By Rex Mphisa
THE community under Chief Matibe in Beitbridge East have not only welcomed the National Aids Council (NAC) of Zimbabwe’s Not In My Village initiative with open hands, but have broadened its scope to mitigate several other perennial problems.
In the Southern African region NAC and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) coordinate the Not In My Village Campaign to create a safe social network for villagers to build a safe environment for adolescent girls to avoid both early sexual activity and early marriages and abuse.
Early sexual activity in adolescent girls and young women is blamed for child marriages, school dropouts and the spread of STIs and HIV/Aids rocking Beitbridge district and the Matibe community sees a way out through the Not In My Village project.
As from January to August 2025, Beitbridge had 600 teen pregnancies 33 of them in Chaswingo under Chief Matibe villagers are keen to arrest.
Chief Matibe’s area lies under Beitbridge which has the highest new HIV infections, which is consistent with its status as a border town and transport hub, increasing vulnerability.
Districts with mining or trading centers generally report higher new infection rates, likely due to increased mobility, sex work, and transient populations.
Matabeleland South focuses on adolescent girls and young women, especially in high -mobility districts, while strengthening services for children and adolescent boys who remain at risk, and such an approach is evident here.
And villagers are driven by that all successful community projects are driven by such active beneficiaries participation, a clear and shared purpose, strong local leadership, transparent communication, and adequate resource mobilisation Matibe people have adopted.
Their resolve is has ensured the programme has local backing, remains relevant, and achieves long-term sustainability.
The “Not in My Village” campaign, a NAC masterstroke to eradicate child marriages, teenage pregnancies, and new HIV infections by empowering traditional and community leaders through local cultural values and norms to protect vulnerable youth has been spread to other spheres.
Everyone, starting from the Chief himself, a known national rainmaker who has kept his faith, traditional role, religion and behaviour associated with his culture, headmen, village heads and other influence drivers brought in by Government structures are in sync.
“We have since expanded the NAC initiative here. It is now Not In My Village, Not In My Area, Not In My School and Not In My Church. We leave nothing to chance. We have tangible results including a man jailed for 18 years for rape of a minor who spoke out resulting from our intensive approach,” senior village head Onias Nguluvhe said.
True to Nguluvhe’s word, 58-year-old Mushumo Ncube from their area was jailed by Regional Magistrate for repeatedly raping his 14-year-old granddaughter over nearly three years.
The shameful monster Ncube used a knife to commit his heinous acts committed between May 12, 2023 and March 21, 2026 at Chamathala Village under Chief Matibe.
“We have several initiatives and failure is not an option. As you can see everyone is involved and we even have roped in church people in our committees. Everyone is on board so I am not going to say much myself as master of ceremonies. I will ask people from different existing structures to share,” said Nguluvhe, a quick-witted villager.
He hastened to say a 15 minute slot has been reserved for the “Not In My Village” topic at every gathering, be it a church, social, village development committee or Ward development committee, funerals – you name it.
Nguluvhe said this in a catching welcoming of journalists from different media houses and Matabeleland South NAC executives including provincial manager and programmes officer Mgcini Sibanda and Wilfred Ngwenya respectively, on a five day tour of NAC projects in Matobo and Beitbridge, two vast districts whose negative HIV/Aids statistics are a national concern.
He said villagers have agreed to build police bases and bring the law close for early reports as well as a secondary school close by to reduce the more than 20 kilometres children walk to school subjecting the girl child to abuse.
The distance is also a deterrent to education.
Nicholas Ndou, tasked to look at schools said low cost boarding for children far from schools are under construction in Chief Matibe’s area. At Malungudzi Secondary 26 children live at the low coast boarding at present.
“We are also tracking every school dropout and sending them back to school. Some 12 children have since been readmitted at Malungudzi Secondary school and in the whole area a total of 82 children are now back in school from our “Not in My School” expansion of Not on My Village.
Florence Chikonero said challenges like absentee parents responsible for child-headed families normally exploited into early sexual activity through desperation are being faced and addressed in a whole community approach.
Takalani Shoko, a Village Health Worker said empowerment of Children girl children to speak out is another successful approach.
“Children are now empowered and the report abuses. Bullies no longer have space here and rampant abuse of substances and drugs is slowing down as communities see the challenges they face,” said Shoko.
Senior Village Head Jeremiah Mbedzi said villagers take turns to supervise children who travel long distances to school to show attention and give protection.
“We do not walk along with them but follow from a distance to ensure they are safe and the get to school. ‘Not In My Village’ has shown the importance of education as empowerment and our approach is more determined,” he said.
Mbedzi said penalties as high as up to three beasts were pronounc3d to villagers engaging in early marriages of children while some cases where referred to police where criminal elements exist.
Another village head Happison Shoko, speaking just before Chief Matibe, brought humour into the discussion with a view that human beings have got to be better than animals.
“He-goats wait for females to be mature before mating. How can we allow goats to be better than us? We must not rush children and allow them to be mature,” he said referring to early sex and marriages.
Chief Matibe, who according to the protocol than noone speaks after him, said after training on Not in My Village in Gweru, he shared with other villagers some who resisted even challenging him.
“But slowly the message got home and we are all hands on the deck. After the training I gathered all village heads and headmen to spread the word,” he said.
A man of few words, Chief Matibe said the change in his area will spread and even out of his jurisdiction because it is a good message of hope for his area predominantly covering Beitbridge East constituency.
Beitbridge East is a vast area whose exact geographic square-kilometre dimensions for the constituency are not officially published, but is almost half the broader Beitbridge Rural District, encompassing a total physical size of approximately 12,697 square kilometres.
After Chief Matibe spoke, noone else did.