Teachers praised for sacrificing for the girls

MATABELELAND North female teachers have been praised for sacrificing in sporting outings by providing cover for girls when on away trips.

They are sharing lodgings with girls to protect and monitor them when on sporting and educational trips.

“I would like to commend the province for the strides in protecting the girls by humbling themselves to ensure they sleep with adult cover,” said Anna Magaya, the headmistress of Sipepa Secondary School who is the Matabeleland North National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) vice secretary at a schools athletics event in Bubi District.

The teachers at times sleep with the girls in classrooms.

She says Nash has upped the game in ensuring that girls are provided with security and are able to take part in sport without fear.

“As a mother I am very particular about the safety of the Girl Child. As mother of all the girls of all in the seven districts I am very careful about the safety and welfare of the Girl Child,” said Magaya.
She said in each of the teams and districts there is always a chaperone traveling to take care of girls.

“We make sure there is a chaperone who ensures she is where the girls are and she knows where the girls are, she knows. When they sleep in the classroom she sleeps with them,” she said.She said most of the girls come from rural areas and some cannot afford.

She emphasized that they provide girls with their feminine needs which include sanitary wear and painkillers.

Magaya said teachers sleep in the same rooms with girls for security and health needs and that there is always someone from medical field to assist.

She said where they camp they count on security and Zimbabwe Republic Police details for the girls safety.

A number of organisations now emphasize on safeguarding to ensure a safer environment in sport for the girls and other vulnerable groups like children with disabilities.

Recently 40 practitioners in Zimbabwe completed an international course on safeguarding run by an international organisation and the Sport and Recreation Commission.