The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
ZIMBABWE last week nominated a female country head for Toastmasters International who will lead the country from 1 July.
Mrs Future Moyo, a Business Development Manager for a local Information Communication Technology (ICT) company in Bulawayo becomes the first woman elected from Bulawayo to be the country head since the club was established locally in 1979.
Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organisation that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs.
Sunday News spoke to Mrs Moyo where she gave a history of her relationship with the Toastmasters International Club.
“I was born and bred in Bulawayo and I am passionate about personal development and serving others. I am a business development manager for an ICT company, where I focus on formulating business growth strategies, expanding our client base and taking care of existing clients. My mission in life is to serve and touch other people’s lives; I figured out that in order to have my voice heard I needed to work on both my communication and leadership skills. Toastmasters International offers that service at an affordable price and it has given me that opportunity to grow at my own pace,” she said.
Mrs Moyo said the journey as a Toastmaster has been transformational.
“The journey has been transformational. When I started, I was struggling with confidence and felt that my voice was drowning each time I stood up to speak. With an attitude of ‘I want to add value to myself and be in a position to serve others’, I made sure that l participated in every meeting I attended. For a year I was an ordinary member; learning the basics of communication and leadership,” she said.
Two years later, she took up a leadership role at one of the new branches that Toastmasters had set up in Bulawayo called Dream Achievers Toastmasters Club.
“That year was a year of learning more about myself and understanding that ‘teamwork makes the dream work’. The following year I was elected to be that branch training and development head; an experience that gave me an opportunity to learn to mentor others and watch them grow.
“Having taken these two roles, I was inspired to become an area head and I am still serving in this role. It involves being in charge of a minimum of five branches which I successfully did and got full recognition for. One of my missions was to build new branches which led to the birth of Extraordinary Global Women Toastmasters Club a branch which attracts women from across the globe to work on growing their communication and leadership skills online,” added Mrs Moyo.
Mrs Moyo said the advantage of Toastmasters is that it gives members skills and confidence needed to effectively express oneself in any situation.
“Whether you are a manager, student, young professional, pastor or someone looking to advance their career or someone hoping to make an impact in your community, Toastmasters is the most efficient, supportive, enjoyable, and affordable way of learning great communication skills. By learning to effectively formulate and express your ideas, you open an entirely new world of possibilities,” she said.-@NyembeziMu
