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Stephen Mpofu

A woman is the medium of God’s life and love to this world, which makes mother (yes, yours and mine) the centre piece of humanity.

What more, mother and her breast as well as her kitchen and the pot are a child’s first ports of call upon its arrival on this earth until it grows to replicate humanity while still living with its parents.

When the child is weaned from the mother’s breast and from the kitchen and its pot cease to be support lifelines, the rubbish bin at eating places away from home and the hand of charity takeover as does the devil with its satanic embargos and the young soul is stagnated in life, dominion prosperity becomes an ever-receding mirage.

If the scenarios above do not move the powers that be or men folk to go the whole hog in making women in our country as well as elsewhere enjoy the role given them by God as men’s helpers, no one should expect angels to descend from heaven to pronounce women’s importance on this Earth.

The current Covid-19 should ironically make people in our country not only realise it but make the supportive role women play in families a practical reality by empowering them in every possible way.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic has shut down many a shop resulting in men, the traditional bread winners staying at home with their arms folded as it were, their helpers, their wives, and other women should chip in with their involvement in the informal sector so that families soldier on in unity until the pandemic becomes a mere proverb.

Already fears have been raised in local broadcasts about the dangers of some wives driven by lack at home having extramarital affairs to get financial support for their children.

Such acts obviously pose the risk of marriage breakdowns and disunity in families.

But the good news is that the First Lady, Mrs Auxilia Mnangagwa, is mounting a campaign for women to engage in fishing as self-help projects for their families.

Such do-it-yourself projects will go a long way in augmenting the country’s informal sector, the most prominent on the African continent, now slowly resuming operations as the lockdown restrictions are eased.

What this suggests is that dams will have to be constructed in areas where there are no rivers and lakes in order for fish to be bred there so that fishing provides employment for rural folk in order also to curb the urban drift.

The lockdown may also result in unwanted pregnancies as women in rural areas are complaining about the unavailability of birth control pills as a result of the lockdown.

The reported lack of the pills in question compromises family planning which is a must in these days of population explosions against scarce resources.

In urban areas shrill calls have repeatedly been made for the empowerment of the girl child to play a more pivotal role in Zimbabwe’s economic growth when all things are normal.