Changing lives through empow­erment

that anchor on sport, peer education, health and food security.
Plan International partnered the Sports and Recreation Commission including Child Line, to organise provincial sporting games and peer education programmes for mar­ginalised boys and girls with par­ticipants being pooled from the Greater Harare Metro­politan area. The moving theme of the games was “Because I am a Girl” which car­icatures the organisa­tion’s recently and globally launched “Because I am a Girl” campaign. 
Besides empowering the girl child, the “Because I am a Girl” campaign is bound to impact the wider society with health messages on HIV and Aids, poverty allevia­tion, gender equity issues, and the value of a life free of vio­lence.
According to a 2005 UNDP report “Taking Gender Equality Seriously”, of the world’s one billion poorest peo­ple, three-fifths are girls and women, and of the 130 mil­lion children who are out of school, 70 percent are girls.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 57 percent of those living with HIV and Aids are female and in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, young women aged 15-24 are 3-6 times more likely to be infected than young men of the same age group. And in its 2011 Global Human Development Report, the UNDP places the Zimbabwe Gender Equity Index at 118 out of 146 countries reflecting women’s low sta­tus with respect to access, control, ownership of eco­nomic resources, and positions of decision making.
The predicament of the girl child and women in today’s mostly patriarchal societies undoubtedly remains an issue of great concern. Worldwide, women and girls face a number of challenges that are a result of entrenched marginalisation which dates back to the genesis of the human race. They bear the brunt of gen­der-based nega­tive stereotypes and cultural practices that cripple their ability to achieve their full potential.
Global trends show that despite the entire hullabaloo about the enactment of laws that protect children and women’s rights in different countries, and ratification by governments of several regional and international proto­cols, women and girls continue to suffer at the hands of male dominated societies, and in turn, their overall rate of social progress remains subdued. Worse still is the situ­ation of women and girls in impoverished communities who encounter aggravated inequalities, violence and deprivation due to grinding poverty.
Cases of child abuse, neglect, and exploitation in poor communities such as Epworth are widespread, and recent press reports that child-prostitution master­minded by ageing prostitutes is rampant in Epworth illustrates the gravity of the problem. It is therefore inspiring to see international development institutions such as Plan International engaging these highly polarised and crime infested communities, initiating purposeful developmen­tal efforts that seek to empower women and girls through community sports festivals, peer education programmes and entrepreneurial skills impartation workshops.
Empowered women and girls in these communities are surely bound to gain the confidence, information, and skills they require to fight exploitation and depri­vation. 
Empowerment will help them to make key choices and decisions that will improve their liveli­hoods and over­come discrimination and social exclu­sion.
The endeavours will bring to women and the girl child powerful social and economic changes that will cajole them to pursue their dreams, and meaningfully partici­pate in national development, proving that women and girls can be masters of their own destiny.
Achieving gender equity and empowerment of girls and women requires a systematic and sustained atten­tion to all policy areas, a practice that has become known as gender mainstreaming.
This means the Gov­ernment should continue to part­ner with international development institutions, NGOs, the corporate world, and the communities themselves to initiate develop­ment and empowerment programmes that uplift the living standards of women and girls in all sectors of the economy.
As poverty and inequalities in the country deepen as a result of the existing political and socio-economic chal­lenges, girls and women in marginalised commu­nities have become the worst affected.  They have become sus­ceptible to all forms of abuse and manipula­tion by the well-to-do in society. And worse still, Zim­babwe’s once renowned social welfare system has dete­riorated to levels never imagined before living the wel­fare net heavily dependent on the benevolence of the “donor” commu­nity. 
Because of the deficiencies within the national social welfare system, many vulnerable people in poor com­munities have become invisible to the outside world fur­ther exacerbating their plight. It is within this con­text that organisations like Plan International have become con­venient as they move deeper into these communities to reach out to the most vulnerable and help to empower them with life skills.
Sadly, the apparent polarisation of people living in the same com­munities because of perceived or real political differ­ences is militating against the uptake of such empower­ment programmes as potential beneficiaries shun them fearing prejudicial “labels” that bring to their lives agony and anguish leaving them even more vulnera­ble than before.
The bad blood that continues to define the relation­ship between the Government and most of its interna­tional development partners and NGOs is counter-pro­ductive and harming the country’s ability to meet the Millennium Development Goals. As the kingpin, these institutions have a moral duty to iron out their differ­ences and work together for the good of our society. 
The deepening poverty conditions in the country demands them to genuinely engage each other, identify areas of disagreement and conflict, resolve them and partner to change the lives of the poor. The commu­nity-based and youth empowerment programmes the Govern­ment is undertaking in rural communities through the establishment of Community Trusts could be har­monised with the efforts of international devel­opment partners and NGOs in the same communities in order to minimise overlap and maximise impact. 
The weekend sporting events in Epworth showed the beauty of public sector/NGO partnerships, and how sport can be used as a tool for empowering and educat­ing the girls, women and the youths. Sport is hugely popular among young people in Zimbabwe, and it is quite clear that it offers a participatory way of engaging girls and the youths, drawing their attention on critical societal issues such as HIV and Aids and life skills. 
Sport presents to the young the opportunity for posi­tive recreation and teaches them the importance of toler­ance, fair play, and respect for one another. Sport is truly a game changer, and a powerful tool young people can use to help bring sustainable change in their lives. Sport unleashes the social, economic and intellectual power of the young.
In an effort to promote the sustainability of its com­munity based projects, Plan International is now seek­ing to empower participants to take charge of their future and share their skills and knowledge with others in their com­munities under its Community Managed Sponsorship Programme.
Marginalised communities must embrace this new concept and leverage on it to help establish neighbour­hoods where the winds of poverty, deprivation and vul­nerability will no longer blow.

Bradwell Mhonderwa is an Ethics Coach and Trainer with the Business Ethics Centre. Send feedback to [email protected],or visit www.busines­sethicscentre.co.zw, or call 0772 913 875