Tendai Rupapa in VICTORIA FALLS

A BUSINESS delegation of women from Belarus that is in Zimbabwe for the first-of-its-kind women in business summit, on Saturday paid a courtesy call on empowerment champion, First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa, the brains behind the conference.

The women’s summit, which ran concurrently with the United Nations Tourism Forum on Gastronomy for Africa, is expected to benefit thousands of women, boost ties as well as enable the two nations to come up with mutually beneficial women’s projects in various spheres.

The high-powered delegation comprised the Vice Mayor of Minsk City Nadezhda Lazarevich, head of Belarus light industry Tatiana Lugina, vice chair of Belagroprombank Yulia Yasinskaya and the deputy head of Clinic Svetlana Galitskaya, among others.

Dr Mnangagwa and the delegation marvelled at the speed with which things have moved, given that the idea to hold the conference was mooted barely three weeks ago.

The delegation also brought two types of Belarusian potato seed which they handed over to the First Lady.

In receiving the delegation, Dr Mnangagwa pointed out that women across the globe face similar challenges, hence the need for them to work together.

“I am grateful for the potato seed. I am also a farmer so I will plant some at my farm and share with Zimbabwean women under my Agric4She programme.

“We will have a variety together with our Zimbabwean seed. We will be updating you on the progress after farming. It is my prayer that the Zimbabwe soil contains this seed and it will propagate to benefit more women,” she said.

Talking about women, the First Lady said: “The world is one when it comes to women. What Zimbabwe does, Belarus should know. What Belarus does, Zimbabwe should also do the same.

“I want to thank the President of Zimbabwe and the President of Belarus who have afforded us this opportunity as women to have our own conference to come up with tangible ideas and exchange ideas. I know you are a very strong team.

“I want to hear when I come to the conference the ideas we can rally behind and work along together on. I know we are going to achieve results because women are committed. Thank you for honouring my invitation. Make sure you visit all the places like the rain forest, the Victoria Falls and see what Zimbabwe has,” she said.

Mrs Volha Shpilevskaya, head of Belarussian Women Union and CEO of TV channel, Mir, thanked the First Lady for the invitation and warm reception.

She was clad in the national fabric.

“We want to express our gratitude for the fact that we are here in Zimbabwe. Thanks to your efforts, our coming here was so short from your visit to Belarus, just few weeks and we are here and that’s a miracle.

“We want our projects as women to come to life as fast as we came here. We have seen by our own eyes a wonderful splendid country and also wonderful tough women. Of course, we should fulfil the task of our President and of you in what we do.

“We will try to work hard and come up with some defined projects on these grounds. The first point I want to make is the exchange of information. We are able to define steps in the direction we have satellite channel Belarus 24 and we can transmit it to Zimbabwe and we can do the same for Belarus then we can be able to send each other continuously.

“The important project is your fruits on our territory. We really do need these delicious fruits. We have visited a big logistics centre so we are already making a plan and the mayor of Minsk is making a plan on how your fruits can get to our Belarusian stores.

“On the territory of Zimbabwe, since the soil is so good, there are so many plants that can be used for the production of cosmetics as well. We have very good cosmetics in Belarus that can be expanded to all over the world,” she said.

The other proposal, Mrs Shpilevskaya said, was to create an enterprise in Zimbabwe with Belarusian technology to produce cosmetics from Zimbabwean ingredients and also expand it all over the world.

“We also saw your women who are interested in our textiles and for the textiles we started discussing with your women some projects in different directions like they are interested in creating some special enterprises here in Zimbabwe. They are ready to work and we can bring the technology,” she said.

The two countries are also set to strengthen ties through education.

Mrs Shpilevskaya said more than 500 Zimbabwean students will be enrolled at universities in Belarus to study different courses including medicine.

She also commended Zimbabwe for stealing the show at the International Arts Festival Slavianski Bazaar held in Belarus recently.

Dr Mnangagwa also had an interview with Mrs Alesya Vysotskaya from Belarus 1, the main Belarus TV channel.

Asked as to what she remembered Belarus for following her visit she responded: “Belarus is a country with people who are so cheerful, people who are welcoming and you feel at home when you are in Belarus.

“When I went to the market, I saw beautiful products made out of Belarusian raw materials.

“What make Belarus is in that shop, the items speak volumes. This is very important.

“I learnt a lesson that we should make use of what is around us and we should sell our own and people should come and see what we have in our country. I was so impressed with that market.”

The First Lady also spoke about Belarusian products she would want to see imported into Zimbabwe.

“First of all I will talk about the potato. Given the effects of climate change, the potato can help families to have food on the table. Once again, thank you for the potato seed you brought. In actual fact, even the clothes.

“The textile industry also caught my eyes and I am sure Zimbabwe also cherishes that. The perfumes, deodorants and all products made in Belarus were so good and it appeared as a message that Zimbabwe too can do it,” she said.

As the health ambassador, she was asked a question which touched on the medical front.

The mother of the nation thanked Belarus for training Zimbabwe’s doctors and nurses.

“In terms of health we are looking at the training of more of our medical personnel for expertise. We are also looking at the medicine itself and whether we can have some pharmaceuticals from Belarus,” she said.

The inclusion of women in agriculture, Dr Mnangagwa said, would help boost production levels.

“Woman, apart from growing horticultural produce, they are now also growing wheat on large scale farms. When it comes to horticultural produce, we have a lot that women are involved in like fruits, legumes and we are encouraging women to have fruit trees and everything that makes a family thrive,” she said.

She further spoke about her Agric4She programme and how it is helping a lot of women. – Herald