Winners at the 9th Edition Daughters Destiny for Purpose Poetry (DD4P) competition have pledged to use poetry to spotlight gender-based violence.
The winners were unveiled at an event held at the Harare City Library on Monday last week.
DD4P in February called for entries in search for the best responses to the theme My Friend as a resolution to the fight against gender-based violence among men women, boys and girls.
Kudzai Majo, a student at the Milestone College in Rusape, was the best poet in the 13 to 15 years category.
Majo said she was excited to win the first prize.
“I write poetry as a pastime and often submit to my teachers for correction. There are still a lot of cases of genderbased violence in Africa and I think we should use poetry to correct social ills and teach equality between men, women, boys and girls,” Majo said.
Rutendo Mandizvidza from St Georges College in Harare came out tops in the 16 to 19 years category and believes there should be equal treatment of boys and girls.
The well attended event occurred a few days ahead of the annually commemorated 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
Sarah Murera, UN Women programme management specialist, said all activities and awareness campaigns should continue even after the 16 days so that equality and respect prevails in all societies. She pointed out that the poems are relevant as they seek to correct a global crisis.
Plaxedes Mutsago, English Literature and Language and Career Guidance teacher at Roosevelt Girls High was delighted to learn that her students had won a quarter of the 12 prizes on offer.
Tapiwa Kapfunde a social worker at Childline said there was a need to look at all sectors of life with great compassion to avoid all forms of gender-based violence be it physical, emotional, sexual or psychological.
Beverley Ann Abrahams, who headed the jury was excited by the increased number of participating schools and is looking forward to a much bigger response next year.