VANAVEVHU The youth involved in Vanavevhu work in the gardens and on beekeeping and candle-making projects. They also spend time in the classroom learning about practical life skills, FROM PREVIOUS PAGE But Mhangami soon began to question the ways she could and
should contribute to her home country. “I started studying political science, post-colonial Africa, and dependency and aid, and I started questioning what my role was,” she says. “I started wanting to be ef- fective in a way that would be more empowering than handouts.” Mhangami transferred from Harold Washington to Loyola in 2005
and began focusing her studies on the transition of women from informal to formal actors on the international political stage. “Through reading and gathering all this knowledge, I began to
identify my position and my politics,” Mhangami says. “I came to read about children who were heads of household as a result of AIDS. Zimbabwe was becoming the country in sub-Saharan Africa with the highest number of orphans.” According to Mhangami, the phenom- enon of child-headed households was first recorded in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. It became clear to her that AIDS was creating a similar community in Zimbabwe. After graduating from Loyola in 2007, Mhangami pursued a
master’s degree in women’s and gender studies at DePaul. She registered Vanavevhu in Chicago. “I named the organization before I knew what I would be doing,” she says. “I started finding where my purpose could be.” In 2008, Mhangami traveled to Zimbabwe to do research for her
thesis. It was the first time she’d been back in nearly a decade. “I started assessing how practical it would be for me to move back,” she says. “Zimbabwe had just had a pretty violent election, and that helped me make the decision.” She moved in December of 2009. “I was one of those kids who grew up in Zimbabwe watching
MTV,” Mhangami recalls. “When I was told I was coming to America, I was excited. I thought it would be like Fresh Prince or Saved by the Bell. But when I got there, I learned there’s no place like home.” Vanavevhu now works with 11 households supporting 60 depen-
dents. The youth who are heads of their household range in age from 14 to 22. Eight are girls and three are boys, and they are largely the firstborn. Some have been taking care of themselves and their siblings for as long as six years.
“We select the households we work with by looking for youth
who have been involved in entrepreneurial activities or informal trade on their own,” says Mhangami. “They’ve been able to take care of their families and survive—especially in 2007–8, when the country saw hyperinflation rates—without descending into illegal activities. These youth managed to do what work was available with little edu- cation and few skills, and they made enough money to continue.” John Rex-Waller, CEO of National Surgical Hospitals, is active on
the board of Vanavevhu in Chicago. He was born in Zambia and raised in Zimbabwe, and he connected with Mhangami through the Rotary club project that sent supplies in 2003. “I watched the idea develop,” he says, of Vanavevhu. “When she was ready to move, I wanted to help in any way I could to get the business on the ground.” Rex-Waller, who met with the Vanavevhu youth during a visit in
April, was impressed by their resolve. “They’re incredible. One of the kids was taking his incapacitated father to the hospital in a wheel- barrow, because he couldn’t walk,” he says. “Relatives would come in and take what they wanted from the household, but they couldn’t afford to look after the kids. So the kids just said, what now? They put their siblings through school and fed them. They have had a really tough time, but there’s no sense of victimization there. They just figure it out.”
A DAY AT
“WHAT’S FUN
ABOUT VANAVEVHU IS HOW THEORY
IS BEING TURNED INTO PRACTICE.”
14 LOYOLA UNIVERSIT Y CHICAGO
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