Tendai Rupapa Senior Reporter

FIRST Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa held an extensive consultative meeting with key stakeholders including Government Ministers, chief executives, the media and other leading figures ahead of the launch of her first-ever career guidance, deportment, etiquette and grooming programme to build a firm foundation for the country’s future generations.

Dubbed “The First Lady’s Career Guidance: Sustainability into generations” the programme will soon be launched in the capital after which it will be taken to all the provinces with high-achievers and notables from the areas engaging the children as a motivational factor.

Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution saw it befitting to participate in the programme alongside the media organisations they work with in their areas since they are the ones who will be implementing the programme in their respective provinces where they interact with communities on a day-to-day basis.

The targeted age-group is eight to 14 years while later there will be other sessions for high schools and tertiary institutions.

The move will also help tackle drug abuse, child marriages, school drop-out and general lack of respect, amongst a host of challenges bedevilling society today.

Career guidance is empowerment given to individuals to help them acquire the knowledge, information, skills, and experience necessary to identify career options, and narrow them down to make one career decision.

This career decision then results in their social, financial and emotional well-being throughout their lives.

Amai Mnangagwa, who has a passion for the welfare of women and children, will rope in the Ministries of Primary and Secondary Education; Higher and Tertiary Education as well as Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture.

Ministers take notes during a consultative meeting with First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa in preparation for the launch of career guidance, deportment, etiquette and grooming programme at Zimbabwe House

The programme, the mother of the nation said, would be extended to schools, churches and various other places where children meet.

“I welcome you wholeheartedly. There is no mother who plans her things without involving her children, that is why I have invited you today so that we put our minds together and come up with tangible things that will help our children and future generations.

“The programme that you have come for, and I see some of you have come from afar, is about career guidance, grooming, etiquette and deportment that we want to spread in schools around the country,” she said.

The mother of the nation underlined her passion for the well-being of children by highlighting other programmes she does with them.

“I would want to thank you all for sparing time from your busy schedules to come here on a very special agenda that impacts our future generations. Through my interactive programmes, I know you have seen me in all provinces doing Gota/Nhanga/Ixhiba and also Ngano Naamai and the Elementary Club where I took the very small ones to interact with me and I will also be hearing what they will be saying.

“Our children need serious grooming and we will try to touch on so many areas looking at both girls and boys, preparing the child for the future.

“That is why I invited you here so that we put our hands together for the sake of our children. Yes, I am the First Lady, but it is just a name, these two words, First and Lady cannot stop me from sitting down with the people and being with the people.

“Guidance and grooming are very important and when I was growing up, I was taught the art of living and walking in the correct path so that we would grow up well.

“We want our children to be groomed and raised in the manner we were also raised so that they grow up knowing where they are coming from and where they are heading to,” she said to warm applause.

Amai Mnangagwa then gave the floor to her visitors to share their views and they all applauded her for coming up with a noble programme.

They pledged their full support.

Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere threw his weight behind the programme saying human capital development was among priorities needed to carry the nation forward.

“In terms of National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), human capital development is one of the key priorities that is going to transform this economy, but also at the same time the President has also declared war on drugs and the coming of this career guidance, counselling and etiquette programme will help all children, especially those in schools, in terms of direction and at the same time in terms of heritage-based learning.

“We should then incorporate our customs and traditions as part of the guidance, counselling and also etiquette. What the First Lady has said is true because we may lose the next generation because of drugs. We might lose the next generation because of lack of dignity and values which are being eroded mainly by the substance and drug abuse that is rampant nowadays in the country and the world over.

“The President put together an inter-ministerial committee that will deal with the issue of drugs but to curb drugs alone without the supporting social and human capital initiative enabling children to be groomed from primary school level all the way to high school and university, the programme will not succeed.

“As part of the etiquette programme and guidance, it helps make children know where we are coming from, where we are going and values that are expected in terms of Ubuntu, in terms of our cultural norms as Africans.

“This helps children understand professions and role models they will be working with in communities to know where they will be coming from and heading to.

“As people responsible for the dissemination of information we will be together as it is the responsibility of our ministry to inform, to educate and also to entertain and we will incorporate the programme in newspapers, social media platforms and television stations,” he said.

Similar sentiments where echoed by Minister of State for Presidential Affairs in the Office of the President and Cabinet Lovemore Matuke.

“We need to empower children to take care of our country when we are gone or when we are so old that we can’t do anything for ourselves. Amai, we welcome your programme. It is very important.

“In my view, I think we need also to incorporate these child parliamentarians that we have always had in our communities. We have junior Members of Parliament and councillors. We also need chiefs and I don’t know if we have children who represent chiefs out there because they can help push our agenda to their peers.

“Amai our children are doing the unthinkable in schools especially in boarding schools. I heard that they are brewing a certain cereal mixed with juice and ferment it. These children really needs guidance and counselling,” he said.

Minister of State for Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs and Devolution Marian Chombo described the First Lady’s programme as both timely and relevant.

“This is quite relevant especially where we travel in the rural areas as provincial ministers. We encounter a lot. The Covid-19 era created a lot of problems and these are some of them. You have said catch them young and if we look at the programme that you do which seeks to fill the aunt’s gap. Children are no longer disciplined and do as they please.

“Churches and as the minister said, junior MPS and junior councillors should be roped in. Also encourage them through Education 5.0 to understand that it is not everyone who is academically gifted. They need to appreciate that there are some careers they can do though career guidance.

“This affects us in Mashonaland west because it is a farming area and a mining area. Child marriages are rampant and girls are rushing into marriages without any knowledge of what is expected of them. Discipline in schools is also bad and you just see in social media that we have lost a generation. With your guidance Amai, we are going to run with the programme in the provinces because it is relevant to cover the void in the communities,” she said.

