Girls Development Initiative was founded in 2011 and has grown to be one of the leading female mentoring programmes in Bulawayo. The initiative targets school girls in high density suburbs and aims to mentor them and equip them with skills.
“Having grown up in an environment where it was always difficult for young girls to attend school, I always had a passion for this sort of thing. The opportunity to fulfill my dream came in 2011 when I attended the United States of America‘s state department funded Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership programme. The knowledge and experience I gained from the programme assisted me to set up this organisation together with a colleague, Sharon Gomera,” said Simba.
The Girls Development Initiative currently works with six schools in the high density suburbs.
“We work with mentoring groups of between 15 to 20 people in Mpopoma, Luveve, Pumula, Emkhandeni, Cowdray Park and Montrose secondary schools. We are also coaching them on personal hygiene and assisting them to come up with projects which can uplift their communities such as clean up campaigns,” said Simba.
As part of the initiative, mentoring clubs are taught how to fundraise and use the money to build up their local communities. Due to limited resources, Simba said the organization’s operations are currently confined to Bulawayo but plans to roll out the project in other provinces are at an advanced stage.
The director said the challenges facing girl children in the region were child-headed families, poverty and all forms of abuse.
“Most of the families in Bulawayo are child-headed because parents have gone to neighbouring countries such as South Africa and Botswana looking for jobs. The other problem is starvation. Children are coming to school without having eaten anything. At Montrose we even have girls fainting from hunger,” she said.
The level of poverty among the children had led to them falling victims of sexual harassment by kombi drivers who offer them free rides in exchange for sex.
“We want to give young girls as much as information as possible on issues concerning their health and bodies. Most girls are vulnerable to pregnancy due to lack of information. We are also advocating free and high quality medical examinations for issues such as breast and cervical cancer,” she added.
Post published in: News