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ZIMBABWE
FairFight opened the Zimbabwe program site in January 2015, in partnership with Nagle House Girls’ School and the Kofukan Karate Association in Zimbabwe.
Nagle House Program
Many of the 30 girls who train at Nagle House, Marondera, come from the local township of Dombo Tombo, which is an area of great economic deprivation, especially since the COVID-19 lockdowns. They train in a disused squash court at Nagle House, with karate-gis and tatamis donated by FairFight.
Our competition squad participates in five local competitions per year, providing a pipeline through which the most talented athletes can participate in national and International tournaments. Over the years, the girls have brought home numerous gold, silver and bronze medals from these tournaments, and have developed a sisterhood around their karate practice. We graduated our first black belt in 2018, and two more black belts in 2024.
FairFight has been providing participatory workshops to the girls’ teachers and families to help break taboos on women in martial arts in the community. Girls in this program can apply for an Ambassador of Change Scholarship to support them through high school.
Success Stories
Tinashe Munemo
Tinashe Munemo was FairFight’s first Ambassador of Change. She joined the Nagle House Karate Club in February 2015 when she started studying as a Senior at Nagle House. She had always wanted to do martial arts, initially because she wanted to be able to fight people, but she soon learned that this is not what karate is about. She won national and international medals in kumite in her first year of competitions, including bronze at the Region 5 AUSC Karate Championships.
Facing major challenges in her family, Tinashe was left to fend for herself at the age of 18, after graduating high school. With good results on her A Levels, she obtained a place in Public Administration at the University of Zimbabwe, but with no financial support, she was unable to manage working full time with studies. On the verge of dropping out, she reached out to FairFight again who provided her with the first Future Leaders scholarship to support her through her undergraduate studies. During that time, she was mentored by FairFight founder Ginie Servant-Miklos.
In June 2018, she started a women’s health programme by giving Women’s Health Seminars at different schools in Zimbabwe. In late 2019, she started working on a women’s health programme in women’s prisons in Harare. While still growing personally and developing into a strong, caring and passionate woman, she already served as a role model for the younger girls in the FairFight community and does everything she can to guide, support and help them.
Tinashe was finally doing well in school when COVID hit and she was forced to take refuge in South Africa, where her family was now living. It therefore took her an extra year to complete her Bachelor. But in 2021, Tinashe graduated from the University of Zimbabwe with a 2.2 in Public Administration, then completed a Masters degree in Human Rights at Tallinn University in Estonia on a Future Leaders FairFight scholarship. She now works in the fintech industry in Estonia, showing what is possible for talented girls from Zimbabwe with the right financial support and mentoring.
Madeline Muusha
As the daughter of our Sensei Gerald Muusha, Madeline Muusha joined FairFight at the very beginning, in January 2015, as a 14 year-old green belt. Although she was enrolled in a high school in Chitungwiza, Madeline continued to actively involve herself in FairFight activities, helping her father to coach the younger FairFight girls and run karate tournaments with Kofukan. In 2018, Madeline was awarded her shodan black belt by a jury presided by Shito-ryu Shihan Gonzalo Villarrubia in Marondera, making her the first official FairFight black belt. In 2021, we enrolled Madeline in our Ambassador of Change scholarship program under the mentorship of Maria Aguilar, shodan black belt based in the Netherlands. She graduated from high school with As and Bs on her A Levels.
In 2022, Madeline enrolled at the University of Zambia, studying Social Work, with a FairFight Future Leaders scholarship. She is expected to graduate in 2026. She continues to train in Shito-Ryu karate and returns to Zimbabwe periodically to help out with our Zimbabwe FairFight program, including mentoring younger girls from Nagle House. She also participates in FairFight Zambia impact visits, sharing some of her karate knowledge with the girls from the Chibolya Dojo. Since 2025, her younger sister Geraldine is also an Ambassador of Change.
Ruvarashe Nyamukunda
Ruvarashe Nyamukunda joined FairFight as a white belt in 2015, at the age of 13. Through hard work and persistence, she earned her belts all the way to first kyu, and is now preparing her shodan exam. Ruvarashe was one of the first recipients of our Ambassadors of Change scholarship, under the mentorship of Maryse Degbegni, sandan black belt from HDKI UK. Though Ruvarashe did not graduate with enough points to attend the University of Zimbabwe, this dit not deter her from pursuing her dream to become a doctor. She applied to universities all over Southern Africa, and upon securing a place in Medicine at Eden University in Lusaka, became our first Future Leaders scholar to study abroad, paving the way for other girls to do the same. With the on-going support of Maryse and her team of sponsors, Ruvarashe has passed every semester of her medical studies so far, and will soon be finishing her fourth year of medical studies.
