Zimbabwean stories of "Best Practice" - SAfAIDS

What happens when men cease to be breadwinners?Mr Handikendengi 12 lived with his family in Odzi Township. At one point, he lost his job at Kondozifarm and could no longer provide for his family. The whole family went for days without food. Asa result of the suffering in the home, Mr. Handikendengi's wife decided to look for firewood to sellin the township. The fetching of firewood for sale was never disclosed to the husband.When the woman made money from the sale of firewood, she bought food and prepared it at thehome of her closest friend. She would then eat the food and leave some for her four children. Onreturning to her marital home, she would pretend to be sending one of her children to the friend'shome to fetch some items. When the child got there she would be given food. The child wouldreturn home and secretly inform the other children to take their turns going to eat at the friend'shome. This happened for some days without the husband's knowledge. The wife was punishinghim for failing to provide for the family since losing his job.When the husband discovered that he was the only one without access to food, he did not makeany noise about it but he too started doing some petty trading. He started earning some moneyand bought food for himself only and ate outside. When the wife discovered it, she became furiousand accused the husband of being selfish. The domestic dispute resulted in constant friction andfights between the couple.The situation worsened to the extent where the husband deemed it fit to approach the Padareexecutive to assist.Community involvement in Padare intervention is high. The community was involved from inception throughto implementation. Community members were active participants in the situational analysis (needsassessment). Following on this, the various groups in the community participated in the selection of areasto be focused on in scaling up intervention on HIV and gender justice in Odzi community.With reference to this:Elderly women pledged to target the young couples and teach behaviour change through the church.Divorcees and widows promised to encourage fellow divorcees and widows to engage in income generatingprojects and also to offer counselling services for behaviour change among commercial sex workers. Theyexpected this to reduce GBV, STIs and HIV and improve the economic base of families currently affectedby prostitution.20-30 year-old men pledged that they would:• Engage in counselling, advocacy and awareness-raising on GBV and HIV• Teach fellow young and recently married men on the need for safer and more satisfying sexualrelationships• Engage in income generating projects like poultry, piggery etc• Fight GBV and the spread of HIV in Odzi through edutainment like soccer, drama and campaignmatches.12 Not his real name77