{"id":2675,"date":"2026-09-21T20:31:53","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T20:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/?p=2675"},"modified":"2026-09-23T04:34:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T04:34:40","slug":"marange-youth-demand-seat-at-mining-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/2026\/09\/21\/marange-youth-demand-seat-at-mining-decisions\/","title":{"rendered":"Marange youth demand seat at mining decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Fanuel Chinowaita<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

YOUNG people in Marange and Arda Transau have demanded a greater say in decisions affecting their communities, saying they cannot continue to be left out of discussions on mining, pollution, land degradation and environmental rehabilitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The call was made by Sandra P Gamunorwa, an Environmental Child Rights Defender and member of the ZIDAWU Youth Hub, who said youth participation should go beyond attending meetings to having their views considered in decisions affecting their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamunorwa said young people living in mining-affected communities should be involved in environmental consultations, monitoring and discussions around mining and development projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don’t want decisions to be made for us without us. We want to be part of the conversations, part of the decisions, and part of the solutions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said environmental problems facing communities should also be treated as child-rights concerns because pollution, environmental degradation and unsafe water can affect children’s health, education, protection and general well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChildren have the right to health, education, protection, participation and to live in a safe and healthy environment. Therefore, when the environment is degraded, children’s rights can be affected in multiple ways,\u201d Gamunorwa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the youth’s other key demand was stronger environmental protection and rehabilitation, including tighter monitoring of environmental impacts, protection of water sources and restoration of degraded areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The demands come as ZIDAWU Youth Monitors conduct environmental activities in Marange and Arda Transau, including community monitoring, tree planting, school clean-ups, organic gardening and beekeeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamunorwa said the youth had, over the past five years, undergone training in environmental child rights, human rights, climate justice and environmental monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the training had enabled young people to identify and document environmental concerns and engage government departments, mining companies and other stakeholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The youth are also using beekeeping as a conservation and livelihood initiative, while an organic garden in Arda Transau is being used to promote sustainable farming, soil protection and safe food production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamunorwa said youth monitors also engage mining companies and other stakeholders over water, pollution, land degradation and environmental rehabilitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has also participated in tree-planting and school-cleaning programmes, including the \u201cOne Learner, One Tree\u201d concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamunorwa said young people were also using dramas, poetry, songs and online platforms such as WhatsApp to raise awareness about environmental and children’s rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said communities generally viewed Environmental Child Rights Defenders as a link between residents, young people, schools and duty bearers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, she said the youth were not seeking to speak for communities without their participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur role is not to speak on behalf of communities without their involvement, but to support them to understand their rights, participate in decision-making and have their voices heard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZIDAWU Youth Hub has adopted the slogan \u201cNothing For Us Without Us\u201d<\/strong>, calling for young people to be recognised not only as victims of environmental challenges but also as participants in finding solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fanuel Chinowaita YOUNG people in Marange and Arda Transau have demanded a greater say in decisions affecting their communities, saying they cannot continue to be left out of discussions on mining, pollution, land degradation and environmental rehabilitation. The call was made by Sandra P Gamunorwa, an Environmental Child Rights Defender and member of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2680,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675\/revisions\/2680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}