The Sunday News
Peter Matika, Senior Life Reporter
MISS Rural Heritage pageant is soon to be launched by a youth organisation seeking to empower not only the marginalised girl child but also the boy child, who is also a victim of abuse.
Zimbabwe Multi-Talented Youth Association (ZIMTAYA) chairperson Christina Matizha said they had held provincial preliminaries in Mashonaland East districts as a way of introducing the pageant.
“So far we have held preliminaries in Mash East districts and we are scouting for young girls aged between 15 and 22. The concept is to identify the vulnerable girl child to give them equal opportunities as their counterparts living in the city. This is the first pageant we will be holding and it is an endevour that not only seeks to promote the rural girl child but the boy too, whose plight has been ignored,” she said.
Provincial finals for Mashonaland East will be held on 13 August in Marondera.
“We have been getting funding from well-wishers and other sponsors and partners. We too as an organisation have been working tirelessly through our projects to build this pageant. We are however, still seeking more sponsorship.
Soon after we hold the Mash East provincial finals we will be traveling to other provinces across the country. We plan on holding national finals in 2017 on a date and venue yet to be advised,” she said.
Matizha said outstanding participants will be awarded the opportunity to take part in a cultural exchange programme with USA and China and other regional countries.
“We will also be launching a boy child campaign as boys have particularly been left out in this whole gender misconception.
They too are vulnerable to abuse and need to have their plight heard,” she added.
ZIMTAYA is a youth empowerment programme aimed at promoting the much disenfranchised rural youths in Zimbabwe.
“These girls are so disenfranchised that they cannot afford proper sanitation. Some, because of lack of resources do not or stop going to school at an early age and are given away in marriages of which some of them are polygamous hence exposing them to abusive marriages, unhealthy off-springs, unhappiness and worst of all HIV and Aids. Some girls are even raped without them actually knowing what is happening and their rights being infringed.”
