I am a freshman at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. My parents were missionaries for twenty-one years in association with the International Mission Board, centered in Richmond, Virginia, and consequently I was born and raised in Southern Africa. My parents started in Botswana, and I was nine when we moved to Zimbabwe. God has called me to missions, and although I do not know where He will ultimately lead me, my heart for Zimbabwe has grown in passion and burden. God is doing great things, and I am honored to be a part of them!
Would you like to be a part of organizing and mobilizing this event? Contact us by leaving a comment, or send us a message through Facebook.
As we go forward, may the peace of God be with you; and may we pray for that peace to be found throughout the great nation of Zimbabwe.
Giles
Updates: Day of Prayer Events
With two weeks to go until the Day of Prayer, we want to share your stories of your campus, church or other prayer events that are supporting the Day of Prayer. Send Aaron an e-mail with your story and pictures about your event. We’ll post those in the coming days!
Students under attack
Students in Zimbabwe’s tertiary institutions are under serious and life threatening attacks by the unruly regime of Robert Mugabe. The ZINASU President, Promise Mkwananzi is currently in hiding, after being reliably informed that he is amongst the top most wanted pro-democracy activists. An innocent student was viciously attacked by state security agents in town after being mistaken for Mkwananzi. The student was however released after producing his identity. He sustained a broken jaw.
Two student leaders from the University of Zimbabwe were severly assaulted on the 21st of March 2007, whilst on their way to their halls of residents from the evening study at around 8.45pm. One of the student leaders, Tatenda Kunaka sustained two deep cuts in the face. Another student leader, again from the University of Zimbabwe, Lovemore Chinoputsa, was attacked by the police in town at the Haverst House and sustained internal injuries. Lovemore is currently admitted at a private clinic in Borrowdale, Harare. ZINASU Vice President, Gideon Chitanga, was physically assaulted by non-uniformed police officers at the Magistrates courts in Masvingo today, where he was to appeared in court for his trial after being arrested for addressing a Students General Meeting at the Masvingo State University in February this year.
Two student activists from the Bulawayo Polytechnic College, Lancelot Mugadza and Obey Munyoro who were on suspension, were last week expelled from college after having addressed students in the campus dining hall. Lancelot was a candidate for the SRC Presidential elections which were then held after his expulsion.
Meanwhile, students and their leaders all over the country have vowed to support the two day stayaway, which was called for by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The action is on from 3rd of April to the 4th of April 2007. The stay away comes against a backdrop of high annual inflation rate, which is currently pegged at 1729.9%, high cost of living, exhobitant prices of the anti-retroviral drugs among other issues.
Defending Academic Freedoms in Zimbabwe (DAFIZ)
The Information Desk
Zimbabwe National Students Union
21 Wembly Road, Eastlea, Harare, Zimbabwe,
00263912301231/ 002634788135
zinasu@gmail.com
www.zinasu.org
The Latest from Zimbabwe (CNN)
• NEW: Britain, EU condemn arrests of Zimbabwe opposition leaders
• Police raid opposition party HQ before scheduled news conference
• Party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, others arrested, official says
• African leaders meet in Tanzania to discuss crisis in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe opposition leaders arrested (Reuters)
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) — Zimbabwe police stormed the main opposition party’s headquarters and arrested its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, on Wednesday, as African leaders gathered in Tanzania to debate Zimbabwe’s escalating political crisis.
Tsvangirai, who opposition officials say was badly beaten during an earlier police crackdown this month, was among a number of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials held when heavily armed riot police entered the party’s Harare offices, the MDC said.
The arrests brought immediate condemnation from Britain, the former colonial power in Zimbabwe, and from the European Union.
The MDC said Tsvangirai had been due to hold a news conference “on the escalating and systemic campaign of violence and intimidation” by President Robert Mugabe’s government.
Mugabe: “Little Fellows” like Bush, Blair don’t scare me [Reuters]
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) — Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe vowed on Friday to survive any Western attempt to dislodge him from power.
Mugabe said Britain and the United States would never overcome the support he enjoys in his ruling ZANU-PF party, which led the former Rhodesia to black majority rule in 1980.
“Nothing frightens me, not even little fellows like Bush and Blair. I have seen it all, I don’t fear any suffering or a struggle of any kind,” Mugabe, 83, said to cheers from ZANU-PF supporters at a meeting in Harare.
“I make a stand and stand on principle here where I was born, here where I grew up, here where I fought and here where I shall die,” Mugabe said, accusing the West of sponsoring the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to overthrow his government.
One of Zimbabwe’s top Roman Catholic clerics, Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, on Friday repeated his call for mass peaceful protests to end Mugabe’s 27-year rule.
Harare Report: 1 March, 2007
Undercover report from Harare together with a short interview with Henry Olonga - aired on ITV in the UK 1st March 2007 at 2230hrs