Annex 9.3

1. Summary of Project Activities

A. Broadcasting of The Team Television Series: The Team, SFCG’s flagship television program for promoting peace in Zimbabwe, attained widespread popularity on ZBC TV during its broadcast between the end of September and December 30, 2011. As a result, ZBC plans to rescreen the series on its second channel, Channel 2. SFCG is currently waiting to hear the dates of the rebroadcast.

In addition, the series will be broadcast on CFI in all of sub‐Saharan Africa

B. Marketing and Media Campaign In the sixth quarter of the project, SFCG signed an agreement with Mai Jai Films and contracted Zimbabwe Young Women’s Network for Peace (ZYWNP), a website developer, Hannibla Ndlovu and a graphic artist, Wisdom Tayengwa to put together a marketing campaign for The Team. The campaign has had three pillars: a) building a buzz in the national and local media about the show; b) creating a visual brand and publicity materials to be distributed throughout communities; and c) organizing a launch event and subsequent screenings of the show in .

The Launch event took place in Harare on November 3, 2011. The event was attended by approximately 100 people, including one of the managers of ZBC TV, several members of the donor, media and NGO community – particularly those working in the field of peacebuilding. Artists as well as various representatives of political parties were also present. The participants gave positive feedback on the event and The Team. Many people found the use of media as a tool for peacebuilding to be very impressive and inspiring. Furthermore, the Launch Event made strides in terms of visibility of The Team. The press is now very aware of The Team and has been placing articles in papers and online.

SFCG has made headway on the other components of the marketing campaign as well. Several press releases were produced by Mai Jai Films and the design and printing of marketing materials along with the preparation of The Team promos was concluded. The latter were created in collaboration with Phenom Media Productions, and they are now widely available online and are also visible on the big advertising billboards in central Harare. Regional broadcasters were also targeted for marketing.

Moreover, we held several road shows. They were organized by the Road Show Advertising International and facilitated by the ZYWNP. Some members of the cast, Takunda Shava, Yeukai Mhandu and Jasen Mpepho who respectively played the roles of Pablo, Tari and Coach in the series, participated in the campaign. Each road show was attended by approximately 200‐300 people.

All the road shows began with music and dance to attract the crowds. This was followed by the introduction of the road show team who talked about the TV series, gave a short summary of The Team and shared such information as when the show was being aired on ZBC. Later a question and answer session was held where the viewers were invited to the stage to answer questions. If they answered correctly they would win a T‐shirt. In addition, during the road shows the participants also had the opportunity to interact with the actors: asking them questions, taking photos with them and getting their autographs.

Annex 9.3

Finally, there has been a social networking marketing component. The Team Facebook page has over 300 comments and 310 so far. SMS and free call systems were also set up as an integral component of the marketing campaign of The Team.

C. Outreach Search for Common Ground has planned a six‐part outreach campaign for The Team over the course of the project during the first two quarters of 2012. The first, in the town of Mvurwi, proved to be highly successful. Other programs are for Rusape, Mutoko, Magunje, Gutu and Lupane.

Over the course of the outreach activity in Mvurwi, 42 people were trained with the aid of the Centre for Conflict Management and Transformation (CCMT) and the International Video Fair Trust (IVTF). Participants came from many diverse groups within the community, such as the church, youth, women, the council and the general population, encouraging people from different backgrounds to work together towards common goals. By the end of the outreach activities, participants had drafted a community action plan to avoid violent conflict, incorporating the needs of each group and a timeline to pursue certain desired goals.

The first day of the Mvurwi outreach, after opening remarks by the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development’s Mazowe District Development Officer Richard Chirume, saw participants list their expectations for the workshop and assess the problems affecting their community. These problems included a failure to deliver on the part of the council and local authorities, a missing sense of ownership, corruption in the council and children suffering from having single or no parents. However, participants hoped to gain the knowledge to build their town and country, improve their understanding of teamwork, find empowerment and build unity, facilitate behaviourial change and complement each other’s strengths over the course of the workshop.

On each of the five days of the workshop, participants viewed episodes of The Team, which were then used to jumpstart discussions linking the challenges faced by characters in the series and by the community itself. They would then be able to apply the solutions demonstrated in the series to the problems faced by their own community, or to use the series as inspiration to find unique solutions to their unique challenges. By the end of the screenings, discussions and conflict management and teambuilding exercises, participants admitted to have learned that a community which comes together allows individuals to complement each other’s efforts to the benefit of all. They also learned the importance of a team having unity of purpose and confidence and of listening to the voices of others in community development projects. Finally, participants came to realize that it was their role, as much as the government’s, to contribute to their own service provision, and that managing conflict non‐violently involves understanding the needs of other stakeholders deeply and sincerely and dealing with root causes to create permanent solutions.

Participants in the Mvurwi outreach activities independently realized the need to form a Community Action Plan Committee after an activity in which groups depicted their ideal community on large flipcharts. Each group then developed a six‐month action plan for non‐violence, which the Action Plan Committee harmonized in order to direct the implementation process. In the end, the Action Plan Annex 9.3 involved activities such as establishing a sports and youth centre, establishing schools in farming areas, creating an information centre, planting an herbal garden and lighting the streets, along with specific methods to accomplish these goals, the resources they would require, the bodies responsible for implementing each objective and a specific deadline for each project to be completed.

As a whole, participants responded very positively to the outreach. The community confessed that The Team touched them personally and provided them with the tools necessary to steer their future and change the status quo. In particular, they noted that the conflict transformation and teambuilding exercises had given them the opportunity to work across divisions in the community and pursue collective action. At the end of the workshop, participants even presented the outreach team with gifts, a powerful indicator of the activities’ success across these diverse groups, and CCMT has received several independent requests for training in peacebuilding and conflict management from pastors, Mvurwi Junior Council, a football team founder and Mazowe District Council. A collection of photos from the outreach activity, particularly from the teambuilding and conflict management exercises, is below.

Annex 9.3

A group works on “The Magic Stick”

A group celebrates its victory after figuring out the “Entangled Strings” exercise

Annex 9.3

Participants attempt to fill a “Leaky Pipe” with water