BY WINSTONE ANTONIO
IN an effort to fight rampant child abuse, electrical company, Power Giants Zimbabwe, has engaged top local and international artistes across genres for an anti-child abuse song Regai Dzive Shiri to be launched this Friday at Zimbali Gardens in Harare.
The brains behind the song, written by Michael Mahendere and Carven Gumbanjera, who are also the co-producers, is Power Giants Southern and East Africa transmission director Edzai Kachirekwa and wife Evelyn Tinashe Kachirekwa.
The song features celebrated artistes such as Mahendere, Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave, Larry Gunda, Sulumani Chimbetu, Selmor Mtukudzi, Sandra Ndebele, Anita Jaxson, Progress Chipfumo and Mike Mbali from South Africa.
In an interview with NewsDay Life & Style, Kachirekwa said the song was based on girl child abuse, forced marriages, child labour and many other issues that needed attention.
“I decided to write a song with my wife and we then said no, what we can do to ease the pressure from ourselves, let’s look for our artistes who are good at that. We then engaged Mahendere and Gumbanjera, and we spoke to them about our vision and what we wanted to do, and they were happy to come on board,” he said.
“We then started the process of assembling other musicians as we had put up the skeleton and started adding flesh by inviting them (artistes) and we did manage to assemble quite a strong team which has respect in the country.”
Kachirekwa said he was determined to fight child abuse since he was a victim.
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“Besides seeing these children being abused, I am a survivor of child abuse and because I am a first-hand witness to that, I have taken it upon myself to stand for the defenceless through this initiative under the theme Your Child My Child,” he said.
“I know the pain, I went through it as a child, so abuse is much more understood by the abused and we need to speak out as the trends are so alarming not just in Zimbabwe.
“A brighter generation begins with us, let’s protect these children.”
He said there was need to end child abuse.
“We really need to make sure that this thing is put to an end.
“We are going to involve a lot of stakeholders to make sure we fight this child abuse pandemic together.
“As Zimbabweans, we need to solve our own problems especially based on this,” he said.
“The same way we are fighting COVID-19 is the same way we should fight this issue, it’s a cancer in our midst.
“We are hopeful and very prayerful that those that amend laws shall make sure that the laws concerning this issue do bite.”
Kachirekwa said he was optimistic that the song would go a long way in changing people’s lives.
“We have to give these children time to grow and have better education like we had so that tomorrow they can be the next journalists, ministers or engineers.
“So, we decided to say no, let’s put a stop to this act of child abuse under the theme Your Child My Child,” he said.
“We cannot be found probably as an example giving a cattle rustler 40 years in prison and giving a person who would have raped or married a child, who is 13 or 14 years probably a sentence of 10 years, that is not deterrent enough.”
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