Having been born as a premature baby following two consecutive miscarriages, one of the worst pains of loss any mother can endure, her mother had already prepared for the worst. She thought that her little baby would die.
Unbelievable it maybe, it is in light of the two previous miscarriages that her mother did not give her a name up until when she was seven months old, and a sigh of hope immediately sunk in when she realised that her baby would actually live and that is the turning point when she was finally given the name Tanyaradzwa — “we have been comforted.”
This is the story of Tanyaradzwa Guta who, almost two and half decades later, is steering the wheels of positive change as the founder and executive director of The Tanyaradzwa Initiative, a change agent aimed at building powerful and responsible women through training and equipping them with useful tips which are highly centred on education as an essential tool for women empowerment.
“My name and the initiative are sort of maybe destiny thrust upon me from birth, and growing up I have always wanted to be the voice of change,” she said.
Having experienced the emotional and psychological trauma when her parents were going through divorce, Guta says one of the most difficult and troubling experiences was going to the courts and being forced to choose who she wanted to stay with between her mother and father.
This could have triggered her to be proactive in championing the cause of women going through divorce and facing tough and troubling times. This was probably the eureka moment which ignited her insatiable hunger to be an agent of change.
“Growing up, I have always wanted to be that person who helps women who are going through divorce, who helps women who are going through a tough time and who helps children in need,” she said.
Founded in mid-2021, The Tanyaradzwa Initiative has been on an aggressive and impactful drive to empower women through education and is on the path to establishing a solid footprint in steering positive change if their current pacing and energy is anything to go by.
In December 2021, the organisation hosted an exhilarating first ever Ladies Empowerment Bootcamp, which was targeted at empowering determined young women hungry for learning and personal development.
The sessions were facilitated by renowned women empowerment champions, including Faith Nyamukapa, Sicelo Dube and Agnes Mujuru and touched on various personal development aspects related to finance, communication skills, conflict management and sexual reproductive health related issues — an event which was powered by TD Inc.
An Accountant by profession, Tanyaradzwa has also been educating and empowering women through her knowledge of excel and has various accounting related educational courses targeted at young women.
Tanyaradzwa said what drives her is her passion for “anything involving women and children”.
Currently, The Tanyaradzwa Initiative is running a Back-to-School Drive in which the organisation is calling for solidarity from all walks of life, a campaign which is aimed at providing basic educational needs and promoting a reading culture through donating new or gently used books to marginalised children in Binga and Nyanga.
Through the Back-to-School Drive, the organisation aims to fulfil the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which affirms that education is the fundamental human right for everyone as well as the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal number four, which seeks to achieve quality education by 2030 so as to feed into the bigger picture through promoting and upholding education of the children in Zimbabwe.
Given the aggressive drive and quest to create positive change and opportunities and the story behind The Tanyaradzwa Initiative, one can only concur with Shakespear when he stated that, “though she may be little, she is fierce” and only time will tell.
- Fungayi Sox is the managing consultant at TisuMazwi — a communications consultancy firm that facilitates book project management including writing and publishing, content development and marketing, digital media and personal development. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on 0776 030 949 or connect with him on LinkedIn at Fungayi Antony Sox.
