Page 56 - CIWA AR25

View from the Field: Chipo Mungenge

CHIPO

MUNGENGE

Striving for a world that values

biodiversity conservation

Without a scholarship from the SADC-GMI Young Professionals Her academic career would have ended there if not for the
program, supported by CIWA, Chipo Perseverance Mungenge SADC-GMI scholarship of about US$5,400 a year and a second
never would have obtained her PhD in Zoology from Rhodes partial scholarship from the National Research Foundation of
University in South Africa, where she focused on aquatic ecology South Africa that supported her two-year research project and
and biodiversity conservation. some living expenses. She completed her PhD in 2024.

And if Mungenge, a native Zimbabwean, hadn’t gotten her PhD,
she wouldn’t have grown so much as a person—or learned about
the importance of communities to groundwater management,
discovered the existence of a previously unrecorded crustacean, or

combated gender stereotypes in the male-dominated water field.
“My PhD built me as an individual,” says Mungenge, 33, now
a freshwater aquatic ecologist. Whether it was adapting
to the South African culture, dealing with a challenge
in her lab, or facing gender stereotypes during

field work, “It helped me conquer my fears and
develop resilience,” she says. “I discovered
a level of patience I never knew I had. I
surprised myself with how hard I could
push, how deeply I could persevere. This
journey changed me profoundly.”
Mungenge, the only one in her family
to go to college, and her two older
brothers were raised by their widowed
mother, who made ends meet by
selling pre-owned clothing and shoes
after the NGO where she worked shut
its doors. Her mom scraped together
enough money to pay for her daughter’s
education at the University of Zimbabwe,
where she received her bachelor’s and
master’s degrees.

56