Further to these developments, the Forum embarked on the Taking Transitional Justice to the People programme which now forms a fundamental component in the Forum's work on transitional justice. The Forum is convinced that the people's will must inform whatever mechanism or form of transitional justice is to be adopted in Zimbabwe. Prescribed mechanisms will not help the country move forward hence the need for the people to subscribe to the processes around transitional justice. The Forum organized its meetings through the assistance of local civil society organizations and political parties. Bulawayo Agenda, the Progressive Residents of Bulawayo Association, Gwanda Agenda, and the ZimRights, among other members of the Forum and partners, assisted in organizing these meetings. The Forum visited thirteen (13) constituencies and discussed with people from all backgrounds; teachers, police officers, mothers with children on their laps, youths, elderly people, clergymen, traditional leaders and other professionals. The Forum conducted sessions in schools, town halls, in the rural areas and cities. Public discussions were held in English, Shona, Ndebele and Tonga speaking communities. In these open forum discussions people expressed themselves in the languages of choice eclectically. Four hundred and forty-two (442) people took part in the discussions stretching over six months. 47.1% of the participants were women and 52.9% were men. Strikingly, the participants just below the age of twenty years were 2.16% and those above the age of sixty constituted only 7.69% of the participants. It can be inferred that those below twenty years may not have been involved because they could have been at school or college during the sessions or they were not interested and those above sixty could have been apathetic to political discourses following many years of ceaseless violence. Yet it was expected to see more youths taking part because of their supposed interest and involvement in politics as militias, youth leagues and ordinary supporters of their parties. The bulk of participants were those between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years. The discussions were prefixed by an explanation of what transitional justice is and its major approaches. The facilitators took turns to lead the participants through key areas of the transitional justice and the political processes that had given birth to the discourse in the first place. Facilitators made it clear to the participants that the discussions were not the beginning of the transitional justice process as set out in the GPA or national healing process. The Taking Transitional Justice to the People Program was to inform the people about the possible transitional justice mechanisms that can be used to rebuild relationships, communities and the nation twisted by cycles of violence for many years. The program also intended to find out if people were ready for national healing and if so what they wanted to see in terms of nation building and national healing in Zimbabwe. 7