Joshua Marikopo

 Today the world is commemorating the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, as declared by the United Nations. The day is observed annually to determine actions and cooperation to check drug abuse and prevent drug trafficking. So yeah! The irritating about days such as these is that that's the only time it seems like we find our voices, whilst during other days we're more silent than a giraffe 🦒.  In Highfield and Mbare districts, areas am familiar drug dealers of crystal meth (dombo) and the abused cough syrup; Codein and Bronclear (bronko) are well known but they bribe cops and Central intelligence officers and are left to roam the streets profiteering from sinister dealings. In Highfield there is a lady known as 'Madam Gambler', a drug lord/lady (whatever the right word is) who is known to control the police. She's rumored to be building a very big house with drugs money. Its time our authorities start doing the right thing, they should a...

  Just days after the Harare City council decided to carry out a cleaning drive to remove the garbage that's been dumped on the roadside, pictured above is an image i took today in Highfield. Okay, we get that we've been getting poor service delivery from the 'Sunshine city' but its bad that citizens fail to recognize the little efforts they do and continue dumping. Our city needs responsible people who through little actions can help keep this city clean. If our actions were right we wouldn't throw rubbish ìn the ñight like theives.  #Harare 

 I had an opportunity to visit a lesser known mining village deep in the mountainous region of Mutoko, north of the country. The region is semi arid and the soils give no indication of fertility that can give good yeilds. When the car got there I was wondering about what the villagers do for a living but my question was soon answered when we reached our destination, the place called Makaha. Everywhere the eye touches there is some gold mining activity going on. Every villager in his compound is prospecting for the glory metal.  The President, His excellency E.D Mnangagwa, I was told was at Makaha a couple of weeks ago to commission a Chinese mine. There is a statement that he said that everyone is bitter about, he said , "the Chinese are going to be mining here for 80 more years". Like ok, there isn't a single infrastructural development that has come. The Chinese are mining this mountain that has potential of producing more than 4 tonnes of gold per year and what are the...

 Key messages from the Zimbabwean students and friends of mine on what this day means to them and their calls to action to the responsible authorities.  #AfricanChildDay #Zimbabwe #GirlChild #EndChildMarriages #EndInequalities #EndAIDS 

 The day of the African Child was designed by the African Union in 1991 and its purpose is to raise awareness to promote children's rights. Theme: Eliminating harmful practices affecting children; progress on policy and practice since 2013. Children are under threat on a daily basis from harmful practices initiated by adults. It is disheartening that in my country Zimbabwe there is great progress on policy reviews and adoption but there is little work being done on the ground. There is so much affecting children in local communities that goes unseen. Zimbabwe recently passed the marriage bill that sets the age of consent at 18. This came as a welcome move by Civil Society Organizations who seek to end child marriages, STIs, GBV etc. however as it stands in the community young girls are getting pregnant daily and perpetrators are not bought to justice. In big cities such as Harare and Bulawayo there is evident of high drug abuse, with the infamous 'mutoriro/dombo' driving ou...