Work hard, women urged

husbands.
The First Lady said this in an interview during the tour of her children’s home in Mazowe last week.
The centre has just admitted the first 15 of its projected 600 beneficiaries when it is completed mid next year.

She said the current environment in Zimbabwe allows women to empower themselves.
She said: “Women had been marginalised for long but now we have the opportunities presented by the Government and they have to take advantage of that.”

Amai Mugabe urged women to strive to feed their families.
“Women must not look up to their husbands only but also bring something home. Things are changing. Let’s work hard in whatever we do. When your husband realises you are organised and hardworking he will respect you.”

The First Lady said she had a problem with women who neither took interest in what their husbands did nor had ideas to bring income home.
“I have seen cases where when a man who has been the sole breadwinner for the family dies the family goes into financial dire straits because they were never involved,” said Amai Mugabe.

She did not have kind words for lazy and showy women. “I know of some women in town who are always busy meeting and showing off what their husbands would have done for them. I don’t agree. Women should work and be self-sufficient,” she said.

The First Lady urged women to also take counsel in the Bible, which advises that women should be their husbands’ assistants not burdens.
As for her, she said she does what any diligent and prudent woman should do.

“I do not want to cry when my husband dies. Some people think that since I am the First Lady I have money but I work,” she said.
Amai Mugabe is involved in farming and also looks for partners to fund her activities such as the children’s home in Mazowe and Danhiko Project in Msasa in Harare, where she is a patron.

At home, she says: “I cook and launder for my husband and he loves it.”
The First Lady also tenders a vegetable garden from which the First Family gets its supplies.

For her industry, the First Lady says, President Mugabe proudly describes her as a “man-woman.”
Amai Mugabe is a strong advocate of women empowerment and she has donated sewing machines and generators to women’s organisations.