IThemba for Girls Trust (IGT), an organization that works to empower girls in rural communities in Zimbabwe, is joining the world in celebrating International Women’s Day under the campaign theme “An Equal World is an Enabled World”. Following this theme, IGT believes that to achieve an equal world, positive steps should be taken to ensure women and girls are capacitated and given the power and ability to be able to realize and reach their full potential as equal citizens of this world. IGT believes that positive steps towards comprehensive women empowerment starts by striving to empower girls at a young age. Principally, society cannot achieve gender equality in the boardroom without having achieved it in the classroom. The battle should start in classrooms. IGT believes that there is a need to re-adapt the personal mindset of young girls and boys at an early age and at a social level. This should include but not limited to, treating boys and girls as equals within homes and schools in their everyday socialization, where the battlefield for gender equality should be played out mostly. A young mind is like a sponge that can be trained to absorb anything, there is a foundational need to catch them young and capacitate children and youths on issues relating to equality, a pertinent issue that would result in women having confidence to take up leadership positions whilst simultaneously allowing society to accept women leadership.
IGT recommends that programs relating to gender equality be incorporated into school curriculums to fight cultural stereotypes, misconceptions and discrimination as well as encourage breaking gender-based barriers at a very early stage of child development. IGT notes the need to see government playing a more progressive role in the fight for gender equality through stronger law and policy initiatives and through administrative practices that encourage greater awareness on the cause in order to achieve the ultimate goal of gender equality.
Source: IThemba for Girls Trust (IGT)
