The Sunday Mail
Tendai Chara
A key player in the non-formal education sector has distanced itself from social media messages that are encouraging out-of-school girls to register to be supported with their education.
Fake social media messages are circulating following the publication of an article in which Plan International, a non-governmental organisation, which is running the Supporting Adolescent Girls Education programme (SAGE), had indicated that it is ready to resume normal classes.
It has since emerged that fake social media messages in which some individuals are purporting to be working on behalf of Plan International to mobilise girls on its behalf are circulating.
In a statement, Plan International distanced itself from the social media messages.
“Whilst it is true that the organisation has a project called Supporting Adolescent Girls Education (SAGE) that is supporting out-of-school adolescent girls in selected communities across 11 districts in Zimbabwe, it has not engaged any third-party outside its organisational structures to mobilise girls on its behalf.”
The organisation said it is going to investigate the source of the messages and advised social media users to ignore fraudsters.
Part of the statement read: “We are concerned that the originators of these messages may have malicious intent and should be ignored.”
