On Wednesday the 6th February 2019, Vendors Initiative Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) hosted a Community Decision Making Forum meeting in Lower Gweru, ward 7, St Faith Business Center. The meeting was attended by Mr Madla Councilor for ward 7, 4 village heads, 2 religious leaders, over 50 informal traders and general community members from around St Faith Business Centre.
The participants at the meeting raised a number of challenges facing residents in ward 7. The captured challenges are as follows:
- The community identified the need for a clinic as villagers are walking more than 10 km to the nearest clinic. This has more adverse effects on women as some of them are giving birth by the roadside.
- There is need for a bridge at Sabakhwenyana river. It connects two wards and mostly children use it to school and during rainy season it is difficult to cross for people and vehicles.
- The community members raised the need for access to clean water and for this they called for the local authority to drill more boreholes in the area.
- Dip tanks in the area are in a state of disrepair and need to be attended to so that the cattle herd of the area can thrive.
- Informal traders called for the construction of vending shades at At Faith Business centre
- The local dams are silted and require urgent rehabilitation.
- The community called for the rehabilitation of irrigation schemes for community income generation and poverty alleviation
- The need for a secondary school close to community was also identified as school children are walking long distances to school.
In closing, one of the headmen thanked VISET for organizing the meeting. He urged the organization not to be like other NGOs in the area who have habit of coming once and disappearing.
Source: Vendors Initiative Social and Economic Transformation (VISET)
