Ihlazo drama series amplifying girls’ voices

Millicent Andile Dube, Showbiz Reporter

 In celebrating women’s month, young women that are part of the Amplifying Girls Voices through Digital Arts (AGVDA) project have released yet another episode of the Ihlazo drama series on their YouTube channel.

The AGVDA, a project that is under the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo is aimed at giving girls a platform to showcase their talents through film.

The Ihlazo drama series that portrays issues on child marriages, teenage pregnancy, and sexual reproductive health released its third episode that focuses on teaching girls how to prioritise being safe rather than nice last Friday.

This project started during the Covid-19 pandemic when no one could be mobile so people had to rely on the internet to get basically all services, hence these girls seized the opportunity to spread awareness on the various issues that affected the girl child during that period.

Their work resonates with the International Women’s Day theme “DigitALL innovation and technology for gender Equality” which lobbies for women to have the same access to all digital platforms without any controversies.

Commenting on the women’s day celebrations, the AGVDA project director, Raisedon Baya said: “I’m happy with the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day as it speaks on what we had been doing for years. This is an important move that will eventually give women more exposure to what is really going on in the world technologically.”

He said the young girls have been given an opportunity to create content that is beneficial to other women and be able to know more about how digital platforms work and get to lead in innovation projects.

“We’ve used this project to create a safe space for young women to explore their diverse art skills, for example, the drama series is entirely comprised of women from the scriptwriter, actors, team for character development and so forth.”

The drama series which is based on child marriages, teenage pregnancy and sexual reproductive health looks at how these problems can be solved, especially if women can get more access online.

Baya said the celebration of women is very important “as we show acknowledgment to women that have initiated for other women or young girls to grow in the digital sphere instead of being shunned to remain in the old era that suppressed women to being house figures not seeing that women can also add value to the digital world.”