Equality Leads to Opportunity

Loveangel Sibanda was surprised when, at 15, her performance of her poem, “Equality,” won GSGC’s Creative Expressions Contest last year. Then came another surprise.

Zimbabwe’s chapter of UNICEF —United National Children’s Fund — asked her to recite her poem at a UNICEF event — and in front of ambassadors and Zimbabwe’s vice president.

“It was a bit frightening, but I was able to speak,” Loveangel said recently, noting that UNICEF must have seen her video online.

Putting her thoughts about gender inequality into words and sharing them publicly wouldn’t have happened without the support and mentorship of Sisonke Girls Club, she said. Before joining the club in Monde, a rural village outside Victoria Falls, she said she was shy and quiet.

“Here at Sisonke, they teach us to gain confidence and believe in ourselves,” she said. “Here, in a community that looks down on girls, they teach us to speak out as girls.”

She is doing just that. She has performed “Equality” at her school. She shares it and talks about gender equality, or the lack of it, with her friends. “They think I’m a brave girl.”

Her mother, a teacher, appreciates her new-found strength. Her two younger brothers look up at her a bit more admiringly. Now 16, she wants to participate in other poetry competitions.

In a culture where boys’ opinions are more valued than girls’ and boys receive more attention at school, speaking out “helps a lot,” she said.

She wants to see educational campaigns that emphasize self-confidence and speaking skills among girls. Child marriage should be abolished, she said, because it means girls drop out of school.

Loveangel plans to stay in class, working toward attending a university in Bulawayo to study biology, physics and chemistry on a path to become a pharmacist. Zimbabwe’s medical sector includes few women, and she wants to change that. And she’s working on another poem for the 2022 contest.

She urges members of other GSGC-sponsored clubs to enter. “Some things you might take lightly, but you gain so much confidence.”

Sisonke Girls Club Mentor Talent Muyambo has watched Loveangel’s growth over the past year. “I feel inspired to move forward when I look at how far she has gone,” Mentor Talent said. “She came to me appreciating the presence of a mentor in her life for the first time.”

Loveangel said entering Creative Expressions Contest last year was “eye-opening.” It felt right to write about equal opportunities, equal dreams and equal rights for both girls and boys, she said.

But winning the contest, she said, was “life-changing.”

“I learned that as girls, we really need to speak out for ourselves,” Loveangel said. “If we don’t do that, no one will speak out for us.”