First Lady calls for 3-day national prayer

MAY I as the Mother of the Nation call upon all women in Zimbabwe, and all those abroad who may so wish, to join me in fasting and praying to the Lord the Almighty from tomorrow 21 to Saturday January 23, 2021 for our nation to be spared from further calamity and suffering. Our country has witnessed a lot of COVID-19 deaths in the past two weeks.

Death is within our communities, at our door step. There is no family that has not suffered the loss of their beloved ones because of the pandemic. Every day we hear of names that are succumbing.

I thus humbly appeal to all women to commit to a three day period from tomorrow in which we fast and pray calling for divine intervention to save the nation and our people.

As women, we play a very important role in our society. We hold the family unit together and get it to work for our daily life. Being on the ground at all times, we are the custodians of values and measures that protect us at the smallest unit of society.

I call upon you that as we pray to the Almighty for his mercy and grace, we also use that power bestowed upon us by society to ensure that every family is abiding by the measures that have been put in place by government to curtail the spread of the infectious disease. As mothers, let us enforce compliance at the family level with measures that reduce the spread of COVID-19 among us.

We need a plan at the house hold level for regularly using any means at our disposal to clean and sanitize our homes; to ensure that everyone in the home knows the importance of having a mask and masking up properly; more importantly to organise sharp safe errands for our requirements to get going whilst enforcing the family to stay at home.

Let us include the measures against COVID-19 as we play our motherly role of ensuring that every member of the family is responsible for their personal hygiene. As we avoid and fight stigmatisation, let’s ensure that all members of the family have knowledge of how to help those that have been infected and are willing to assist those that get sick to cope while remaining safe from infection.

As we pray for relief in our nation, we should observe the measures for safe praying. The best is to fast and pray as individuals in our homes. For those that congregate in small numbers as allowed by the COVID-19 regulations, let us mask up and observe safe physical distancing from each other.

I call upon our traditional leaders, chiefs, headmen and village heads to help spread the word in our communities that will help mothers to save the nation from further damage.

In the same vein, I implore our mass media organisations, print, television, radio, online platforms, to help in getting the message across by hyping up your communication that helps the nation to pray together and to observe the measures that keep us safe.

I want to thank members of the health profession, our frontline heroes that continue to provide assistance to the sick, screening through testing to know the rate of infection and spreading awareness messages that help in compliance.

I thank members of the Security Forces for a sterling job in enforcing compliance with the COVID-19 regulations. We encourage you to keep the good work up for the security of our nation. Teachers across the country, you play a key role in getting the message across to communities.

Join the crusade and spread the message. COVID-19 is taking a toll in our nation, we need to all know that COVID-19 is killing, and that there are measures that help the nation in reducing infection.

Let us all do our part and save the nation from greater catastrophe. Practice social distancing, mask up and observe good personal hygiene by washing with soap under running water and sanitising frequently.

I thank you.

Amai Auxillia Mnangagwa First Lady of the Republic of Zimbabwe