Compiled by: Washington Masenda.
Following my appointment as new National Administrator cum Director for Assitej/ IATA Zimbabwe, I had a vision to work towards the improvement of many issues. The biggest among them was the growth of membership and a more reliable structure which was decentralised. My dream to make Assitej Zimbabwe grow as one of the biggest Centres within the continent has come to be exciting. Previously the national Association used to recruit school and community based organisations as members. They joined through their own interest and choice and this resulted in our membership being too scattered for smooth operations. This experience was not very user friendly and sometimes one could drive for more than 250KM to visit one or two members’ schools.
A concept of a national festival was accepted by the honourable Minister of Primary and Secondary Education in Zimbabwe and he went on to support our initiative to organize all the schools in their respective structures. By so doing, authority was hereby granted for Assitej Zimbabwe to establish branches and chapters within Zimbabwe‘s ten provinces and more than sixty six districts. The idea of a national festival is a most welcome development that the Ministry supports fully. The Ministry also felt the the national festival will undoubtedly help learners to develop their skills in the areas of theatre and hopefully will help them to take up as careers in this genre in the future.
To register as members of the national association of theatre for children and young people, Assitej Zimbabwe is asking each school to pay US$50.00 as registration and US$50.00 as annual subscription, whilst community based theatre companies and organizations will pay US$30.00 respectively.
This means Assitej Zimbabwe is set to grow from the last maximum recruitment of less than seven hundred members to around ten thousand members from the ten provinces. The supporting structures will include the national committee comprising of Provincial representative and stakeholders, then Provincial Committee and District Committees. The committees will spearhead their programmes in a decentralised manner, as well as mobilising resources. A Secretariat for all those levels will be established and this will make the work easier in coordination and planning. Rebranding of the organization has started with the change to a new logo which we are already promoting.
Many thanks to “Together As One” for accommodating Assitej Zimbabwe in their small office in Highfield. Assitej Zimbabwe looks forward to move to a more spacious office and more recruitment of staff will take place and to this effort, we want to depend on resources from membership fees before we extend our hands to corporate and NGOs or funding organizations.
Assitej Zimbabwe is set!
