By Nondumiso Sibada

A VERY good day to you dear reader! I trust that you are well and are preparing for the year-end in style! Last week I was looking at the issue of catching them young and how NGOs are abusing the system to ensure the regime change agenda and other weak ideologies are placed into the minds of our children.
This week I am looking at the first part of a two or three part article on the fight for territory.
Yes, territory. I was once amazed during the first year of my working in an NGO when I realised that there were over five NGOs working in the same territory and doing the same project with the same people.
It really puzzled me because I thought that the work was the same and that instead of working in one area, the NGOs should come together and spread their net wide. Little did I know that this was one of many territory fights that I would encounter!
I eventually learnt to accept this very strange reality and overtime I have come to understand that territory fights happen all the time.
When NGOs are writing a proposal to seek for funding, the place where they are going to do it really matters because territory is very much linked to the regime change agenda.
Donors conduct what are called scoping studies to see the “poorest” and easily influenced area that they can target.
It is so easy to work with the minds of people who are hungry and who really need outside intervention.
These are the areas that donors want and need because often when a person is desperate they will do almost anything to get out of that state, including selling out their nation.
Recently I was hearing on national TV that Epworth is experiencing the most post natal deaths meaning an increased number of maternal mortalities in that area which are coming to 74 per 1000 in comparison to the national 64 per 1000.
I instantly shook my head because I know that NGOs are soon going to be thronging Epworth and before you know it, they will literally milk it dry on all its potential community initiated ideas. Epworth has become what they call in NGO lingo a hot spot and the community will be divided if Government does not intervene soon because of the funding that will come through to train communities’ etcetera.
The Epworth example is one of many other reasons why NGOs will target an area. Another key issue on targeting a particular area is accessibility.
One will find that there are a lot of NGOs which operate in areas that are usually an hour’s drive or three hours at most from the NGO site.
Of course there is the economic sense bit into it, of “saving” but let me inform you the real major reason and that is of money.
You see what happens when one is getting paid a per-diem, they will be given the breakfast per-diem if they embarked on their journey in the morning and the lunch per-diem if they were still working during that time and the dinner per-diem if they are still working at 6pm.
That idea then spins into the minds of NGOs is that in order to get the full per-diem without necessarily staying overnight in that particular area which will prove to be more expensive is to drive very early in the morning and come back late in the evening.
For example, a person who goes to and from Mutare and receives $100 for that day is better than one who drives and sleeps in Mutare and comes back the following day because they will utilise money for food, to call their families and so forth.
Some NGOs can even be given money to sleep in that area but they will forge documents to make it seem like they actually spent the night there and then pocket the money.
Imagine how much money one will make over six nights if they not only receive an allowance for food but also money for accommodation.
They will definitely have close to a thousand dollars at the end of the week. The question then being was the community really selected for its need for assistance or for the NGO’s selfish needs for easy and quick money?
This question can be answered by all of us at the end of the day. So the next time you see your community having one too many organisations, remember that it is all about territory and choosing the right territory for their benefit.
Very few NGOs come to an area because the community needs them. Let us continue to join hands to fight against these NGOs that are like leeches and which will eventually draw out all the blood in us.