First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has announced plans to interface with young girls from around Harare to deliberate and come up with practical and lasting solutions to challenges they face within society.
Addressing the media and various stakeholders in Harare yesterday the first lady said the girl child is one of the key areas she will be looking into this year following the various challenges they face in their journey from infancy to adolescence and to a young mother.
“The girl child is faced with a lot of challenges from different sectors of the society, from within the household to the community. Our girl child needs extra care and support.
“Problems of school drop outs, poverty, teenage pregnancies, child marriages, STIs, drug abuse and HIV/AIDS are among the challenges that face our girls at some point in their journey to adulthood resulting in the girl child’s future being jeopardized.
“It therefore critical that we engage our girl children from a tender age and dialogue with them on these issues and come up with practical and lasting solutions. Their involvement is important so we do not prescribe solutions to them but engage and educate them.” she explained.
The meeting on a date to be announced will be attended by girls from grade six to upper six under the theme “Our Girl, Our Pride. Our Future, Lets Invest in Her”.
Speaking at the same meeting, Talk Show Host Rebecca Chisamba popularly known as Mai Chisamba poured cold water on traditions that continually teach young girls that they are incomplete if not married.
Mai Chisamba said marriage is a choice which should not be used to judge women but other tangible achievements.
“The family is the foundation, there are some teachings that are now rusty that we should let go of now. Young girls are being taught that a woman is incomplete if she is not married, this is not it. Marriage is a choice and people do it for different reasons.
“Lets teach girls to judge each with tangible achievements , we do not want to be petty like what we are doing right now. Young girls should also be taught that things or services are paid for with money and not sex,” said Mai Chisamba.
