Staff Reporter
From time Immemorial, women have designed crafts that have aided cultural identity, while
clothing their families, feeding communities and altogether ensuring the social protection of the family fabric.
While doing this women have also for a long time done it for free due to many factors that include the gender roles that often require women to do unpaid work such as providing for the family.
Other factors that have hindered women from leveling-up include lack of knowledge of how to link to markets, how to run their business profitably and how to improve their craft to be more attractive and competitive, to measure up with the ongoing regional innovations for such hand made crafts in Africa.
This is however not so for the women who’ve worked with Kunzwana Womens Association.
The women have been trained to commercialize their craft, have been exposed to more creations, have been trained on how to do some of the hand crafts, have been taught about how to make a profit out of their business and for a number of years have had exhibitions to show case this work and be linked with markets by Kunzwana Crafts Co.
This year’s only difference is that this edition of Kunzwana craft exhibition has gone several notches higher, partnering with Collaborative Craft Projects and The World Fair Trade Organisation to create and launch a handmade collection.
Identities Media has had a chance to look at some of the high quality creatives and innovations that the women have worked on and gives a testament that Zimbabwean women have abilities and are ready for bigger markets if supported well with the right skills and are also linked with markets.
This exhibition provides artisan women with just that; a link with markets and will be running from the 1st to the 2nd of November 2019 at 322 Ard-Na-Lea Close, Glenlone with entrance fees of ZW$50 for adults and Zw$25.
According to the information from their website, “Kunzwana Women Association seeks to promote and facilitate the social, economic, educational and cultural advancement of the disadvantaged unemployed rural women and it places emphasis on livelihoods”
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