adminShingirirayi Mugodi
BINGA-BASED modelling instructor, Mercy Munenge, has vowed to help young girls in the area fight against early child marriages.
Mercy, who doubles up as a school teacher, said she was concerned by the plight of school dropouts in marginalised areas.
“My main aim is to curb early child marriages,” she told H-Metro.
“The girl child here in Binga, when they get to 15 years and are not going to school, they resort to marriage.
“It is very sad that at the age of 17 these girls will be looking towards getting a second child.
“I want to make sure that they are kept busy with good life-changing activities so that they do not think of indulging in drugs and marriages,” she said.
She said she has been engaging children and teaching them about life skills.
“I do both girls and boys’ meetings where I will be educating them about what is important in life.
“They are still young, I want them to live their lives and think about marriage when they are ready mentally,” said Mercy.
She said her passion for modelling started when she was in lower grades but she then temporarily switched to pursue education.
“My passion for pageantry started when I was in Grade Four and I was inspired by the late Miss Brilliant Munkuli, who was the then Miss Zimbabwe.
“When I was in high school, I was deprived of the privilege to model because I came from a poor background. I could not meet the requirements because they wanted classy clothes and I could not get those,” she told H-Metro.
She said she rekindled her love for modelling while at university.
“I then went to university and during my attachment year, I started my own club where I was training children, from six years to 12 years, about modelling, both boys and girls, together with dancing.
“When I came back to Harare in 2019, I started doing what I was doing in Binga with the kids.
“I ended up engaging older people who know more about the arts like Wiseman Kaonzaruwa, who plays the mbira, and is the chairman of my club called Mercy Wise,” she said.
She added: “I have children that I am working with and sometimes we are taken for video shoots and other different events.
“Afro Bank Group of Schools also took me in to be their director in Sports, Arts and Culture because they saw that my passion will reap some good results if we were to work together,” said Mercy.
She revealed her vision.
“My vision is to see children go far and to help them get there as well.
“I want to help them with developmental skills so that they can also be able to help themselves, especially the girls, because most of those in my club are school dropouts.”
Online Reporter