Tinashe Chimedze

Human Rights - Zimbabwe (South Africa)

 

In April 2005, Tinashe Chimedza was speaking at an education forum in Zimbabwe when police descended on the meeting, breaking it up, and restraining Tinashe.  Half an hour later, Tinashe was dragged to the local police station barely conscious and unable to walk. Currently Tinashe is living in Sydney without knowing when he is able to go back to his home country.

However, Tinashe is not giving up his fight for human rights in Zimbabwe.  High on Tinashe’s agenda is the problem of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Whether ‘infected’ or ‘affected’, Tinashe believes that young people bear the brunt of the epidemic, often unable to finish their education, or orphaned at an early age.  In such cases, they are unable to meet the basic needs of their families, perpetuating the poverty cycle.

Tinashe has a wide network of young people through the social forums he has been involved with. He has attended and spoken at many international conferences. Tinashe is represented the Africa Youth Initiative Network at OIYP 2004 in Sydney, seeking to broaden the debate surrounding young people and HIV/AIDS.

In Zimbabwe, Tinashe started to establish a community youth recording studio for socially positive music that promotes peace and tolerance and fights HIV/AIDS, alcoholism and social violence. His grand vision is to set up a community radio station. In the meantime he wants to contribute to social change by giving young people the opportunity to be creative.

The idea of a station radio is based on education in an informal way. Young people in the poor communities see themselves obliged to work instead of going to school or they simple do not have access to education. This affects social, cultural and economic situation with violence and HIV/AIDS being the biggest problems in the region.