Zimbabwe Vigil Diary – 6th January 2007

r activists and promised to come back. As she says on her website “As long as we neglect the welfare of the Zimbabweans who are suffering under Mugabe’s evil regime we remain as immoral as the perpetrators of our suffering” – (http://www.viomakcharitymusic.com).
We were pleased to welcome a group from Wolverhampton, who on this climatically- challenged day took over 4 hours to reach us. We also had a group from Crawley and people from Leicester and Derby who had similar nightmare journeys. Watching the water cascading from the bulging tarpaulin, one of our supporters said “Zimbabwe’s true wonder is back” referring to the rather strange new poster with that slogan advertising the Victoria Falls in the Embassy window (where did it go – Zambia, South Africa?). Despite the bad weather, it was encouraging that so many people stopped at the Vigil to express their support. By the end we could hardly fit under our tattered tarpaulin but the drumming and dancing alleviated the gloom.
The total number of supporters attending the Vigil has gone up from around 400 in 2004 to nearly 900 in 2006. Average attendance has increased from 31 people per Vigil in 2004 to 61 people per Vigil in 2006. For this week’s Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR THE RECORD: 42 signed the register.