Civic education a priority to allow meaningful national healing and constitutional reform processes

The rural people who forms the bigger portion of the country’s population are in dire need of civic education and empowerment if they are to contribute effectively and immensely in the national healing and constitutional reform processes. The rural population forms more than seventy percent of the whole Zimbabwean population. There has to be maximum participa-tion from the rural populace if national healing and constitutional reform processes are to be genuinely reflective of the wishes and aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe. These were some of the views ROHR Zimbabwe got from its two workshops in Gweru and Bulawayo.
 
Speaker after speaker appealed to civic organizations to intensify civic education especially in rural areas where infrastructural development is lagging behind as compared to urban ar-eas. Rural people especially youths and women have been subjected to manipulation by poli-ticians for personal aggrandizement. Such mentality is what the workshop participants said were the major reason derailing development in the country. Youths and women who are supposed to be involved in development projects are seen as mere agents of political power.
 
Information disseminated in the media do not reach these people, there is little infrastructure to allow free flow of information. There is no internet connection, no electricity and some ar-eas have no radio or television transmission. These people deserve just like any other Zim-babwean the right to know and participate in the governance of their country.
 
Most of the organizations are centered in urban areas where people can easily access inter-net and newspapers. But the rural folks are prone to manipulation by politicians who want to satisfy their own personal enrichment at their expense. 

As ROHR Zimbabwe we appeal to the government to ensure that national healing and con-stitutional reform process is adequately marketed to the rural population for them to make meaningful contributions.