Minister of State for Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Evelyn Moyo thanked the First Lady for her interventions to improve the welfare of children countrywide.

“I want to thank you Amai for the many programmes that we have participated with you targeting mainly children. Amai, you have been talking to the young generation on the values that we expect from them as parents, as grandparents and as sisters and brothers. As the former Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, we had that programme in the schools, but it is very shallow.

“It’s once in a while that the head office moves in the provinces. They actually choose one province maybe per year which is not very effective. The issue is that the values have gone down, the curriculum, the heritage studies needs to be evaluated because we have got a heritage which we need to evaluate, sit down with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education so that we evaluate, we sense the quality of the materials that are used in that subject.

“We have faith that your programme will rescue our children. The behaviour of children needs to change. Amai it also begins with the parents, children learning from them or children being affected by their parent’s constant fights, therefore Amai, I think you also need to formulate another programme targeting parents. Your new programme Amai was long over due,” she said.

Minister of State for Harare Province Charles Tawengwa jocularly said he had no talking points, but action points.

“We are ready Amai, just give us the tools and we will deliver. We have heard everything you have said and we are in full support of your vision. Where a king’s son is cautioned, as a servant’s child be present.

“If you want to feel the warmth of the fire, you have to go to the fireplace to be warm. All you are saying is that the children have to be there to hear the values and ethos expected of them and to be inspired by high-achievers and notables.

“These are the things that we are saying even in the homes, but our children no longer listen. But what is it that is making our children resistant? We now need to go back and teach them that what they think is normal is actually not.

“Children who drop their trousers are not ashamed as they walk. Even some adults are now used to this and children are copying. I say let us follow our mother’s counsel and start the work. We need action so that her vision is fulfilled,” he said.

Representing the media, The Sunday Mail Editor Mrs Victoria Ruzvidzo thanked the First Lady for allowing the media to be part of her programme.

“I thank you for allowing us to be here as the media, helping and assisting to spread information. I am always telling people this, that there are some people who do not see the importance of the media but I want to thank you that in all your programmes you always include the media.

“Whatever is done, for as long as the media is not there expect only people who were in that room to know, no one else will know. So no one else will have a buy-in, no one else will participate, but if you call us as you have done, we will use all our platforms and channels to spread the message. Fortunately because of technology, not just here in Zimbabwe, but abroad, we have Zimbabweans who are all over the world would want to take part in these programmes,” she said.

The mother of the nation separately met chief executives as part of the consultative process.

Dr Mnangagwa gave the chief executives a briefing on what the programme was all about.

“So we say schools, how may Harare schools do we have? They say we have this number, and we take representatives from each school, those who are vocal, those who can express themselves and can tell others what they went there for and what they learnt.

“The environment will be so conducive because what we want is not like us preaching to them but to interact with them for us to see if it has sunk into their heads. Your positions are going to inspire them and you will see what is going to happen when talking of career guidance and etiquette,” she said.

Educationist and career diplomat Ambassador Mary Mubi, spoke glowingly of the envisaged programme.

She described the First Lady’s programme as inspirational and visionary.

“I think if we really want Zimbabwe to be a shining star, we need to prepare for the next generation and many of our children don’t have ambition, don’t have an idea, don’t understand the talents they have and the role they should play in their communities.

“We need mentors and I think a lot of the people around here are mentors. Seeing is believing. Many of the mentors that our children see are not perhaps available and Amai is making them visible.

“I think in every community there is mentor who can provide the necessary motivation for a child to aspire, but I think your words at the beginning of this presentation that having a vision, having an idea of how you can contribute but also understanding your abilities because many times we have ambition, but sometimes also having an idea of what we are capable of doing sometimes needs nurturing and also motivation so that we can see the different skills that are available.

“Some are coming with our hands, some are artists, some are sports people, some are in ICT, some are engineers, some are doctors and everybody has a role to play and I think it is to create situation where every child feels that they can contribute whether you are a plumber, you can be the best plumber that there can be. If they are going to be an engineer, let them be the greatest engineer that they can be.

“I truly commend you for the age group that you are thinking about because often career guidance comes too late in our schools when already they have made choices about what they will take at O-Level and A-Level. But if in fact they have a dream and a motivation, they can already begin to try and excel in the subject that they think that they can do. So Amai as always, I am here, sharing ideas and motivating I can do, but of course your energy is something that I cant match,” she said in jest.

Zimpapers chief executive Mr Pikirayi Deketeke pledged to support the First Lady’s vision.

“Today we have people who conduct themselves in a certain way because of their upbringing, they have no values. So Amai, you have started a process which is going to shape the children and the generations to come. The information that we are going to give to the children, can help them make informed decisions about their career choices.

“Career guidance help students understand their strengths, weaknesses, and interests, and provide them with a clearer picture of the career paths available to them. We are fully behind this programme and will use the voices on radio, TV and newspapers and I believe we can begin to make a transformation and telling these stories of different leaders, how they started and where they are so as to motivate the children. We all started from somewhere,” he said.

Mr Michael Lashbrook the National Foods chief executive said; “Amai, I really want to applaud you on this fantastic initiative, I really think its opportune. Why I say it is opportune is because one of the greatest strengths of our country is its people and personally as someone who is getting older it does worry me that our young talent is not quite what it was 15 or 20 years ago and I really think this is opportune and personally I am honoured to be part of this initiative,” he said.

Mr Lashbrook said in his organisation there were so many people and he was willing to commit colleagues with inspiring stories to come on board and assist in the First Lady’s vision.