The Sunday Mail
Gender and Community Editor
THOUSANDS of people attended the Women’s National Sport Festival in Bikita last week, which focused on fitness and wellness of women at workplaces.
The three-day event, which included a capacity-building workshop and was hosted by the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, saw 12 ministries attending the festival.
Running under the theme “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow #Breakthebias,” the event was a culmination of celebrations that started at ward level and were held across the country’s 10 provinces.
It was inspired by findings that women and girls’ participation in sport and recreation is a fundamental pre-requisite for gender equality and democracy.
A host of sporting activities and presentations on fitness and wellness, entrepreneurship, effects of substance and drug abuse were part of the festival.
Gwindingwi Secondary School — one of the venues — received 30 laptops donated by Information Communication Technology (ICT), Postal and Courier Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere.
The Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation also plans to build a low-cost tennis court at the school.
Director in the ministry, Eugenia Chidhakwa, said the annual festival is a vehicle for sowing seeds of change in attaining equality between men and women.
“It is the desire of this programme to instil knowledge in women of who they are and the place they hold in society. It is, therefore, the ministry’s deliberate plan to sow this seed to the marginalised women and girls, particularly those in the rural areas, and facilitate for growth and influence of women from the lowly to the well-to-do groups of women,” Chidhakwa said.
“It is our fervent hope that with continuous implementation, the number of mentally-liberated women would exponentially grow and the fruits of this programme start to manifest, especially through a society and economy driven by women and girls.”
Some of the objectives of the festival include to increase participation of women and girls in sport and recreation, provide a platform for awareness and the benefits of female participation, and expose women from different sectors to come together and get motivated to participate in sport.
The festival also aims to capacitate women on the benefits of participating in sport and recreation while also bringing stakeholders to exhibit to the community.
Chidhakwa said the emancipation of women and girls is a process rather than an event, and the continual convening of programmes like the festival will assist in “the eradication of societal inequalities, injustices, prejudices, wanton violations and ignorance of the role women play in the growth and development of a community”.
“The major stride we have made thus far is the provision of a platform for women in rural communities to speak out and learn on mechanisms to step out from the yoke of traditional disproportions and the inculcation of a gene that oozes confidence, industriousness, emotional and mental intelligence.
“We are confident that much progress will be made with the continued delivery of this programme within the communities. I would like to extend my appreciation to the Government of Zimbabwe, which has religiously funded this programme through Treasury since its inception in 2019.
“Such support is an indication of the Government’s commitment to the emancipation of women in the various sectors of our society with sport being one fundamental area,” she said.
While the festival has come and gone, some of the barriers that women in sport continue to face include resistance from men, oppression of women by their fellow women, sexual abuse and other forms of violence, low funding of programmes and reluctance to change the status quo.
