New Hope Foundation Zimbabwe
ABOUT US:
We are a Child Human Rights Defenders NGO based in Zimbabwe as well as a member of the Global Peace Lets Talk, implementing research-based interventions that are meant to empower, promote and protect the rights of every Child, youths and women.
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We implement our activities through Community Arts and Culture activism.
Our core activity is on Promoting and Protecting Child Rights, a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors.​
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Born as New Hope Zimbabwe Trust in 2000, in Epworth, a high-density suburb near Harare, Zimbabwe, NHF-Zimbabwe has established itself globally through its Child Rights Defenders platform carrying out human rights activities through Art and Culture.
With a membership of 15 000 Child Human Rights Defenders across Zimbabwe and millions across Africa, NHF-Zimbabwe's strategy has become a solution for many children who have been exposed to child abuse and their rights violated each day.
NHF-Zimbabwe has now come of age: After 20 years of existence, in 2015 it gave birth to a global movement called the New Hope Foundation Global Network (NHF-Global Network), an international NGO that is now in 20 countries worldwide.
OUR ARTS AND CULTURE ACTIVISM:
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We Believe That Our Arts and Cultural Strategies Enhance Community Engagement, Participation and can be used to create family and community economies.
Using Arts and Culture strategies in promoting child rights brings community participation and involvement that promotes relationship building through learning, action, and the expression of needs and values. We believe that community engagement can bring vibrancy and innovation to planning practices by strengthening the degree of community commitment to promoting and protecting child rights.
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In our project, we use creative tools for community engagement that include innovative visual-art techniques, storytelling, social-networking technology, exhibits, music, performance, festivals, and community gatherings.
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Child Human Rights Activities categorised into two groups:
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NHF-Zimbabwe activities are into two forms Economic, social and cultural rights, related to the conditions necessary to meet basic human needs such as food, shelter, education, health care, and gainful employment. Included are rights to education, adequate housing, food, water, the highest attainable standard of health, the right to work and rights at work, as well as the cultural rights of minorities and indigenous peoples.
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Environmental, cultural and developmental rights, which are sometimes called "third generation rights," and including the right to live in safe and healthy environments and that groups of people have the right to cultural, political, and economic development.
VISION
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We envision a nation where children, youths and women know their rights, are able to claim them, and become child rights defenders, peace ambassadors, advocates for social justice and human rights advocates, working with us to build their skills, and become economically empowered citizens.
MISSION
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Ensuring that all children, youth and women have the opportunity to maximize their creative potential by developing their entrepreneurial abilities, acquire leadership skills that enable them to become advocates for change, and promote community social justice and human rights advocacy actions.
OUR VALUES AND CULTURE​
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We strive to be transparent and accountable to our funders and beneficiaries, recognizing that all people are born free and equal in dignity. We are sensitive to the moral values, religion, customs, traditions, and culture of the communities we serve, with this in mind we shall respect the integrity of families and support family-based life as well as respect religious freedom.
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LEADERSHIP
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We are dedicated to developing and supporting effective leaders who can empower people and organizations to work together to advance social justice and human rights through the arts.
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EQUITY
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We promote accessibility, inclusion, racial justice, and social change because the arts are fundamental to our humanity and a catalyst for equity.
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CREATIVITY
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We value the pursuit of creative processes that change lives, neighbourhoods, and communities, and inspire innovation for the public good.
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COMMUNITY
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We promote arts education knowing that it fosters oneness, self discovery, mutual understanding, and connection between people and cultures.
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Promoting Art and Culture Activities in year 2004
The Early Days. Year 2000 To 2005
Back in the early days, NHF-Zimbabwe as it is now was composed of community volunteers, a small group of people who wanted to see a change in people's lives, 4 gentlemen with a passion to see change joined the founder of the organization, but with funding challenges, the rest did not last, they left in the first year and as the founder of this organization Elfas Mcloud Shangwa pushed on the dream.
For the first 4 years from the year 2000 he toiled without an office or a budget until the year 2004, he registered the organization and started to operate as a Trust in a peri-urban area called Epworth which is 15 kilometres away from the city of Harare., with the zeal for success and using the little resources he had at his disposal he managed to attract the attention of donor agencies in Harare and in 2005 real action started.
