MENTORING Zimbabwe in conjunction with Girls Wisdom Hub last week launched the Girls Want to Learn campaign at St George’s College in Harare aimed at empowering disadvantaged girls across the country.
WINSTONE ANTONIO OWN CORRESPONDENT Speaking to NewsDay on the sidelines of the launch, Mentoring Zimbabwe founder Alderman Lungani Zwangobani said this was a pilot programme to be spread across the country.
“We are trying to find a sustainable way of solving the problem of menstrual hygiene to the less privileged girls across the country,” Zwangobani said. “Instead of donating disposable pads, we are donating new health kit (pads) which can be used up to about 18 months.”
Zwangobani said they were going to take the project to different schools through junior councillors.
“For a start My Pads and Unilever Zimbabwe are going to train junior councillors on how to make the health kit (pads) and they will then teach their colleagues at their different schools probably during their fashion and fabrics lessons,” he said.
“Our mission is to create a community where youth and children participate in defining their personal, educational and professional goals and achieve them through life changing programmes, projects.”
Girls Wisdom Hub founder Juliana Kariri urged society to appreciate that girls needed to be afforded the same opportunities as boys.
“The Girls Hub exists to contribute to the elimination of obstacles to progress for the girl child in Zimbabwe through the mobilisation of resources to assist the advancement of disadvantaged girls’ health and educational needs and establishment of platforms for girls’ constructive formation and interaction,” she said.
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Kariri said the project will give the communities, both male and female members, the opportunity to confront problems that emerge from menstruation in an open and innovative way.
“It is known that the set-up of our society militates against the girl child with many social factors leading to this tragic order of our society. Lack of appreciation in the value of education is one such cause for society’s continued indifference to the plight of the girl child,” she said.
Meanwhile, the event was also used to launch the Girls’ Scholarship Fund that will assist girls between 13 and 19 years in need of educational support.
In partnership with Catholic schools under the administration of the Society of Jesus, the fund will also facilitate the transfer of academically-gifted girls to higher grade schools.
