ARAC for CFU Calling 110310
The ARAC office is getting established and has a constant stream of visitors; this is very encouraging and is enabling us to build up the contacts list and membership. What may be of interest to you is the most frequently asked question. Well there are no prizes for guessing: “When am I going to get my money?”
The second most frequently asked question is: “What are YOU doing here?”
After that we are generally asked: “Can you find me a job?”
From those who are further a field: “Can we come HOME yet?”
Whilst we cannot answer the first query and whilst there may indeed be more than one meaning to the second, we can tell you with certainty that we are here to do our best on all counts.
The two subcommittees are hard at work on their individual mandates and we believe that on both the welfare and jobs side and the consequential losses and lobbying side strategies will soon be in place to have an impact. We have had a number of constructive meetings and made new contacts whom we anticipate will take the cause of the disadvantaged elderly forward through the auspices of ZEST, (The Zimbabwe Elderly Support Trust).
There have been a number of responses to the request for businesses for our “Yellow Pages” so please keep the information coming and pass it on to any others out there who might be interested.
On the compensation side, there is considerable interest in the CFU initiative. Increasingly it is becoming clear that many farmers are not fully aware of how claims are made up and substantiated. We are hearing talk of wide discrepancies in the figures being used by different parties to the debate, this adds to the considerable confusion that is out there. Our compensation subcommittee will be putting together guidelines and information to ensure that claimants are in the picture. This we believe will go a long way to breaking the log jam and assist in building the confidence, trust and buy in of all parties.
Please contact Shayne or Ben at: [email protected] or +263 (0)4 309800/19 ext 249