First Lady: A women’s champion who never tires

Roselyne Sachiti and Tendai Rupapa
FIRST Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa is a woman par excellence.

A hard worker, women’s champion and mother figure — her deep passion to assist Zimbabweans in their life’s most difficult moments, empowerment of women and girls — runs in her veins.

Over the years, Dr Mnangagwa’s work through her Angel of Hope Foundation has touched the lives of vulnerable children, girls, women and communities in Zimbabwe — an achievement that only a woman of a calibre can achieve.

Barely resting, Dr Mnangagwa is indeed wired differently with a work ethic that continuously pushes her to do what many others won’t.
She has transformed the lives of thousands of Zimbabweans for the better — and in equal measure been able to withstand pressure that comes with being the health ambassador, environment and tourism patron, wildlife ambassador, Agric4She patron, patron of women cotton growers, patron of women in potato farming and mother of the nation, among many other demands.

Today, many have lived to tell how their lives were transformed for the better.
Through her Angel of Hope Foundation, she has never turned a blind eye to everyday challenges that communities face, but has embraced everyone with equal attention and love.

Her work speaks for itself and many will live to admire, emulate and forever remember the impact.
Women who never imagined they would escape the jaws of gender-based violence (GBV) have come out victors, their lives transformed for the better following Dr Mnangagwa’s empowerment programmes.

Through various awareness programmes, perpetrators of GBV, too, have been educated on the wrongs of GBV. Many now know how this practice tears apart the societal fabric and slows community development.

During the just-ended Women’s Month, Dr Mnangagwa barely rested and led from the front as she amplified her work to reach all sectors of society.
She indeed is a champion who has done so much work, whose list is exhausting.

Many wonder how she keeps up with the work pressure, yet day in day out, she wakes up to a new challenge, with an admirable robustness.
Empowerment through agriculture

A farmer in her own right, the First Lady has been actively involved in farming projects through her Angel of Hope Foundation where she has been assisting the elderly, those with disabilities, former ladies of the night, youths and orphans look after themselves through the use of their hands.

She has also been working with spouses of traditional chiefs in growing traditional grains and helped previously marginalised communities like the San in Plumtree and the Doma in Kanyemba set up nutrition gardens and castor bean production.

Recently people gathered in Nyanga, Manicaland province, for the mega launch of the National Potato Farming Programme, the brainchild of Amai Mnangagwa.

The initiative is part of her broad-based programmes to empower women and youths, and contribute to national food and nutrition security.
Once women and youths were empowered, the First Lady said, families were guaranteed of food security and rising cases of drug addiction would decline.

As the Agric4She patron, the First Lady has ensured women are provided with inputs and farming knowledge so that they generate income for their families.

“Give a man a fish, and he will be hungry again tomorrow; teach him to catch fish, and he will be richer all his life.”
True to the assertion, the First Lady has come in handy to vulnerable women countrywide.
She has ushered women into various income-generating projects including detergent-making to ensure they realise income for the sustenance of themselves and their families.

Empowering the youth demographic
Cases of adolescents turning to prostitution, drugs and early marriages had also become cannon fodder. But, Amai Mnangagwa has opened windows of opportunities for women and children worth celebrating.

 

Sanitary wear provision among women and girls was for years a challenge, resulting in them using cow dung and other unhealthy alternatives during menstruation. To date, she has rolled out sewing clubs that make reusable sanitary wear for use mainly by the disadvantaged girls while at the same time creating employment.

She has helped women set up nutritional gardens to achieve food self-sufficiency among communities whose members can also sell surplus vegetables to generate income.

Educating communities
In the education sector, Dr Mnangagwa runs a schools feeding programme where children from humble backgrounds mainly in remote areas are provided with food to ensure they do not miss school due to hunger.

On countless occasions, she has personally prepared the meals for the pupils as she teaches communities the essence of providing nutrition for children across the country.

Amai Mnangagwa through her foundation also pays school fees for children in disadvantaged families in all grades right up to tertiary level where she has sourced scholarships for academically gifted children from humble backgrounds.

