‘Girls born to conquer!’. . . junior president’s war cry

21 Aug, 2016 - 00:08 0 Views
‘Girls born to conquer!’. . . junior president’s war cry

The Sunday Mail

FOR years, the junior president post has been dominated by males in junior parliament.

This year Tinaye Mbavari (TM) managed to end the male dominance streak as she was voted in as the 2016 Child president. Sunday Mail Bridge reporter Bryan Zhawi (BZ), a student at NUST, caught up with this year’s Junior President Tinaye Mbavari in this one on one interview in which she showed deep concern for the girl child and other societal ills affecting children in the country. Read through…

BZ: Firstly, congratulations for being the first female junior president after more than five years of male dominance.

TM: Thank you very much.

BZ: Tell Us who is Tinaye Mbavari?

TM: Tinaye Mbavari is a young girl aged 17, born during times of gusty winds in August and bred in Marondera. She is determined and has a great mind of doing big things mainly for her country as a sign of patriotism. She is inspired by great women particularly Margret Thatcher and is currently a lower six student at Early Bird Educational Centre.

BZ: What does it mean to you to be a junior president?

TM: It means a lot. It makes me be the voice of the voiceless and a person who is there to stand out for the children, a big sister to all orphans and other vulnerable children mainly in the streets. Being a junior president it shows that they voted for me so I mean a lot to them so I will stand with them.

BZ: From the past years, there are trending stories which are mostly affecting the girl child such as early child marriages, now it’s you a girl child who is in the most ranked office in junior parliament. How best are you going to advocate against such issues which are mainly affecting the girl children?

TM: We shall be doing campaigns on stopping child marriages. I’m going to be there and be the voice of those children who are being forced into early marriages. Not every girl child is falling into marriage willingly but because there are certain conflicts and crisis that are occurring in families which make parents force children to end up falling for traps of early marriage or ‘child bride’.

BZ: Junior Parliament advocates for children’s rights and this year your theme was “Conflict and crisis in protecting children’s rights in Africa “. What are you planning as a cabinet to make children’s rights familiar to the majority?

TM: As the 24th cabinet of Junior Parliament we are going to make sure that our rights and responsibilities are effectively practiced in Zimbabwe and if it all goes well in SADC at large. Since Junior Parliamentarians are all over the country; similar to our senior ones, we will take advantage of that in terms of imparting knowledge about these children’s rights across all age groups. This will be done in an effort to solve a problem of some children who don’t know their rights whilst others abuse them, not forgetting some of our elders who really ignore that apart from human rights there are also children’s rights.

BZ: This year in Harare two students from Mount Pleasant high school and Girls High School lost their lives after being ran over by a car and a combi respectively. Your counterparts Junior Council quickly reacted by repainting a zebra crossing sign and held a march in streets. How are you going to stand with junior council?

TM: What junior council did was more of a short term effect on stopping this. The Junior Parliament is going to educate the students on reducing these accidents.

We are going to do traffic safety education to ensure and enhance the minds of all those who are into trafficking thus both drivers and pedestrians.

These will be efforts of reducing or stopping such accidents mainly to students. My message to reckless drivers is that they should act like they passed their driving test and show that they earned it. My plea is they must not drink and drive because it’s not only a risk to them but also the third parties – pedestrians.

BZ: Speaking of Academics, in a few words how best do you portray STEM and The National Pledge?

TM: STEM is there to help students who do sciences, I believe, but what about those ones who are in the Commercial and Arts sectors? I think if there are similar initiatives which cater for the other two departments (commerce and arts) it will be very appreciated.

I am not condemning the idea of STEM but I’m supporting it despite the fact that I’m one of those students who are not benefiting from it. Adding on that, in some rural schools STEM is not there yet so I would like it to go deeper into the roots of Zimbabwe because there are other students who are learning at remote schools like the ones in Binga who don’t know about the initiative and after all they are passionate in sciences.

Pertaining ‘The National Pledge’ it is just making us be patriotic and honour our heroes. It is a prayer for the country just like national anthem.

BZ: There’s an ongoing debate between Junior Parliamentarians and Junior Councillors on who is most active and effective than the other. What do you think?

TM: Junior Parliamentarians are more effective because we are looking at a national level yet junior Councillors are mostly concerned about their towns and cities of operation. JP touch every child nationwide and all our advocation is done broadly and if we look for some issues which our counterparts push to do it would have come to the great minds of junior Parliament.

BZ: Lastly, was it part of your plans to run for junior presidency or your school pushed for you?

TM: I started public speaking at preparatory school. I always wanted to be in Junior Parliament that makes being on this post a blessing. My dream turned to reality so I’m living my dream.

BZ: Any remarks mostly directed to girl children?

TM: As I always say behind every great man there is a woman so I’m urging all the girls around Zimbabwe that they can be who they want to become despite their sex so if you are a lady it means that you are born to conquer. Girls should invest in themselves and pursue their dreams in a bid to have value in life.

  • Students, YOU CAN SEND YOUR ARTICLES THROUGH E-MAIL, FACEBOOK, WHATSAPP or TEXT Just app Charles Mushinga on 0772936678 or send your articles, pictures, poetry, art . . . to Charles Mushinga at [email protected] or [email protected] or follow Charles Mushinga on Facebook or @charlesmushinga on Twitter. You can also post articles to The Sunday Mail Bridge, PO Box 396, Harare or call 0772936678.

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds