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It’s getting close. We’re heading back to Zim and South Africa to pay a visit to our partners, and for the first time since EF’s inception we want YOU to follow along as we travel. You can meet the team going over through these video blogs, and then follow us via Twitter!
As always, don’t hesitate to drop us a line. Keep spreading hope and opportunity!
-scott
Trip to Our Partners in Africa intro from Elias Fund on Vimeo.
A quick note from Scott (co-director of EF):
Going to visit our partners in Zimbabwe and South Africa mid-April (leaving 14 April). I’m particularly excited to be accompanied by Adam Delp from The 1010 Project and Greg Althoff from blkmtn studio. All of us share an office here in Denver, CO and are exploring professional collaborations, hence, this trip! I’m confident that the collaboration between our three organizations will bring greater empowerment to our Zimbabwean friends, which of course is the motivation for everything we do.
We hope to have some video blogs and postings for you to stay connected. So keep checking in for progress on the trip. Keep spreading hope and opportunity…
-scott
Our partners in Kadoma, Zimbabwe sent this update today. It’s quite telling to the reality of the situation on the ground:
Zim is slowly and painfully trying to be a normal place again. Chldren are attending school in a multi-currency environment. Our dollar cannot trade anymore because its virtually bond paper now and none are willing to accept it. Yet, prices of goods are starting to go down. People in some companies, especially those offering essential services, have yet to adjust their thinking and pricing system so that they are in tandem to the actual costs which are competitive regionally. We are still hopeful that we will pull through as a nation. -Kennedy and Sylvester (Youth Education Training)
Rarely has good news come from Zimbabwe these past couple of years, but the recent unity government (GNU) is starting to show signs that good news is on the rise. The GNU has begun stabilizing Zimbabwe’s economic train wreck through wholesale dollarization. This means that the Zim dollar is no longer in circulation. The Zim economy is now based on US currency. As Kennedy and Sylvester mentioned above, prices are starting to go down. This is due to the currency switch, which will hopefully decrease Zim’s hyper-inflation. Goods are starting to populate store shelves again. Bakeries are beginning to sell bread again. Common services are beginning to operate again. This is good news!
Yet for as much hope as we can take in this good news, the situation still remains disturbingly fragile. Too much infrastructure has been damaged, too many businesses have gone under, too much trust has been lost for Zimbabwe’s economy to turn around in a timely fashion. It will be a long, hard struggle back to normalcy.
But of course, this is why the Elias Fund continues its work. A development organization remains partnered with its friends before, during and after crisis situations. Along with our friends Kennedy an Sylvester of YET, we are still hopeful Zim will pull through as a nation!
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