In 1987, a group of young college graduates from the Youth Contact Centre (YCC) in Bulawayo, decided to set up a series of theatre workshops and established 'Grassroots Performing Arts Project (GPAP)'. The aim of GPAP was to teach students at their ex-college, the YCC, about their indigenous background through the performing arts, a medium that has traditionally been used in Zimbabwe to disseminate local customs and culture.

Following the success of GPAP, the group decided to establish an independent, not-for-profit theatre company in 1990 and have since been working as a professional Theatre for Development (TfD) organisation using dance, music and drama as means of educating and empowering urban and rural communities throughout Zimbabwe and abroad.

Grassroots Theatre Company (GTC), known as 'Grassroots' to many, has helped to nurture many young artists from the Bulawayo region and given them opportunities to showcase their talents and perform to a wide audience both in Southern Africa and abroad. 

• To educate local communities to identify the root causes of their predicaments and limitations

• To stimulate community action to break the poverty circle that dictates the social economic vulnerability of the poor

• To foster international understanding about global development issues embracing poverty