We are so excited to have started our 2023 girl child mentorship programme with 30 girls from 3 different schools in Harare, Zimbabwe. I know we say this every year but we really do have a lovely group of girls! Most of the girls pleasantly surprised us with their bubbly characters and eagerness to learn right from the start. We started the term with much hope and expectation and we were not disappointed!
We welcomed eight new mentors this year! All eight were 2021/2022 A-Level Scholarship recipients. We are humbled that they all want to volunteer and give back in some way. This however meant that we had far more mentors than we needed for 2023. As we were so keen to give new mentors a chance, we said a sad goodbye to some of our mentors who had volunteered in 2022 and beyond. We would like to thank and honour these lovely ladies. Thank you for your selflessness and willingness to see the lives of young Zimbabwean girls change for the better. We trust that you will continue giving back to communities in other ways! You have left a legacy in the Girl Child Mentorship Programme. Thank you!
Our year started with the Mentors Planning Breakfast. That first meeting together was fun, interactive and informative. With her usual infectious passion, Mrs A welcomed the new mentors and told them a bit about how we do what we do. They were excited and nervous but they gave it their all and we saw them blossom as the term went by!
The mentees have learnt a lot this term. Their end of term feedback was truly encouraging. Our first term sessions lay a foundation from which to stand for the rest of the year. Very often this can be the most challenging term for the mentees as they learn, most for the first time, about their place in this world and their rights as children and women. From the beginning, we teach the girls to participate, share opinions, read stories together and even present on certain topics to the rest of the group. It seems simple enough until you consider that they are coming from environments where jeering and mocking can be seen as banter and therefore accepted. While they attend sessions, they are not only learning to create and encourage an environment free of such negativity, they are also learning to be vulnerable and to trust peers and our team who are as good as strangers to them. We applaud them for coming back Saturday after Saturday and being open to learning so much in such a short time.
Our thirty girls all met for the first time at our Girl Child Lunch held on the last Saturday of the term. We played games, did some art therapy and of course ate a delicious lunch cooked both on the gas and the open fire because of the ongoing power cuts. Mrs A talked about facing hard things – a message much needed by a lot of the girls. Each mentee took home some Epap porridge and three re-usable sanitary pads. This means they do not have to worry about purchasing sanitary wear or resort to unhygienic sanitary methods for the next two years. We are so very grateful to our donors for making this happen!
A huge thank you to all the school heads and senior teachers for the time taken to select girls who really are in need of this programme. We appreciate that you continue to trust us and work with us. Thank you to all our mentees for making this term happen. Some of our mentees have taken leadership roles, others are still learning, all are giving their very best! Thank you to our donors! You are truly changing the lives of these wonderful girls and the evidence is there already in just 3 months. We feel this term has been a great success and we owe that to all of you! Here’s to Term 2!
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