Surviving on the margins: Volunteers’ agency to survive poverty and vulnerability in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This ethnographic study, as part of a broader study of volunteerism and social development in the Chegutu district, Zimbabwe, explores the agency of volunteers to survive in a context of socio-economic challenges. Volunteers in Zimbabwe are operating in a context characterised by socio-economic challenges. They are living on the margins. The situation is exacerbated by non-governmental organisations’ non-payment of stipends or the inadequacy of the stipends that are eventually paid. Using their agency, volunteers are involved in Internal Savings and Lending Schemes, group-based income-generating activities, multiple affiliations, grocery initiatives, accumulation of social capital, and building networks and relationships to survive.