When Karen Clegg gave her presentation at the L.E. Shore Memorial Library in Thornbury Thursday, not only did she educate the public on her trip home to Zimbabwe earlier this year, but also shared some insight on the current political turmoil in the African country.

"I'm not a politician, but I do like to speak my mind," said Clegg, speaking to a crowd of over 100 people.

Clegg had a podium set up at the front of the room and spoke in front of a collage of many articles illustrating the chaos in Zimbabwe and the political manipulations of its current government.

"You have no idea how difficult it was for me to get these newspapers out of the country, so just imagine how hard it would be for them to be distributed in Zimbabwe itself," she said.

Aside from going home to visit her grandfather, Clegg also wanted to get a firsthand look at the election process in Zimbabwe, and see for herself how Robert Mugabe's reign of terror left civilians desperate for change.

She arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, and ventured to Harare in Zimbabwe, when she was greeted by a sinking economy and poverty everywhere.

"As I speak to you right now, the exchange ratio in Zimbabwe is 300 million Zimbabwe dollars to one American dollar," said Clegg.

Heavy inflation has caused for local grocery stores to have little to no stock, as indicated in some of Clegg's pictures in her accompanying slideshow.

In addition to giving facts about the current situation in Zimbabwe, Clegg lightened the mood with several anecdotes from her trip, including her struggles with a cashier and her gas woes that almost caused her car to break down in the middle of nowhere outside Harare. She also showed pictures of a family that had taken in 15 abandoned children in Zimbabwe, and are raising them without the help of the government.

"It's people like these who are performing miracles in a country full of corruption," she said.

As Clegg's speech and slideshow reached the point of March 29 of this year, election day in Zimbabwe, the audience became more enthralled with the speaker, as an impassioned Clegg described the desperation of the Zimbabwean people in their attempt to attain peace and democracy in a country ruled by a dictatorship.

"Everyone I talked to said they were voting for Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC opposition), but somehow the election ended up being flawed," she said.

Initial results showed that Tsvangirai won the election, but Mugabe's government would not tolerate defeat, causing a second round of vote counting and verification that ended up listing the opposition as the winner, but not by enough to avoid a run-off.

"Sadness reigned over Zimbabwe when they realized they hadn't escaped the disaster they'd been living for years under Mugabe's rule," said Clegg.

Tsvangirai ended up dropping out of the running before the run-off, stating that he didn't want his supporters to be tortured for voting for him, and Clegg showed first hand evidence of that in her slideshow.

A man being burned alive and innocent civilians with bruised and bloody faces drew gasps from the crowd, as Clegg urged for more support from our government, and Canadian people in general.

"Small changes by a lot of people add up to one big change," she said.

Clegg concluded her presentation by reading a letter sent to her by Conservative MP Helena Guergis. The letter contained steps that the Harper government is taking to ensure some semblance of safety in Zimbabwe, and condemned the actions by Mugabe earlier this year and throughout his reign.

"Canada is closely monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe and will continue to press for a solution to the current crisis that respects the will of the Zimbabwean people."

For more information please contact Karen Clegg at 519-599-2357.