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Southern Africa ChangeMakers April 2010 The Power of More than One From creating a platform for civil society to contribute to a national government anti-poverty strategy, to pioneering the first regional exchange programme for young people focused on civic participation, this edition is packed with inspiring news of recent events that herald a new way of working to end poverty in southern Africa.

Southern Africa ChangeMakers December 2009 A new way of doing business A new way of doing business is emerging in the global business community. The Southern Africa Trust's new Business for Development (B4D) Pathfinder offers a model and the tools for companies to start practising inclusive business in southern Africa. It's a model with the potential to provide win-win solutions to the social and economic challenges facing the world in the 21^st century.

Southern Africa ChangeMakers September 2009 Civil society organisations must cooperate with each other to achieve real change in southern Africa. Speaking in Harare recently, National Association of Non Governmental organisations (NANGO) chairperson Mildred Sandi noted that if civil society organisations in Zimbabwe do not pull together, they risk being irrelevant in the national reconstruction process.

Southern Africa ChangeMakers June 2009 After years of political strife, economic meltdown and runaway humanitarian disasters, Zimbabwe's fledgling unity government now has the unenviable - but mandatory - task of rebuilding a broken and suffering land. With inflation reaching 230,000,000%; a deadly cholera epidemic; country-wide food shortages and an unemployment rate of more than 90%, a recent Physicians for Human Rights emergency report called the health and economic crises affecting Zimbabwe, 'man-made disaster'.

Southern Africa ChangeMakers March 2009 The southern African island nation of Madagascar has been gripped by a violent political crisis, which has caused at least 135 deaths since a dispute over poverty and democratic reform broke out in late January. Violence broke out on 29 January when opposition leader Andry Rajoelina, the former mayor of Antananarivo, called a demonstration to protest against the government's closure of a private radio station, which had been campaigning for democratic reform. He accused Madagascar’s President Marc Ravalomanana of being a corrupt tyrant.

Southern Africa ChangeMakers December 2008 The recent upsurge of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) already devastated by a five-year civil war – has created a humanitarian emergency in the heart of Africa, with more than two hundred thousand civilians fleeing their homes. Since August, there have been almost daily clashes between the rebels, the government army and local militias. Like all conflicts in Africa, the Kivu conflict is complicated: there are more than two armed forces involved in the fighting and several interacting factors that involve neighbouring countries, desire for control of the region’s vast mineral wealth, and inter-ethnic clashes, which further complicate the situation.

Southern Africa ChangeMakers September 2008 Changing peoples' lives forever refers to lasting change. It links with our vision of ending poverty forever - not just dealing with its seemingly never-ending symptoms. There are many excellent groups trying to reduce poverty, but they hardly ever talk to each other or work together. So much more can be achieved to really make a lasting difference in the lives of people living in poverty, if community groups, government agencies, and businesses work together. That is why the Southern Africa Trust exists.

Southern Africa ChangeMakers August 2008 For thousands of poverty-stricken people in southern Africa, informal cross-border trade (ICBT) is a means of survival, a source of income and employment. The trend towards informal cross-border trade has accelerated in recent years, with official surveys suggesting that it generates an average of R17,6 billion per annum.

Southern Africa ChangeMakers June, 2008 The tears flowed unbidden down my cheeks. On my right sat a gentleman I didn't know: he removed his glasses, placed them on the table and rubbed his eyes. A colleague was on my left: blowing her nose on a wad of tissues, tears welling in her eyes. We were reacting to the words of Catarina Manungo, one of the victims of last month's xenophobic attacks in South Africa, as she relived her harrowing experience to delegates from civil society organisations, in Maputo on Tuesday 10 June 2008.

Southern Africa ChangeMakers May, 2008 On a bitterly cold and rainy evening at the beginning of May, two small children arrived at the gate of Sheelagh Antrobus' (a Southern Africa Trust associate) home in the KZN Midlands. Barefoot, dressed in thin t-shirts and shorts and drenched from the icy rain, they handed her a note, written on the back of an old envelope. "Please help. I am sick and cannot work. We have no food in my house. My husband is dead. Please help me feed my children." Sheelagh had come face to face with the harsh reality of how HIV/AIDS is decimating rural farming communities.

Southern Africa ChangeMakers April, 2008 In Mozambique, over 100,000 people were displaced by floodwaters and in neighbouring Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi, flooding displaced a further 91,000 people before the end of February. In Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia and Botswana, heavy rains and flooded rivers are affecting a further 40,000 people. The Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Tomáz Salomão, fears that the worst of this year's flooding in central Mozambique may still lie ahead.

Southern Africa ChangeMakers February, 2008 In the 21st century, access to energy is considered a basic human right, but one we tend to take for granted - until it is no longer there. January 2008 will go down in South Africa's history as an example of what happens when energy needs are ignored and planning for the future is not taken seriously enough. For the first time, the issue of accessible, reliable energy was brought home in a very real and personal way for 40 million South Africans, whose daily lives continue to be severely disrupted, as does South Africa's business sector. The economic impact of this power crisis has yet to be fully measured - both now and into the future.