Group Capt Blessings Ndoro carves own piece of history Airforce of Zimbabwe Commander Air Marshal Perrance Shiri bestows a new insignia on Blessings Ndoro
Airforce of Zimbabwe Commander Air Marshal Perrance Shiri bestows a new insignia on Blessings Ndoro

Airforce of Zimbabwe Commander Air Marshal Perrance Shiri bestows a new insignia on Blessings Ndoro

Ruth Butaumocho Gender Editor

Being a grandmaster at work, inspiring and motivating your team are traits of good leadership skills that have worked wonders for several individuals in different professions. One beneficiary of such a set-up is Group Captain Blessings Ndoro, who like a colossus, rose from being a simple officer to join the bench of high ranking personnel within the Air Force of Zimbabwe, all this despite challenges that at one time threatened to cloud her vision.

President Mugabe recently promoted Wing Commander Ndoro to the position of the Group Captain of the Air Force of Zimbabwe becoming the youngest female to hold such a position.Group Captain Ndoro was promoted after successfully completing the required courses at the military training academies and command and staff development institutions.

“Hard work has always been my benchmark for success and I believe my parents especially my daddy, contributed a lot to what I am today, what I believe in and what I have become,” revealed Group Captain Ndoro at her workstation in Harare recently.

She joins a league of women from different disciplines and field who have gone the extra mile to occupy spaces previously reserved for men.

Speaking after the conferment of Capt Ndoro recently, Air Force of Zimbabwe Commander Air Marshal Perrance Shiri said it was a major achievement for the Airforce of Zimbabwe to have another female Group Captain, whose promotion was not based on gender, but on competency.And she has proved that she is competent through her trailblazing record of success from the time she was a student at Mutare Girls High up to her current position.

“I am a firm believer in hard work,” she said.Group Captain Ndoro revealed that women who occupy spaces previously dominated by men have had to work twice as hard as their male colleagues while continuing to give due attention to prescribed societal roles.

“It is hard work, but the scale has to balance,” she affirmed.Like her colleagues who are raising feminine flags high in different industries, Group Captain Ndoro said the track was often riddled with challenges, where patriarchal attitudes heavily embedded in institutions impede the ascendancy of a majority of women.

For someone who wanted to become doctor and only joined the uniform forces by accident, she has been a beacon of hope among her peers, who had been hesitant to push the boundary lines, finding comfort in waving the victim card instead.Confirming the long held notion of the existence of patriarchal attitudes and sexism among male colleagues who often use that to elbow women out of the race, Group Captain Ndoro said hard work was key in unlocking opportunities.

“I remember when I came for the interviews – which I didn’t know were for the cadetship with the Air Force until I was given camouflage and ordered to run – I remember a few guys in the group, dismissing ladies as a joke by trying to venture into a male dominated field.

“The discouragement motivated me to give my best during the recruitment exercise and I was among a handful of ladies who qualified for the cadetship together with Capt Chipo Matimba,” she said.

Gleaning from her father’s life manuals, who had often told her that he would have been happier had she been a boy, Group Capt Ndoro diligently executed her task during her cadetship until the final part where she failed to fly solo, which was a practical requirement before one could become a pilot.That development was a turning point in her life.

Instead of shedding tears and packing her bags to join her former schoolmates who had found solace in teaching and nursing, Group Capt Ndoro soldiered on and eventually earned a slot to remaster the cadetship.

“I simply could not quit. I had to remaster to get to the next level,” she boldly declared.That leap of faith and determination worked in her favour, and in no time, she qualified as an air traffic controller.

Her chance to display her expertise and knowledge happened in 1998 when she was seconded to the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe as an assistant air traffic controller following a nationwide strike of air traffic controllers

“Together with other air traffic controllers who went to CAAZ during that time, we diligently executed the task,” she recalled.

Now confident that her capability was no longer a point of conjecture after excelling together with her colleagues in handling the crisis, Group Captain Ndoro went back to her work station eager to tackle the next assignment with zeal and enthusiasm.

“I was then sent to the United Kingdom to further my training in air traffic controlling, which proved to be quite a challenge because of the variance in technology.

“Technology in the UK was more advanced than here,” she said.

It was while in the UK that she had to fend off gender stereotypes and attitudes among some male colleagues, who were in her group.

“One of the guys in my group would often chide and demean me because I was a woman. I remember him dismissing my competence as a fallacy, saying there was no woman who was an equal or could do better than a man,” she recalled.

That spurred her to work extra hard and she scored high marks in the group, beating her male rival despite the fact that she was pregnant.

Looking back, Group Capt Ndoro said her achievements were grounded in hard work and persistence, virtues that her father instilled in her.She called on society to empower the girl child through mentorship.

“Encouragement alone is important in mentoring our girls and helping them understand that they can achieve as much and more if they set their minds and hands to the task at hand.

“Girls’ greatest advantage is their ability to multi-task,” said Group Captain Ndoro who in 2015 had to go for a peacekeeping mission in Liberia as a military observer for more than a year, leaving behind her baby who was only 11 months old.

Her ability to multi-task has enabled her to successfully alternate her time between her work, academic studies and the family.

A holder of a MBA and a hosts of academic and professional qualifications, Group Captain Ndoro is now working towards her doctorate.

She is married to Wing Commander Matambo.

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