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DPM connects with Bulawayo high school girls
Women's Institute for Leadership Development
March 30, 2012

Yesterday, the Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, the Honourable Thokozani Khuphe celebrated International Women's Day with high school girls at the Bulawayo Small City Hall under the theme "Connecting girls, inspiring futures" The girls that participated in the celebrations were drawn from 8 high schools in Bulawayo and these were Eveline, lhlathi, Pumula, Northlea, Premier, Sobukazi, Townsend and Maranatha Adventist.

The Deputy Prime Minister encouraged the girls to learn to support each other for the betterment of their communities and the national at large, "One girl's hand cannot push the mountain but many girls' hands can," said Khuphe. Despite the daunting task ahead of women and girls, they should value their own strengths and capabilities and soldier on demanding recognition as equal partners with men. "The hour has come for women to be taken seriously and treated with same respect and dignity as their male counterparts," noted Khuphe. Also present in the celebrations were the Deputy Director of Education for Bulawayo, Mr E.S Mugomba, Councillor M.K Moyo, Chamber Secretary for the Bulawayo City Council, Sikhangele Zhou and Member of Parliament for Bulawayo Central Constituency, Dorcas Sibanda.

The Member of Parliament for Bulawayo Central, the Honourable Dorcas Sibanda, in her speech, promoted the 50/50 representation in Parliament, and that it cannot be achieved without education. She encouraged girls to strive to get degrees, to increase competency in women parliamentarians and those that are aspiring to be elected.

All the speakers emphasised on the importance of educating the girl child, as a means of increasing their capacity to effectively participate in public platforms and in decision making. Councillor M.K Moyo encouraged the girls to emulate successful and illustrious women in various communities and sectors in Zimbabwe, as well as recognise their female teachers as their immediate role models. He encouraged girls to be positive and ambitious as this would drive them to work hard towards achieving their dreams.

The Deputy Director of Education for Bulawayo region, Mr Mugomba expressed on the strides that his office has taken to increase the girl child's access to education. His office, in partnership with various institutions has embarked on programmes to promote Maths and Science subjects in the region. Currently, the Director of Education's office has two on-going programmes that have a clear quota system that ensures that the enrolment process has 200 places in each province reserved for girls in the Maths & Science Vacation programme to be held during the April school holidays. The programme for Ordinary and Advanced level students is running every Saturday at NUST with an enrolment of 204 girls out of a total of 364 students.

During the celebrations the high school girls were given the opportunity to interact with the Deputy Prime Minister over lunch, she had one on one discussions with the girls. The girls expressed gratitude to the DPM for taking her time to celebrate the International Women's day with them.

Women's Institute for Leadership Development Trust (WILD) applauds programmes and initiatives that encourage the upliftment of the girl child and recognition of her immense talent. Previously it has been noted that across the country, access to leadership platforms is so limited and the young women and girls' participation, leadership pursuits are not fully encouraged. There has been also general lack of role models in the region. The few female leaders that have made it in political and public life have not taken time to plough back to build new leaders through mentorship. The successful women leaders have not been celebrated publicly, to arouse passion and interest for aspiring women leaders to emulate. WILD is embarking on Young Women Leader's Mentorship Programmes to build and strengthen their leadership capacity and connections for effective involvement in economic, social and political life.

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