rural areas?

Most of the toilets are so small that one has to walk sideways.
What keeps us from building roomy and well lit toilets?

Is the design of these toilets an invention of Africa?
If not have our engineers failed to adapt it to suit the big African woman?

Food for thought!
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