ZIMBABWE— United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and SPAR Zimbabwe, the country’s largest retail chain, have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoU) to pool resources to increase awareness of the rights and well-being of children.
The collaboration will involve awareness campaigns in support of UNICEF programs for children, especially, emerging health-related issues.
Specifically, it will also engage a large-scale roll-out of joint awareness and communication campaigns on children’s issues especially those in the fringes and in dire neglect.
A first campaign was launched to help aid the Ministry of Health and Child Care work on curtailing diarrheal diseases including cholera and preventive measures to protect oneself against the infection.
Through this collaboration, UNICEF highlights how much the organization values engagement with the private sector to deliver results for the children of Zimbabwe.
For SPAR Zimbabwe, the agreement reaffirms the company’s social agenda to contribute to building a better society for all.
The collaboration between UNICEF and SPAR Zimbabwe will mostly focus on sharing messages on health-related issues with the customers of SPAR Zimbabwe’s 35 outlets spread across the country.
Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF Representative in Zimbabwe noted that the partnership between UNICEF and Spar Zimbabwe spoke to UNICEF’s private sector engagement for the promotion of the rights and wellbeing of children and their families.
Dr. Oyewale noted that the first campaign rolled out through the SPAR Zimbabwe network would without a doubt reach many people and complement the communication campaigns of the Government, UNICEF, and partners in Zimbabwe.
“We look forward to further engagement with SPAR Zimbabwe on several issues that focus on the rights and the well-being of children,’ said Dr. Oyewale.
The first campaign by the new partnership looks at addressing diarrheal diseases including cholera and preventive measures to protect oneself against the infection, highlighting the importance of handwashing, good hygiene, and use of safe water.
As part of the national response, cholera awareness is promoted through SPAR’s social media platforms and in all 35 stores across the country.
Additionally, the communication material developed to support the campaign is based on the health messages developed by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
Cypren Borerwe, SPAR Zimbabwe General Manager reiterated that the collaboration with UNICEF is in line with SPAR’s mission statement “Better Together” which encapsulates their philosophy of being part of the community in which we operate.
Borerwe noted that it involved the development of initiatives at the grass-roots level in sustainable community development projects.
“Our initiatives are based on our five key pillars of Responsible Retailing which focus on Women, Children, Active and Healthy Lifestyles, Animal Welfare, and Environmental issues. We also work closely with our supplier partners in ensuring that our initiatives are realized to their fullest,” said Borerwe.
While UNICEF and SPAR Zimbabwe have agreed to extend the cholera awareness campaign for a few more weeks, both partners are already engaged in talks about other child rights-related campaigns for the months to come.
SPAR Zimbabwe acknowledges that its stores are based concept that was established based on wholesalers and retailers working in partnership to the benefit of all, including customers.
SPAR Zimbabwe is part of a wider SPAR family of 46 countries on 4 continents, employing over 350,000 people in over 12,500 stores in the world.
SPAR Zimbabwe notes that it supports several charities at the National level, including Childline Zimbabwe and Zimpact, based on their mission Statement, Better Together.
Everyone needs to coalesce efforts for the Zimbabwean child.
UNICEF reports that currently, poverty has a child’s face in Zimbabwe. Of the 6.3 million boys and girls in the country, 4.8 million live in poverty, including 1.6 million in extreme poverty.
Moreso, children in rural areas on average, are the worst off in terms of health, education, nutrition, water, sanitation, access to information, and other basic indicators of well-being and quality of life.
Fortunately, in support of the Government, UNICEF Zimbabwe, and various partners have implemented humanitarian and development programs to mitigate the effects of the crises on children.
An example is UNICEF and Eli Lilly and Company in 2022, US$2.5 million to the country’s Ministry of Health and Child Care to educate community health workers and increase support and understanding of various non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in children.
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