Looking for “Golden Bears” in Zimbabwe

Posted by Sharon Hudson-Dean / October 09, 2012

Lin Larson, center, of UC Berkeley, the Deputy School Director at Zengeza High School, and U.S. Embassy Harare Public Affairs Officer Sharon Hudson Dean discuss a scholarship program in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe, September 27, 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

September 27, 2012, could be the day that forever changed the lives of a group of teenagers from the low-income township of Chitungwiza (population one million) outside of Harare. I hope that date does prove fateful. I'll know it was auspicious if I see Zimbabwean names on the list of the 2017 Berkeley graduating class. If the names are there, I can say I saw the students get their first taste of northern California in a cramped, hot classroom off a dusty road near some of Zimbabwe's stunning balancing rocks and minibus taxi ranks.

At 9:00 a.m. on the 27th, I stood before 250 of the best students from five Chitungwiza public high schools. Next to me was Lin Larson, Senior International Specialist in the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) Undergraduate Admissions Office. It was Lin's first visit to Africa, and Zimbabwe was the last stop on her four-country… more »

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Zimbabwean Women Claim Their Place in the Quill Club

Posted by Sharon Hudson-Dean / March 27, 2012

Women journalists hold a roundtable discussion in Harare, Zimbabwe, March 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

It's not often we get to witness barriers being broken first-hand -- there is a special kind of energy in the air when you do. The sort of vibe that says, this feels like a game-changing event. That was the atmosphere at Harare's Quill Club (press club) on Thursday, March 15, during its first-ever Ladies Night. Not only did the evening bring in more women at one time than the male-dominated institution has probably ever seen (over half of the 60 guests), but it also featured an intense, on-the-record panel discussion of gender equity, or the lack thereof, in Zimbabwean media.

The first panelist gave a brief history of the Quill Club and set the stage for how urgent it is to break down the anti-women discriminatory practices now in place in Zimbabwe's media.… more »

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