Zimbabwe Netzwerk /Zimbabwe Network

The Zimbabwe Network has approximately 150 members. It came into being in 1982 and is a registered charity.

To quote the publicly promoted profile: "We regard it as an important task to take the example of Zimbabwe to show global correlations and the north-south divide. We contribute to the public discussion through our acquired competence and expertise pertaining to Zimbabwe, with the objective to encourage awareness of development policies and critical commitment to create more justice in the one world we have. The members of the Zimbabwe Network feel committed to the people of Zimbabwe and their interests in a special way. To this end, we observe and comment on the – at present once again strained – developments in Zimbabwe as well as on the regional and global correlations, not only from a European view and from a distance, but in direct exchange with Zimbabwean people and NGOs."

Members of the Network have more intensively concerned themselves with the subjects of education, structural adaptation, constitution and human rights, women, tourism, ecology and HIV/AIDS and try to continue their work according to topicality and potential.

The Network publishes a circular letter two to three times a year and, twice a month, a press overview of items from Zimbabwean newspapers. From 1992 – 2000, an annual women’s seminar was held as a platform for cultural exchange with German women and Zimbabwean women living in Germany. From time to time, the Network also offers seminars and events on other topics and for different target groups.

The Network addresses Zimbabweans living in Germany, former so-called development aid volunteers, organizations in the field of development cooperation, schools and students. Furthermore, it serves as a contact for and partner in cooperations with journalists, participants of exchange and partnership projects, interested tourists and all those concerned about Zimbabwe.

Within the umbrella organization KOSA, the Network has also been concerned with problems in trade and industry in the SADC countries as well as with debt relief of Zimbabwe. The existing contacts with the Zimbabwean Federation of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and other civil rights groups are to be kept and deepened in the future.

Closer contact has been made to the group issa following many years of shared offices and to the KKM as another country specific group.