The Foundation has grown out of work begun by Prisca Nemapare as part of an Earthwatch research project addressing the maternal child health and nutrition status of children in rural Zimbabwe. Each year, several groups of volunteers would assist Dr. Nemapare in collecting and analyzing this data. In 1998, Nancy Clark was one of those volunteers assisting in creating a database detailing the health and nutritional needs of young children in the provinces of Masvingo and Gwanda. The following year, Nancy assisted Prisca during two of the three volunteer sessions. In 2000, Earthwatch determined that the political and social circumstances in Zimbabwe were unsafe for volunteers and accordingly cancelled the research grant supporting Prisca's efforts. What began as a chance meeting of two committed women in Africa quickly developed into a critical mass that would, of necessity, result in the formation of The Zienzele Foundation.
As the HIV/AIDS pandemic overtook the rural areas of Zimbabwe, large numbers of children were orphaned by the death of one or both parents. These children, unable to care for themselves, were left in the care of other widowed mothers and or grandmothers who were unable financially or emotionally to provide for these children. The focus of The Zienzele Foundation shifted to serve this population of orphans and their caregivers. Since 2000, these two women have together created a lifeline to AIDS orphans and their caregivers.
Prisca Nemapare grew up in rural Zimbabwe where she attended both primary and secondary school. Determined to continue her education, she found her way to the University of Tennessee and commenced her undergraduate education. Eleven years later, Prisca received her PhD in nutrition and went on to become a professor of nutrition at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. During her tenure at Ohio U, she proposed and secured funding from Earthwatch to pursue her interests in nutritional health in her native Zimbabwe. From these efforts came the yearly field efforts in rural Zimbabwe with volunteers from all walks of life.
Nancy Clark grew up in Vermont, attended the University of Vermont, majoring in nursing, and after a year at Albert Einstein Hospital in New York City, began working as a public health nurse in Connecticut, focusing on the needs of children and mothers. Along the way, certification as a childbirth instructor serving on the Connecticut Governor's Task Force on Sexual Abuse and becoming an instructor for T. Berry Brazelton's Touchpoints Program complemented thousands of home visits and parent child programs. In 1991, Nancy moved to New Hampshire and assumed the role of Maternal and Child Program Manager for The Visiting Nurse Alliance of Vermont and New Hampshire. In January of 2005, after fourteen years with the VNAH, Nancy assumed the role of Care Manager for Maternal Child Services at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph Vermont and also Care Manager for children with special needs at the pediatric practice of Dr. Rebecca Foulk in South Royalton, Vermont.
Jim Clark, Nancy's husband, joined the Foundation in 2001, having worked as a research and development engineer for the Naval Underwater Sound Laboratory in New London, Connecticut, for thirty years. Jim is developing plans for small scale irrigation systems for use by the villages the foundation serves.
Through an expanding array of interested colleagues, family, and friends, the work of The Zienzele Foundation has grown. We now have a great supporting cast in Ohio, Oregon, Florida, DC, Baltimore, Japan, California, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Idaho, and Massachusetts.