It is her love for education that has seen the First Lady, through the partnership between her Angel of Hope Foundation and Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU), offer courses to all Zimbabweans countrywide so that they apply themselves fully in their chosen fields where tuition is free of charge.

Ensuring health for all
Aside from this, Dr Mnangagwa has scored highly in terms of health as the country’s health ambassador.
Working with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, she has mobilised resources for clinics and hospitals.
Using her personal savings, she has constructed a health post offering outpatient, maternal and child health services in Chiweshe.

Named after the First Lady’s late mother, Maria Theresa, the facility could not have come at any better time as villagers narrated harrowing tales of how they lost their loved ones before reaching Rosa Hospital.
In Harare she is also constructing a mother and child hospital which is nearing completion.

Dr Mnangagwa has also worked hard to ensure people in all communities are screened for cancer and other non-communicable diseases on time to curb unnecessary loss of lives and ensure people are commenced early on treatment to save lives.
During the Covid-19, she risked her own life spreading awareness to communities and sharing ways of keeping the disease at bay.
She also mobilised resources like personal protective equipment and other consumables.

Remembering the once marginalised Doma community from Kanyemba and San community from Plumtree have also benefited immensely from the First Lady’s empowerment initiatives.

These people were largely hunter gatherers, but she has assisted them start crop cultivation. She has set up a castor bean project for them and has also encouraged them to build conventional homes. The Doma community members used to construct “houses” on trees.

Through her foundation, Amai Mnangagwa also made sure that their children go to school so that they can be assured of a better future like other children across the length and breadth of the country. Expecting mothers were used to home deliveries which compromised their health and that of the newborn children.

But things have now improved for the better as she has built a mothers waiting shelter for them.
Preserving culture, identity

At a time when cultural erosion is rife across the country, with some attributing it to modernisation and other factors, the First Lady has been going around the country to emphasise the importance of upholding culture through the educative Gota/Nhanga/Ixhiba teachings.

Dr Mnangagwa’s high regard for education and preservation of culture has seen her conduct Gota/Nhanga/Ixhiba programmes in schools and communities where she teaches children good morals, what is expected of them socially and to perform household chores.
Her educational programmes also include parents who are reminded of their roles in the homes through the First Lady’s Nharirire YeMusha Programme and male engagement.

Dr Mnangagwa also rolled out nationwide cooking competitions to popularise traditional dishes that have immense health and nutritional benefits.
Dubbed “Amai’s Traditional Cookout Competition”, communities around Zimbabwe have been educated on the various preparation methods of traditional foods in the country.

A loving mother
Rape victims, GBV victims, teen mothers, people living with albinism and disabilities, have been paid visits by the First Lady whose humility and selflessness have captured the imagination of the world.

Environment management
In the wildlife sector, she has spoken against poaching and encouraged people not to cut down fences demarcating wildlife areas to curb human-wildlife conflict.

As environment ambassador, she has worked tooth and nail to curb the indiscriminate cutting down of trees and burning of forests to preserve the natural habitat of wild animals and plants which were beneficial to communities.
She has joined hands with organisations like the Forestry Commission to promote the planting of trees for their fruits, medicinal properties and source of energy.

The world notices
Dr Mnangagwa’s propensity to give and see others excel has however, not gone unnoticed.
It has won her accolades and admiration locally and from communities across the globe.
G D Goenka University of India awarded her a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in recognition of her life changing charity work.
Russia State University for the Humanities followed suit and on home-soil, Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) awarded her yet another honorary doctorate degree for her philanthropic work.

She also received a gold medal in recognition of her contribution to the education sector from Vernadsky Crimean Federal University of Russia.
Dr Mnangagwa also came out tops among international philanthropists and was duly honoured in the “health of the nation” category during the “#Wearetogether Awards” held in Russia in recognition of her philanthropic work at a glittering ceremony presided over by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In 2021, the First Lady was awarded the Order of the Star of Zimbabwe gold medal for her philanthropic work.
These awards point to the great work she is doing for Zimbabweans across all sectors.
By bringing the power of her vision to fruition, coupled by her will and personality to bear the challenges of others, Dr Mnangagwa is indeed a game changer.
Hats off!