Ms Charity Muzenda-Gandidze is a strong willed, stern however friendly lady. She is well known by farmers who frequent the Agritex Goromonzi District Office due to her resourcefulness. Ms Muzenda as she is commonly known at her workplace is very diligent and hardworking. Apart from being a full-time employee of the Zimbabwean Government; Ms Muzenda is also a wife, mother and an upcoming businesswoman. Given all the responsibilities she bares one would be surprised to note that she has a disability.
Ms. Muzenda notes that she became disabled during her teenage years due to certain circumstances which rendered her left eye becoming completely unsighted. Despite these adverse circumstances Ms Muzenda who had obtained good ordinary level passes had ambitions of joining the Police Force. Unfortunately she was disqualified from joining the force due to her newly acquired disability. A young Charity was extremely devastated by this development.
Charity eventually picked herself up and decided to move on with her life. She was fortunate to stumble upon an opportunity to further her education and she took it with both hands. In no time Charity had qualified as an Agriculture Specialist. She mentioned that her main motivation for pursuing this career was the Land Reform Programme which was underway during the time she was considering career options. She observed that the advent of new farmers would lead to increased demand of Agriculture Specialists. In 2006 Charity joined the Ministry of Agriculture in Mashonaland East province under the Goromonzi district where was employed as an Agriculture Extension Specialist. Charity has not looked back from the day she started working in Goromonzi as an Agriculture Specialist or a “Mudhumeni” as her profession is known in the local language of Shona.
While working in Goromonzi Charity met the love of her life and in no time the lovebirds were married. Charity notes that she has faced her fair share of challenges while working as an Agriculture Specialist. When she first arrived in Goromonzi she faced so much stigmatization from the farmers who felt that she was not able to do her job well given that she is a woman who has a disability. Instead of letting the farmers attitudes discourage her, Charity worked extra hard to prove that she was indeed equal to the tasks at hand. Overtime Charity has gained the respect of the farmers in her area as she has proven herself to them.
Today Charity is a mother of 3 lovely children; 2 daughters and 1 son. Mai Tasha as she is affectionately known by her colleagues was awarded the best Agricultural Extension Specialist award for Goromonzi district in recognition of her hard-work and diligence in the year 2018. Today she has become a key staff member in the department of Agritex under Goromonzi district. She is very techno-savvy and her line manager, heavily depends on her I.T skills to keep the department functioning efficiently.
“Agriculture is a key driver of the Zimbabwean economy”, noted Charity. She went on to encourage others with disabilities to venture into farming. She noted that farming is a business, given access to land people with disabilities are able to produce wonders granted the right support. She further encouraged people with disabilities to form small groups and venture into cooperative farming for example in horticulture. She highlighted that there is power in synergism as we all have different strengths and weaknesses, when people combine efforts and resources they have the ability to achieve a lot. Ms Muzenda-Gandidze is a strong believer in economic empowerment of people with disabilities as she views this as being more sustainable for people with disabilities than the welfare approach where people with disabilities depend on welfare for survival. Her sentiments are inline with the recently promulgated Zimbabwe National Disability Policy which prescribes how people with disabilities should be empowered under section 3.2.