Below is the ECV team of professionals who together put together the beautiful pieces of work.
Kathy Bond-Stewart is a community publisher, writer, editor, facilitator. She is an artist of the spirit, enhancing the voices and creativity of those who have previously been silenced. Her academic background is Philosophy and Literature. She is author and editor of more than seventy publications with community voices and relevant information on children’s rights, participation and protection, young people’s leadership, gender equality, constitutional democracy, poverty reduction and peace building. While she has mainly worked in Zimbabwe, her international experience includes South Africa, Portugal and consultancies in Kenya, Mozambique and Angola.
-Participatory research.
-Community empowerment through community publishing.
-Enabling children to express themselves freely, access information and participate in the issues affecting them.
-Using images to spark discussion.
-The ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds and build relationships across divides.
-Soft strength, creative non-violent approaches to reducing conflict.
-Achieving results regardless of circumstances.
Lucia Manyuchi is an adult educator, counsellor and facilitator. She has forty years experience in adult education, development work and training, including Training For Transformation. She has fourteen years experience in peace-building. She is also a qualified counsellor specialising in Systemic Therapy, cultivating relationships within families, organisations and communities. She strives to do what she knows best and to share her knowledge, while continuing to learn from others. Her commitment is her greatest gift.
-Designing developmental training programmes.
-Facilitating workshops.
-Peace-building and conflict resolution.
-Deep listening and counselling.
-Motivating people to identify and solve issues of concern.
Allien Phiri is an administrator, human resources manager and project coordinator. Early in her career, she qualified as Top Flight Secretary. She studied Development Studies at Training For Transformation at The Grail Centre in South Africa. She has more than ten years experience in Non Governmental Organisations as Human Resources Coordinator and in Finance and Administration. Her vision is to see ECV grow into a strong organisation which recognises and advocates for excluded voices in society.
-Co-editing, layout and book design.
-Human Resources.
-Dealing with diverse people and difficult situations.
-Strategic thinking.
-Project management using participatory methods.
-Supervision of Shona and Ndebele translations.
Anxious Katuruza is an experienced artist and illustrator. He started working with the organisation in the 1990’s as a youth artist. He is responsible for aesthetics, poster design and turning concepts into visual codes. One of his early works is the richly illustrated children’s book Syankombo. His career highlights include participating in books that went on to be popular with the masses, such as Discovering The Children’s Rights Rainbow. It is his wish to continue to evolve, grow and develop in his role as an artist/illustrator as well as explore his other, as yet unrealised dreams, to live and experience the fulfilment of his potential in every regard.
-Illustrating publications (70+publications in the past twenty years).
-Creating images which generate discussion on key community themes.
-Designing book covers (for samples of his work, see book covers).
-Producing an artist’s manual.
-Mentoring community artists.
Amon Tsabola is a community development worker, highly experienced in logistics. He always finds a way forward even in tough situations. His networking space is large and extremely useful. He has a passion for protecting the rights of the most vulnerable, especially children.
Nicea Gumbo is a lawyer and a specialist in children’s rights and women's rights. She holds a Master’s in Women's Law, and a Master's in Constitutional and Human Rights Law. She also has a Post Graduate Diploma in Community Development and Humanitarian Project Management, and Project Management Methodology. She is passionate about human rights, women and children’s rights, gender justice, legal reforms, advocacy and empowerment.
Lightwell Mpofu is a peace and justice specialist with a keen interest and expertise in human rights, governance and peace-building issues.
Judith Stewart is a writer, copywriter and teacher. She writes fictional screenplays, reflecting on real-life social drama. She also researches and produces documentary films.
Tapiwa K. Tsikai is a psychologist by profession. He was born with a disability and is passionate about inclusive policies, self-representation, and empowering people with disabilities. He has vast experience in the disability sector, which began as programs coordinator of the Young Voices project which called for the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). Regionally, Tapiwa served as Vice Secretary General of the African Youth with Disabilities network, an organisation based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is currently working to improve Universal Accessibility of the Tourism Industry in Zimbabwe. He is on the board of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association of Zimbabwe (SHAZ), and the National Disability Expo organising committee.
Thandi Bombi is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies. She holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Media Studies with a focus on Communication for Development and Social Change, from Rhodes University. Thandi’s PHD proposes to use Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods to explore Political Listening and Lisbeth Lipari’s concept of Listening Otherwise to understand what is possible when listening is prioritised in the space of gender-based violence in South Africa. The process leading to this focus was inspired by Thandi’s creative writing, which attempts to represent women’s experiences in South Africa, particularly when faced with trauma and violence.
