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Khama Phiri, Features Correspondent

IN a quiet, sunlit wing of Nketa 8 Community Hall in Bulawayo, a group of adolescent girls engage in various handiwork projects.

Some are engrossed in craft work and jam-making while others are busy drying vegetables, including ulude, and pounding moringa into powder.

All products are sold to the local community.

“Our craftwork covers mainly handbags and purses that we make using beads. We also redesign old ladies’ pumps (shoes) whose canvas is worn out. We add value to the shoes using cloth that matches a client’s African attire. We also make door mats from old sacks and pieces of cloths,” says Roseli Matimba, co-founder and leader of the group.

The girls are members of the Nketa-based Good Hope Dreams Club. Formed in January 2016 with the primary objective of reducing HIV and Aids prevalence rate among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), the club has given the disadvantaged girl child the impetus to drag herself out of the doldrums.

The economic enhancing projects are meant to help keep the girls away from mischief and delinquency.

Some of the girls receive training in hotel and catering, nurse aiding and motor mechanics while others are semi-professional netball players.

“We have 15 of our girls who are training as nurse-aides at St John Ambulance and are on attachment at different hospitals and clinics in the city.

“We use different economic strengthening programmes to empower the girls. Poverty causes disadvantaged girls to be easy targets for men, especially sugar daddies. We believe if we empower the girl child economically and with information and knowledge, her ability to say ‘NO’ to premarital sex will be enhanced,” says Matimba, 23, a trained HIV and Aids facilitator.

The club works with an enrolment of 35 adolescent girls at a given time, targeting those aged between 15 and 24 for membership.

Club facilitators first identify the girls they want to recruit using a set standard procedure anchored on age and willingness to learn.

“We always work with a standard number of 35 girls. At the moment, however, we are working with two groups of 35 each at the same time but as a club we have reached out to more than 100 girls. Girls who attain 24 years of age cease to be active members and become mentors,” said Matimba.

The club draws most of its human and material resources from the local community of Nketa 8.
These include the expertise and lemons which they use to make marmalade jam.

A local woman, a Mrs Moyo, coached the girls how to make marmalade jam while another taught them how to make handbags and purses using beads.

“We sell our products locally by just displaying them in this room. We avoid extensive marketing since we are producing at a small-scale,” said Matimba.

At times club members visit other suburbs as a way of inspiring fellow youths elsewhere to emulate their positive ways. They have been to Nkulumane and Emakhandeni.

Three weeks ago, the girls were in Makokoba for a soccer and netball sporting event that also involved boys’ teams. Boys’ involvement in the operations of the club is limited but vital, says Matimba.

“The Makokoba event attracted members of the public. A number of people were voluntary tested for HIV and Aids on the sidelines of the games. Such sporting events are a sign that boys support the girl child’s programmes. In our modules we even have topics like Men as Partners in the Fight against HIV and Aids. We value their support as they help make a big impact in changing behaviour and attitude of girls and young women,” said Matimba.

Good Hope Dreams Club works closely with the National Aids Council in its information dissemination.

It is also part of the DREAMS project which seeks to economically empower the girl child as a strategy to help fight new HIV infections.

“DREAMS is an acronym for Determined Resilient Empowered Aids-free Mentored Safe. As Good Hope Club we are contributing a lot in the reduction of HIV and Aids through our club sessions where we share information and knowledge. I also accept ideas and advice from members. I have been working with Sibonile Marozva another club facilitator and our district facilitator, Sthandile Msebele,” says Matimba.

In its formative days, the club struggled to attract a large membership. Only five girls whose role was limited to writing referrals for youths with Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) to go to the clinic joined.

“Most girls found the subject of HIV and Aids boring,” noted Matimba. “We managed to lure the girls to the club through the life skills component we introduced.

“Membership has greatly increased and we are overwhelmed”.

The club sustains its projects from internal lending and savings realised from selling products like handbags.

Matimba is an Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) student with the National University of Science and Technology.

In five years’ time she hopes to have turned the club into a company.

“The future looks bright for us. We are planning to start a company. I want to help more girls. My father passed away years back when I was in Grade 5. My mother has always been there for me. The situation moulded me to be what I am. It inspired me to help others,” says Matimba.

Unlike some of their peers who gain notoriety in abusing drugs and engaging in juvenile delinquencies like premarital sex, the Nketa-based girls are mastering the art of living independently and responsibly.

One of the club’s success stories is Sherolom Mahlekete, 22, a girl whose world revolved around watching television series before joining Good Hope Club.

“I never did anything to sustain myself as I would spend the whole day watching Bollywood series. That has all changed as I can now make jam, mats, dry moringa and vegetables as well as plait hair. I am no longer a dependent, thanks to Good Hope Club and Matimba who invited me to join,” said Mahlekete.

She had two Ordinary level passes when she joined the club in 2016 but today she now has a full certificate. Good Hope Club sponsored her studies, meeting all costs.

Mahlekete, who has always dreamt of becoming a nurse since her high school days, is training as a nurse aide with St John Ambulance.

She is on attachment at Mzilikazi Barracks Clinic in Bulawayo, formerly Brady Barracks Clinic.

“I have also applied for the nurse training course with one of the leading government hospitals in the city. I hope to be enrolled and fulfil my dream,” said Mahlekete.

Simangaliphi Moyo, the District Aids Coordinator for Nkulumane believes clubs affiliated to the DREAMS project are playing a big role in creating an Aids free generation.

She says, “NAC is mandated to coordinate all HIV and Aids related interventions with a major focus on prevention because we believe investing in prevention of new infections especially among adolescent girls and young women will go a long way towards achieving our goal of ending Aids by 2030. We work closely with Matimba and her Good Hope Club. They are doing a great job”.

Moyo said DREAMS programmes were aimed at developing empowered and resilient young women.

She said once club members are empowered with comprehensive knowledge and life skills, they are able to protect themselves from HIV.

“If they have access to related services they are also exposed to various socio-economic approaches to address structural drivers that may likely predispose AGYW to HIV such as unemployment and poverty and reduce risk behaviours among AGYW,” said Moyo.