By Thando Gwinji

One of the biggest things I am taking away from the African Feminist Care Academy is that we have been asking the wrong questions about care. For a long time, I thought of care mainly in terms of the work that women do every day that includes; looking after children, nursing sick relatives, preparing meals, collecting water, or supporting their communities. I knew this work was important, but I had never really stopped to ask why we continue to treat it as something women are simply expected to do. The Academy challenged me to think differently. Care is not a burden that women should quietly carry. It is a responsibility that belongs to all of us as families, communities, markets, and, importantly, the State.

That simple shift in perspective has made me look differently at the work I do in Zimbabwe.

This also made me think about the language we hear so often is that there simply aren’t enough resources.

At the Academy, we were encouraged to question this idea of scarcity. Is it really that governments do not have resources, or is it that care is not seen as something worth investing in? That question has stayed with me because it connects directly to the conversations I have been having around healthcare and water access in Zimbabwe. Too often, we approach these issues as technical or infrastructure problems. We talk about clinics, hospitals, dams and boreholes.

We rarely ask what happens to care when these systems fail. When there is no water, someone has to walk further to collect it and most of the time, that someone is a woman or a girl. When healthcare systems are overstretched, someone has to stay home to care for the sick. More often than not, that is also a woman. As such, I now believe that looking at these issues through a feminist economic lens changes the conversation. Investing in water infrastructure or healthcare is not only about improving services. It is also about reducing unpaid care work and recognizing that care has real economic value.

One moment that I will carry with me was our visit to Matthew 25 Children’s Home.

Like many people, I have always thought about children’s homes as places we visit when we have clothes to donate or groceries to spare. There is nothing wrong with giving. But I left wondering why our thinking about these institutions stops there. Why don’t we think about children’s homes when national budgets are being developed? Why aren’t they part of conversations about public investment? Why do we rely so heavily on charity to sustain institutions that provide such essential care? Those questions have continued to sit with me.

One discussion that stayed with me was around paid and unpaid care work. We often say women are overburdened by care, but in reality the burden is rarely removed. It is simply passed from one woman to another. A grandmother looks after children while their mother works. An older sister cares for younger siblings. An aunt steps in when someone is sick. Care is redistributed, but it is redistributed among women. In most cases we throw it to women’s organizations and collectives who are also underfunded. In many African communities, including my own, this is considered normal. Caring for family is deeply embedded in our culture, and there is dignity in that. But I don’t think culture should become the reason governments fail to invest in care systems. Respecting our values should not mean accepting that women will always fill the gaps left by public policy.

As I reflected on all of this, I also found myself thinking about our work within the Zimbabwe Young Women’s Movement.

We spend a lot of time talking about women as caregivers, but we don’t spend enough time talking about caring for the caregivers themselves. We rarely ask what support exists for able-bodied women who spend their lives caring for everyone else; raising children, supporting families, mentoring young people, running organizations, holding communities together. Their work is often invisible because they appear strong. Perhaps that is where our movement needs to push the conversation next. For me, care is no longer just another feminist issue. It is a question of economics.  It is a question of governance. It is about public finance, public services and political priorities. If we are serious about building a more equal Zimbabwe, then care cannot remain something that women absorb in silence while governments speak only of limited resources. The Academy reminded me that budgets reflect priorities. If we continue to treat care as an afterthought, we should not be surprised when women continue to carry the greatest cost.

That, for me, is the conversation we need to keep having.

Article by

Thando Gwinji

Gender and Inclusion Specialist Zimbabwe Young Feminist Movement