Alexander Chisango

How Alexander is a changemaker:

Since the mid-90s, Alexander Chisango has built a grassroots faith-based socio-economic empowerment movement starting in Zimbabwe and spreading in Africa, on the basis that for sustainable socio-economic progress, all development efforts should place the family unit at the center of thinking, concern and action; and family friendly empowerment of both sexes is the core of secure and enterprising families.

Alexander feels a fondness and connection to:

Alexander wants to see sustainable and integrated economic, social, spiritual and mental empowerment of the family in a way leading to lasting and positive community transformation.

Alexander passionately wants to change:

Alexander passionately wants to see families once again empowered to recover their God given right and responsibility to be primary vehicles for prioritizing, charting and implementing the integrated empowerment of families and the community, since the consequences of any person's failure affects and burdens the family above all other constituencies.

Alexander's bio

Alexander Chisango has introduced a new type of socio-economic development strategy restoring and affirming the family as the center of engineering sustainable progress, empowerment and development in Zimbabwe and in vulnerable African communities. Alexander believes that conventional governmental and private donor driven "development interventions" neither take into account the central role of the family in anchoring society and bearing the consequences of any dysfunctional society, nor offer viable alternatives. According to Alexander, most problems faced by society and governments could be eased or eliminated if families could be empowered as basic units for consideration and implementation of social and economic development. His organization, Jubilee Empowerment Trust (or JET), formerly known as Abundant Life Trust, provides churches and communities with a working model, materials, and empowerment training courses - all aimed at helping families and communities to overcome economic, social, mental and spiritual vulnerability and in the midst of hard times. He is systematically equipping communities without discrimination to accurately understand their problems and holistic causes, identify the solutions, develop project ideas and empowerment networks, then directly organize resources for families, groups and communities to implement, monitor and review their "integrated empowerment projects", facilitated through JET trained and JET resourced Christian volunteers based in churches, schools, colleges and universities. The empowerment projects enable participating families, groups and communities to create own jobs and income, businesses, food security, nutrition and better health, life skills, spiritual sustenance, fight HIV & AIDS at the same time enabling families to build sustainable communities. In the program, Alexander also mainstreams environmental improvement and gender complementation. He notes and has witnessed that conventional concepts of family, which place men solely in the role of "breadwinner" and women in the role of "mandatory homemaker" only make families socio-economically vulnerable, failing to utilize the mutual capabilities in the two genders without negative competition. He believes that holistic reformation of people from man made dysfunctional steriotypes will strengthen the bonds between husbands and wives and help them build better families and communities. Deeply respectful of women's aspirations for education and inter-dependent livelihood, Alexander defines JET's main goal as "equipping of vulnerable households, groups and communities to holistically and sustainably empower themselves without discrimination.