RESTA DZVINYANGOMA

Alderman Resta Dzvinyangoma or Mrs Munyoro is my name ,born in 1974 and a first born in a family of 5 followed by 2 boys , a girl and the last born is also a boy. I went to school up to ordinary level but very unfortunately i failed to sit for my examinations because my father said that was enough for a girl child. His priority was on the 2 boys, my siblings. My father said that educating a girl was simply wastage of money.
I was hurt but there was nothing i could do. My mother begged and suggested could borrow from our neighbours so that i would complete my secondary education but to no avail, my father said that he was the ‘boss ’ of the house and my mother should only listen because he ‘bought her ’ (i.e. paid lobola)
Instead of completing my O ’ level education in 1992 i was ordered by my father to work as a shopkeeper (family shop) without any token of appreciation and my father used to say all the family assets or properties including the shop belonged to his 3 sons .
It was because of this that i was engaged in an early marriage and I was already pregnant by the time I got married. I thought my problems would end by getting married but the situation worsened. My husband ordered me to give birth to a baby boy, failure to do so he told me that it was a simple application for a second wife, thank God i was blessed with a baby boy.
We managed to run our own business a butchery and a saloon and i was ordered to be in charge of the saloon but at the end of the day all the cash was banked in my husband ’s account and i had no control over that.
In 1997 my husband told me that (musha mukadzi) so i had to go to our rural home to take care of the kids and that was the time i moved to ward 1. By that time we were forced to join politics as youth although i was married .My political history goes like this ,in 1997 youth secretary,1998 chairlady at branch level ,1999 youth treasure at district level and from 2001 up to date I am the admin secretary of the district main board.
2002 i was elected the VIDCO secretary and as i mentioned above that i become the chairlady year 1998 that paved my way for gender work to begin, we came up with different clubs and that was the platform for discussing how to raise our voices as women.
I was also elected as the secretary for Takabuda tie and dye club and secretary for women in agriculture at district level, counsellor for OVCs.
I was elected the Ward councillor for Ward 01 in 2004. I am also the vice secretary of Heather Chimhoga Opharn Care Centre located in my ward ,participate in ICLD programme in

Download : 20871_main-applicationgenderchampionleadershipresta-dzvinyangoma.doc