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Tendai Rupapa Senior Reporter

FIRST Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa yesterday took her educative Gota/Nhanga/Ixiba programme to Harare’s mixed race community in fulfilment of her promise to leave no-one behind as she strives to teach children self-control, self-reliance, respect for elders and their bodies.

She also spoke candidly about the need for parents to have time with their children while communities were told to shun gender-based violence which is on the rise countrywide.

The First Lady noticed that the mixed race community had become reclusive and was not participating in the country’s mainstream activities, prompting her to engage them early this year and told them she is a mother who does not leave any of her children behind.

She promised the community that she would return with her Nhanga/Gota/Ixiba programme so that the children appreciate the country’s norms and values, and yesterday, she fulfilled her promise.

The mixed race community praised the mother of the nation for her inclusive approach.

A member of the community, Mrs Mahmooda Khan, described the First Lady’s move to reach out to them as unprecedented.

“We are grateful to the First Lady for bringing this educative programme to us because we as the mixed race community, a lot of us inherited a Shona background or Ndebele background, above all we are Zimbabweans,” she said.

“The programme allows us to learn about the cultures that are part of what we are. Our girls and boys learnt certain things they need to know, what the Zimbabwean culture requires of them as they transition from childhood into adulthood, how to conduct themselves as citizens, what is required of them as responsible citizens and this is what Amai brought to us.”

Ms Khan was grateful to the First Lady’s involvement in the search for solutions to problems affecting her community.

“If you look back, a few months ago, she did come in when we had this huge discussion about the 00s and what that meant for us as the coloured community,” she said.

“She brought experts from various ministries to provide appropriate answers to our concerns and to speak to us about how we can be included in the bigger picture about what’s going on in Zimbabwe, where we can go for help, who we can approach when we are facing certain hurdles in our lives and how as a nation we are not to consider ourselves as excluded from the fabric of society.

“So, I think as Zimbabweans and as the mixed race community, this is a huge step forward and we embrace the interaction. This has never happened before.”

Ms Maureen Muparadzi, a trustee in the Indigenous Minorities of Zimbabwe, was also grateful to Amai Mnangagwa for reaching out to them.

“She has introduced this Nhanga/Gota/Ixiba to our community so that our children grow morally upright,” she said. “They were taught the traditional ways of Zimbabwe because first and foremost, we are Zimbabweans and we need to know the culture of Zimbabweans because we can’t live in a vacuum.”

The First Lady’s intervention comes at a time when communities are grappling with cases of delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, prostitution and disrespect from youths, among other vices.

As part of yesterday’s programme, girls were taught winnowing, grinding, pounding, starting fire and cooking.

They were taught how to prepare mazondo, dried vegetables in peanut butter, sorghum and millet sadza.

The First Lady was actively involved in the teachings showing the children how traditional foods are prepared.

In the Gota, boys were taught how to slaughter and skin a goat and to prepare cow feet for cooking.

Using the mortar and pestle appeared a challenge for the girls whose conduct showed the need to be educated on how to use them effectively and productively.

The way they were pounding and grinding showed they were doing it for the first time.

Such was the case with boys, who almost ran away on seeing blood oozing from the goat while it was being slaughtered.

Therefore, the First Lady’s programme has been helpful and beneficial. In the Nhanga, Amai Mnangagwa warned girls against engaging in premarital sex.

“We have come to talk to you, teaching you good morals. We are worried with early pregnancies and school dropouts in communities around the country.

“Today’s young girls are sleeping around with men; some are not evening using protection. We want you to say no to sexual activities before time is right, we want you to safeguard your bodies and your health. If you sleep around without protection, what do you get?” she asked.

In response, the girls said diseases, pregnancies and destroy their future.

The First Lady agreed with them, adding that in most cases, the men responsible for the pregnancy will deny responsibility and the girls are left all alone.

“The burden will now lie with your parents to fend for grandchildren with different totems,” said the First Lady.

During the interactive session, one of the girls decried that parents no longer have time for their children, hence the surge in misbehaviour.

She said if she cannot be loved at home, she will accept a proposal from a boy without thinking twice.

The girl added that parents were either on their phones or quarrelling, “without giving us time as their children”.

An elderly lady, Mrs Glenda Lourie, spoke about the need for parents to teach their children the right ways and imparting the principles of life in them.

She said these days, children were adopting alien cultures they learn from social media.

Gogo Petronella Kwedza told the girls that having boyfriends before the appropriate time will not take them anywhere.

“You must value your education,” she said. “Your education is your boyfriend because no one will ever take that away from you.

“As children you should understand if your parents say they do not have money to buy you things you would want. This should strengthen you to work hard in school so that you can be able to buy everything you want and be able to take care of your parents.”

Some of the children raised abuse at home by parents saying this led them to mischief.

The First Lady discouraged abuse and urged parents to reduce emotions when counselling children.

“We must mould them, not abuse them,” she said. “They need our love, guidance and protection. Let’s protect our children, they are a blessing from God, they are our future.”

The First Lady promised to bring her Nharirire Yemusha Programme to address issues raised by the children against parents.

Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Deputy Minister Jennifer Mhlanga, who was also in the Nhanga, urged the children to embrace the teachings they were being given for a brighter future.

Mr Kimble Rogers, who was in the Gota with boys, expressed gratitude to the First Lady for her initiative.

“Inasmuch as we are of a slightly different type of culture, we get to appreciate what our other Zimbabweans are engaging in when it comes to some of our cultural practices,” he said.

“The Gota/Nhanga/Ixiba tends to focus on the youths that are going to be the vulnerable ones, and these are the ones we need to reach with the urgent message that taking responsibility for one’s life is very important and must be a priority.

“Your function, your role in society is going to determine whether or not the community that you are in and the community that you serve is going to benefit from anything that you are going to be doing.”

Mr Rogers said the First Lady deserved honour for her well-thought-out initiative.

In her address to the community, the First Lady urged the boys and girls to value education and respect morality.

“I believe no Zimbabwean should be left behind and this is why I am here today to sit down with the children who are coming of age and teach them life lessons,” she said. “Moral values and principles are universal regardless of ethnicity and religious orientation.

“It is important to impart wisdom in your youngsters while they are still young so that they do not stray from the right path.”

These days, the First Lady said, moral decadence was at its climax and Zimbabwe was losing many youths to drugs, teenage pregnancies and delinquency.

Technological advancement, she added, had made the world a singular global village where information about other cultures was at the tip of people’s fingers.

“Unfortunately, technology has its vices and our children have fallen prey to it.

“The youth no longer have respect for their elders but rather treat them with reproach and condescendence. Some are now addicted to substance abuse and drop out of school to become thieves aiming to feed their addiction.

“Our young girls use their bodies in exchange for trinkets and this has robbed these children of their future. A significant number of our youths end up getting pregnant, contracting sexually transmitted infections, meaning they can no longer reach their potential in life.

“As a result of unplanned marriages, some get married early and because the husband and wife are too young to hand the responsibilities that come with a union, their marriage crumbles,” said the First Lady to applause.

The mother of the nation said as a parent, she was worried by the moral decadence and degenerating of behaviour among youths.

She encouraged parents to teach their children about principles, moral values and their importance in life.

The children who participated were given certificates and made ambassadors of the programme.

They also got food hampers and stationery, while the elders who taught them also received their hampers.

Amai Mnangagwa also distributed sanitary wear to school girls from the community.