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Tendai Rupapa in KIGALI, Rwanda

Former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga and former Malian Prime Minister Mousa Mara who are members of Club de Madrid, have shown appreciation for First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa’s charity work, praising her love for mankind and quest to make a difference in the lives of many.

The three met on the sidelines of the Kigali Global Dialogue where the ex-leaders pledged their club’s support towards Amai Mnangagwa’s Angel of Hope Foundation.

Club de Madrid is the world’s largest forum where members leverage their individual and collective experience and global reach to improve the well-being of people around the world.

The organisation also looks at the broad and topical issues like climate change and clean energy.

As an independent non-profit organisation, Club de Madrid has more than 100 members from over 70 countries, along with a global network of advisers and partners across all sectors of society.

In the meeting, Dr Mnangagwa first gave a brief biography of herself and the work she is doing through her foundation.

“There is a lot that I have done in my country not politically, but as a mother of the nation who takes everybody on board looking at each and every family, woman and girl child.

“I have been advocating health issues, promoting awareness on non-communicable diseases, ailments that are eliminating humankind from the earth,” she said.

Dr Mnangagwa hammered on her empowerment drive under which she is spearheading efforts to ensure women and girls pursue education and are equipped with skills to fend for themselves and their families.

“I have also introduced education for all mainly women following my foundation’s partnership with our local university, the Zimbabwe Open University where people are accessing short courses, even the elderly. I have taken them on board. From where they left, we start from there. They are being trained skills that usher them into businesses and to have empowerment projects. We have also had some school dropouts, girls that are underage being pregnant and those that are responsible running away from responsibility.

“I have given them some skills and projects because most of them didn’t want to go back to school. In my country one can go back to school after giving birth or they take the other route which is skills training. Most of the girls have chosen to go for skills development.

“The reasons of not going back to school as young as they are include fear of being laughed at which leads to loss of concentration,” she said.

The First Lady said she was also removing people living and working on the streets and placing them in shelters.

“I have taken some of them back to school and vocational training centres for skills development because they have come of age. I have also taken the ladies of the night from the streets and I have secured some plots for them to do farming, including horticultural projects. They will also be growing traditional grains like millet, rapoko, sorghum, groundnuts and sunflowers. I have added a piggery, goat projects and given them sewing machines. Remember these people have never done it before and have no experience at all and that means I have to follow up and see what is coming out of that. I am glad to say that many women, apart from ladies of the night, we have introduced Agriculture for She (Agric4she) which is only for women and girls looking at traditional grains in order to mitigate the problems that we are facing now with climate change,” she said.

Her interventions, Dr Mnangagwa said, had seen most families becoming food secure.

“I am saying every women must have granary where you keep your food,” she said, heralding the immense success she has enjoyed with her empowerment programmes.

The former Bolivian leader intimated that he was inspired to see the First Lady leading the transformation of the lives of many people through her all-encompassing programmes.

He spoke glowingly about Dr Mnangagwa’s interventions.

“It’s so inspiring to see her turn things around helping people and leaving noone behind and being there for them all the time,” he said.

He said Club de Madrid was an active organisation that also looked at the broad issues like climate change and energy.

This dovetailed with the sentiments echoed by the Honourable Mousa who commended Dr Mnangagwa for her great works.

“You are helping a lot of people in your country. A lot of people in our communities have obviously forgotten sometimes the ladies of the night, young girls, people on the streets but your Excellency, you try by every means to help them and show them how important they are, how they can involve themselves in the development of the country.

“Your work is very interesting and impactful for the country. That is why we congratulate you and we hope you will continue to do so.

“Your foundation is doing sterling work and I hope you will also find AOH partners to help you inside and outside the country. I would want you to maintain your foundation. You are helping thousands and thousands of people of Zimbabwe. We hope to keep in touch with your office,” he said.

Mr Ashok Maliki, a partner and chair of the India Practice at The Asia Group, a business and strategic advisor firm headquartered in Washington DC, also had a fruitful discussions with the mother of the nation.

The First Lady stressed that she was apolitical in her works and was open to work with every citizen for the good of the nation.

She explained that she was working with traditional chiefs and their wives and churches and there was a lot that her foundation was doing.

“We can work together in areas such as skilling, digital education which is a big initiative in India, agriculture technology that is one stream of projects we can work together on and we can have a meeting on that,” Mr Maliki said.