Young girls from the age of 12 and 19 now have a platform to unleash their creativity through the Girl Child Creativity (GCC) project encouraging a balanced representation and participation of young female writers/poets in areas of creative writing, literature, literacy and poetry performance development.
Young girls are encouraged to develop mentally and stretch their creativity, in the belief that “a creative nation is a developed nation”.
The project focuses on areas in the arts such as poetry, stories, theatre, film, music and dance.
So far the producer and co-ordinator in the project, poet and writer Mbizo Chirasha, has said that the girls have been enjoying the programmes as shown by their participation in the workshops.
The motivational workshops were organised for new generation poets to motivate school-going female students with an interest in reading and writing for them to become good readers and writers.
These are skills that will stimulate mental growth and creativity development in young women.
The motivational workshops hosted by Chiedza Childcare Centre were held on June 15 and 16 coinciding with the Day of the African Child.
Twenty-one students between the ages of 12 and 18 attended the workshops, ready to learn new skills and gain insight from established artists.
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Some of the participants came from Chitungwiza under the auspices of Girl Child Network and the facilitators included poets Black Heat Deshanti, Cynthia FlowChild Marangwanda, Rutendo Tapiwa Chigudu, Eve Nyemba and Barbara Anderson.
The facilitators addressed issues surrounding inspiration, writing skills and confidence building, and had a chance to perform some of their own work.
A prize-giving ceremony was later held on June 17 following a poetry writing competition at the workshops. Ten girls won prizes ranging from textbooks and meals to cash.
The winners of this competition include: Dephiny Mavesere(14) — Mbare High School, Charlene Masitara (18); Chiedza Childcare Centre; Joyce Chataika (13) — Sunningdale; Janice Mandaza (13) — George Stark School; Patronella Muzira (14) — Mbare High School; Diana Masanjara (15) — Seke High 1; Georgina Jambwa (17) — Seke High 2; Ellen Tashaya (16) — Seke High 1.
In their poems these young girls expressed some of the feelings of a girl child, their thoughts, dreams and expectations in life.
This poetry allowed young girls to express what they were going through, as well as developing a healthy self-esteem and making them realise their self-worth.
GCC also held a seminar on June 21 with participants from Premier College, Mabelreign Girls’ High School, Harare High and Westridge High School.
This month (July), GCC will have cluster launches in Masvingo, Gweru, Bulawayo and Bindura and once again artists/poets/writers will be facilitating the workshops; the workshops will focus on talent realisation and self-worth and confidence building. There is no fee for this registration and young girls are encouraged to participate in these workshops.
If young girls are going to pursue arts professionally, part of the process is personal development and “baby steps” are needed to achieve progress.
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