Letter to UNDP and OCHA from WOZA (13-02-07)

Madam Asekongye Oonyu,

Re: The People’s Charter – a blueprint for a better Zimbabwe
The women and men of WOZA have initiated a
non-violent campaign with the aim of mobilising Zimbabweans to
demand social justice from their leaders. The time
has come to put the past behind us and start building a
better tomorrow. We plan to hold existing leaders
accountable and mobilise people to demand leaders
who will deliver all aspects of social justice and a
genuinely people-driven constitution. We need help
from international friends however and this is why
we are approaching you.

Our resolution was made after an eleven-month,
nationwide consultation process. During 2006, over
284 meetings, consulting almost 10,000 rural and urban
people on social justice were conducted. The people
spoke clearly about what they want in a new Zimbabwe
and their contributions formed the People’s Charter,
which is attached below.

As Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and Men of
ZimbabweArise (MOZA) take to the streets of Bulawayo and
Harare today to mark WOZA’s fifth Valentine’s
Campaign, they will be marching with the theme ‘The
People’s Charter – giving you a better life, a betterZimbabwe’.

In Harare, the protest is starting outside the
offices of the UNDP. In WOZA’s first Valentine’s campaign in
2003, then Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, was chosen
as WOZA’s ‘valentine’ and a petition delivered to
the UNDP at the start of the demonstration. It was
decided