Celebrated artist Tay Grin and soccer stars Fischer ‘Anong’a’ Kondowe, Henry ‘Magetsi’ Kabichi, and George Nyirenda at the weekend inspired the youth of Mangochi during a HeForShe campaign.
The event was held at Nampiguja Primary School, Traditional Authority (T/A) Bwananyambi. It was organised by UN Women as part of the organisation’s activities to promote girls education and gender equality in Dedza, Salima and Mangochi districts.
The celebrities encouraged the youth to set realistic goals and work hard towards achieving them.
“Everyone has different talents and I would like to encourage you to discover that talent and work hard to perfect it,” said Nyasa Big Bullets soccer star George Nyirenda in his address to hundreds of youths who patronised the event.
In an interview, Fischer ‘singled out poverty as the reason many girls fail to go further with their education.
“Apart from poverty, I would add peer pressure as one of the social problems among the youth, making them fail to continue with their education in Malawi and Africa as a whole.”
“I’m saying this from experience; sometimes the people one chooses to associate with may lead to one’s success or one’s downfall. friends who can help you achieve your set goals.”
UN Women Malawi’s HeForShe campaign coordinator Habiba Osman, expressed satisfaction that the campaign is paying dividends in Mangochi.
She said, so far, they have managed to mobilise male champions at all levels such as chiefs, religious leaders, parliamentarians and celebrities to join the campaign.
The event was spiced up by football and netball matches where four schools around Nampiguja Primary competed for a HeForShe trophy.
Tay Grin took the event to a higher tempo to consolidate all the HeForShe messages by dishing out several hits. n
