Sixteen year old Motorcross champion Tanyaradzwa Muzinda and fifteen year old Makanaka Chikowore were nominated for the prestigious 2020 International Children's Peace Prize, which is awarded annually to a child who has made a special effort to promote children's rights and better the situation of vulnerable children. The prize is an initiative of Marc Dullaert, founder of the KidsRights Foundation, an international children's aid and advocacy organisation based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Last year, the prize was awarded to Greta Thunberg from Sweden and Divina Maloum from Cameroon. No Zimbabwean has ever won the award since its inception in 2005.
142 nominees were selected from 42 different countries for the award and three finalists will be announced by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu.
On November 13th, the final winner of 2020 will receive the €100,000 International Children's Peace Prize with the world as their witness. The ceremony will be available online worldwide.
Tanya, first female to win a Motocross championship since 1957, first to win national, regional and international awards in Motocross. She was the face of Thrive Beyond Illness campaign in 2016 to inspire children at the Harare Child Hospital. Her sport achievement and dedication to help educate the new generation granted her African Child Sports Personality of the Year Award and the Mandela Trophy, among other national and continental awards. Tanya wants to help 500 children go to school by the end of 2020. She hopes that by competing in motocross races in Europe and the United States she will be able to gain more sponsorship support in order to help children in her native country.
Happy to be Nominated for the Prestigious International Children's Peace Prize 2020 @KidsRights.
— Tanya Muzinda (@TanyaMuzinda) October 14, 2020
l am humbled to be able to inspire so many people that see my work and message .Together we can do better for the World .#education #ChildrensPeacePrize #Africa pic.twitter.com/Sn8viNhMD8
I insist that the future is young, the future is female and the future is bright, the fact that we are still young, our future should not be taken from us, we still have a voice.
Makanaka (Maka) is a WI.A swimmer, soccer player and social entrepreneur. She is the founder of a non-profit called MTC Educate A Girl Inc, which provides mostly orphaned girls in rural Zimbabwe with the opportunity to continue their education. They are presented with tuition, uniforms, supplies, sanitary products etc. To raise money to start the MTC scholarship program, Maka’s non-profit organized a community soccer fundraiser featuring girls and co-ed teams 2019. MTC Educate A Girl expanded by initiating a community-based girls and women soccer club (MTC Sirens FC). She is also the founding member or Rozaria Girls Club USA (a club which fosters the spirit of volunteerism and feminism with young adolescents living in Madison). Maka and Rozaria Girls Club USA have also been routinely fundraising and donating stationary and sports kits to their sister clubs in Murewa Zimbabwe. The trust holds a bi-annual soccer tournament which brings together over 400 young women and girls. In the future, Maka wants to expand the reach and impact of MTC’s scholarship and girls soccer programs.
Find out more about the awards here