The Herald

Kampala fest inspires Zim twins

Gift and Pachawo Petro

Boniface Chimedza Arts Correspondent
Identical Zimbabwean twins Pachawo and Gift Petro believe their participation at the Kampala Twins Festival in Uganda was a stepping stone for greater things to come. Their dream of launching a twins festival locally could materialise after getting a feel of a similar fête at a continental level.

The Kampala Twins Festival, which was held last month, was hosted by Sunday Vision, with sponsorship from the Parliament of Uganda and PostBank, a financial institution wholly owned by the Government of Uganda.

Sunday Vision is a Ugandan weekly newspaper published under the New Vision Group of Companies, commonly known as the Vision Group, a multimedia conglomerate in Uganda.

RwandAir and CityBlue Hotel partnered the festival, thus courtesy of RwandAir, the twins were flown to Uganda and then spent their time at CityBlue Hotel in Nakasero, Kampala.

For their trip to attend the prestigious event, the Petro twins got support from Zimbabwe Tourism Authority.

The Petros  were the “Guest Twins” and inevitably the main attraction at the Kampala Twins Festival, drawing a lot of attention from the Ugandan nationals.

In 2009, Gift and Pachawo founded Zimbabwe Twins Foundation, a non-governmental organisation promoting the social and economic well-being of underprivileged twins in the society by giving support to the parents facing challenges in raising twins and multiple births.

The organisation, whose primary objective is to increase awareness of the special needs of twins and advocate for their rights, represents all the twins and multiple births in Zimbabwe, regardless of their race, ethnicity, age, gender or religion and it is apolitical.

Speaking to The Herald upon their return from Uganda, the ecstatic twins indicated that plans are on course for them to host a similar event in the country next year, adding that they are confident that their debut festival will be a success. Gift spoke on behalf of the twins.

“We will be hosting the Zimbabwe Twins Festival next year. The initiative is already being well received in most parts of the world, we therefore are equally confident that our first festival will be well attended by local and foreign twins as well as affiliate organisations,” said Petro.

Petro said the forthcoming festival is a unique platform to create international synergies with twins from different parts of the globe, adding that their foundation has lined up a lot of projects for the Zimbabwean twins, which include creating medical and funeral policies for them.

“There will also be activities facilitated by the Zimbabwe Twins Foundation which include beauty pageants, television talk shows and access to educational scholarships,” Petro added.

The Petros were this year invited to the Twins Days Festival, the world’s largest twins gathering in Ohio, United States but sadly, due to limited resources, the pair could not travel.