adminKudakwashe Murinda
|The national Girls Jury is a non-profit making organisation that is made up of young girls between the ages of 10-18 who are well versed on children’s rights and the responsibilities that come with them.
Our main aim is to try and ensure a better life for the Zimbabwean girl child through awareness campaigns that we have and workshops where we educate young girls on their rights and what steps they should take if they feel their rights are being abused.
The jury is made up of girls from different social backgrounds so that we are sure to have a representative of every kind of Zimbabwean girl whose rights we want to stand for.
We hold jury meetings three times a year during each school holiday where we discuss issues that are affecting girls and even children at large.
In celebration of the Day of the African Child, we had a mirror campaign in efforts to build confidence in the girl by encouraging her to love her face in the mirror.
We also had a workshop recently at Long Chain plaza where some of our jury members were awarded certificates as internationally recognised children’s rights ambassadors endorsed by Shamwari Yemwanasikana and the World Children’ s Prize (WCP) foundation .
The biggest event we will be involved in this year will be the WCP competitions to be held in Sweden some time in November.
We also have our activities that keep us busy during the year.
Recently we had a $1 campaign where we were appealing to schools to help put together funds to go towards sanitation for our girls in Murehwa.
As the jury, we also appealed for donations from schools in the form of clothing items.
We use WhatsApp to communicate with girls from different backgrounds where we talk as girls and share our problems and try to give each other advice
Sometimes we work hand in hand with junior councils.
We might not be able to have an impact on every girl but the change we know we have brought to some girls’ lives is enough to keep us going
◆ The writer is the National Girls Jury President and an Upper Six student at Dominican Convent.
Online Reporter