BY RUTENDO MATANHIKE

A NON-GOVERNMENTAL organisation, Plan International Zimbabwe, has launched a campaign dubbed Girls Get Equal, aimed at educating girls to attain leadership roles.

Speaking during the launch at the National Art Gallery in Harare on Thursday, country director Angela Muriithi said the campaign advocated for the creation of a safe platform, including the empowerment of girls and young women.

“Girls Get Equal is about action and we collectively demand for girls’ power. Influencers and decision-makers in this room and the world should create space and opportunities so that girls and young women can be given power to make future decisions affecting their lives,” she said.

“We are demanding for girls and young women to have the freedom to move, lead and to speak up in the face of violence and harassment.”

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Muriithi urged the media to avoid stereotype publications and broadcasting as these infringed on girls’ freedoms and opportunities.

“To the media fraternity as well as the world storytellers, refrain from propagated and damaging gender stereotypes during communication,” she said.

First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, who was also in attendance, said the issue of inequality required action that instilled fundamental ideas in girls during their
early stages in life to ensure they grew up with an independent mindset.

“I started engaging the girl child at an early age on issues around emancipation and equality. The whole idea is that if we are able to instil a sense of
equality in the girl child at an early age, they will certainly be able to show power, freedom and indeed take on leadership roles in adulthood, thus creating
an equal society in future,” she said.

“As I do this work with women, I have also come to realise that we run the risk of talking about the same challenges of inequalities between men and women. Some 20, 50 or even 100 years from now, if we do not deal with this issue when children are still young, it will remain like that.”