By Mike Hamilton, MHPR Public Relations Consultants

Being part of the Reserve Bank mission to Zimbabweans in the United States, Britain and South Africa was an interesting, exciting and exhilarating experience.

We set out not knowing quite what reception to expect. Our mission was simple. It was primarily to make Zimbabweans aware of the new money transfer arrangements the Reserve Bank had put in place to enable them to send money safely, reliably and conveniently to their families and others in Zimbabwe and the benefits of using this system. It was to encourage them to use this system rather than the risky black market.

While this objective would seem non-controversial, articles and letters to the editor in some newspapers and other media gave the impression that many people were opposed to our mission for political reasons.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that we were well received wherever we went and that Zimbabweans abroad were by and large keen not only to use the Homelink-Kumusha-Ekhaya money transfer system for their own benefit but to contribute to the improvement of Zimbabwe’s economy.

Wherever we went we found people appreciative of the Reserve Bank’s outreach to them and keen to use the Homelink system not only to send money to their relatives and friends but to invest in Zimbabwe. The response could scarcely have been better. It certainly exceeded my expectations.

It was good to find ourselves among so many Zimbabweans wherever we went and find them eager for news of home, anxious to stress their patriotism and desire to help Zimbabwe’s economic turnaround, and keen to make their own suggestions for making it easier to invest back home.

It was exciting to find Zimbabweans talking in their home language and maintaining a sense of community in some areas, with their own social centres and soccer leagues.

Above all it was pleasing to know that most of them seemed to want to contribute to improving life back home and to return home for good some day.

Far from the rough ride that some newspapers claimed the team was being given and the impression they sought to give that we were meeting protests wherever we went, in fact it was plain sailing almost all the way.

Protests only occurred at four ‘road show’ venues. All of them, except for the one at the last meeting in South Africa were small and insignificant. There were between six and eight people silently holding up posters while speeches were being given in Dallas, four people holding up posters in Birmingham and 13 people extending their weekly vigil outside the Zimbabwe embassy in London by perhaps a couple of hours.

It was only at the last meeting in South Africa that a significant number of people staged a demonstration. Even there they were outnumbered by those who would have liked to hear the Governor’s speech but were prevented from doing so .

As a former editor I was naturally disappointed by the inaccurate, distorted and false reports about the mission in some media, local as well as foreign, before, during and after the mission. It was particularly disappointing to find false reports in Zimbabwean newspapers, since they had access to the truth about the success of the mission, through the news releases I had been sending them.

Apart from obvious factual errors, the deliberate attempt to portray the mission negatively by suggesting disparagingly, for instance, that the Governor and his team were pleading with people or begging them to send money to Zimbabwe was disappointing.

There was no pleading with anyone. As most Zimbabweans know, their compatriots abroad were already sending money home. What the team wanted to do was to tell them about the advantages of using the new money transfer system to send money home, rather than sending money home through black market channels.

There was no need to plead with them to send money home, particularly as many of them were themselves keen to not only send money home for their families but to know of new ways in which they could invest their money in Zimbabwe.

Although some of the ill-informed articles that had appeared in the media abroad before our visit could have put us at a slight disadvantage, those we spoke to were quick to understand and accept our message.

The benefits of a system that enables people to send money to their families back home safely, quickly and reliably are obvious. It was not a great surprise, therefore, that people should be keen to use it to send home money they had previously been sending to their families by risky and illegal means.

What I did find pleasantly surprising was the frequently expressed desire to contribute to Zimbabwe’s economic recovery and to pursue new possibilities for investment in Zimbabwe.

The team’s message was, I believe, generally communicated effectively, judging by the queries and feedback received. The most effective method was through a brief presentation followed by opportunities for individuals to ask any questions they wished from members of the team.

Members of the team worked well together. While every road show was different, many of the issues raised were similar at different venues.

Some Zimbabweans in Dallas and Slough who operate electronic and printed news sheets on Zimbabwe proved keen to promote Homelink and to publish news releases from the Reserve Bank about Homelink and the team’s road shows.

The ZimExpo in Atlanta, in the United States, the road shows in Slough and Manchester in Britain and the breakfast meeting in Johannesburg in South Africa stand out for me as among the most memorable of the events that I attended or participated in. At each of these the commitment to their country expressed by many of the people who were there was truly inspiring.

At these and other venues many suggestions and serious enquiries were made. There is need now to make use of the ideas generated and facilitate the investments that so many people want to make.

This will require following up on some of them and making available on the Homelink web site (www.homelinkzimbabwe.com) much of the information requested on how, for instance, to go about making particular investments or open accounts while based in the United States or Britain.

The mission established considerable potential for attracting investments from Zimbabweans living abroad. The team’s work has not ended now that it is back in Zimbabwe. It needs to continue and build on what it has established so far.

The Homelink web site and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe web site could become powerful communication tools in this regard, given the trend overseas to access information from the internet.

The outreach to Zimbabweans in the Diaspora was appreciated by many. It was only a beginning, however. It is important to maintain and continue this outreach and to find ways of reaching areas not yet visited.