This article is co-written with our local peacebuilding partner – Envision Zimbabwe Women’s Trust – as part of a shared public appeal to raise crucial funds and awareness for women-led peace in Zimbabwe.
On 11 October, we commemorated the International Day of the Girl Child. Girls’ rights in marginalised communities remain a priority world-over. They include the right to education, safety and protection.
At Envision Zimbabwe Women’s Trust, we train local Women Peace Champions to help promote and protect girls’ rights within rural communities.
We know that women in peacebuilding not only have to deal with conflict in the community, but also at household and family levels. Women have traditionally played the role of care-givers in many cultures and are often assigned by society the “task” of advocating for the rights and protection of girls in their household. As a result, especially in rural and traditional communities, it is vital to have women in leadership positions, like the Women Peace Champions we train and support.
In one part of Zimbabwe, recent reports show how several girls at one school failed to sit their final primary education exams as a result of falling pregnant at the age of 11 or 12 – despite the age of consent recently being raised to 18 years of age.
The future for girls in Zimbabwe is not understood better by anyone than by the women who have walked that path before. This is why our organisation, Envision Zimbabwe Women’s Trust, trains and empowers women peacebuilders in Hurungwe District, Mashonaland West province in Zimbabwe. Their visibility as women leaders is a shining example for future generations of women in Zimbabwe.
