By Byron Mutingwende
Elevate Youth Club, the youth empowerment programme supported by the Econet Group, has given away prizes worth over $60.000 to winners of the Elevate Youth ‘Register & Win’ competition in the form of cash prizes and fully paid international mentorship trips.
Among the winners, who attended the event from as far afield as Bulawayo, Chipinge, Kwekwe and Chinhoyi, was Elia Chitata, from Chimanimani, who is living with a speech and hearing disability, and whom Econet committed to assist in getting treatment for his condition.
The cash winners walked away with $20.000, won by Liane Moyo from Bulawayo, and $10.000, won by Knowledge Nkomo from Kezi.
Five prize winners won a fully paid mentorship trip to Johannesburg, South Africa. These were Darlington Matyanga from Chipinge, Chikomborero Sithole and Julius Muzenda from Harare, Wellington Bhiri from Kwekwe and Milton Musatye from Chinhoyi. Elia Mutata won a high-end Samsung Galaxy 8 device worth $1.400.
Speaking at the prize-giving ceremony attended by the winners and senior Econet executives, the Chief Operating Officer of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, Mr Fayaz King, congratulated the winners and urged them to seize the opportunity to make the best out of the prizes and continue to set great personal goals for themselves.
“The Elevate programme is about creating opportunities to empower young people, and to put you in the driving seat to determine your destiny,” said Mr King, whose organization supports the fast growing Elevate youth club, that was launched earlier in June of this year.
“Our role is to help you navigate through the stormy waters, to give you direction when you need it, and to help make your dreams come true” he said, calling on the youth not to despair in the face of any challenges they come up against but to stay positive and focused.
“Stay focused and be positive. You look up; the future is bright”, he exhorted them, quoting Econet’s outdoor communication campaign which captures the company’s audacious optimism and strong can-do spirit, despite challenges in its business operating environment.
Clearly overwhelmed with emotion, one of the winners, Ms Liane Moyo – who won the $20.000 cash prize – thanked Econet the Elevate Club, saying she was beyond words with delight and excitement at winning the prize.
“I don’t know what to say, except to just say; Thank you Econet and the Elevate Club for this prize. This is huge,” said the young lady from Bulawayo, who is studying for her A Levels and plans to become an engineer.
Speaking earlier at the event, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe’s Chief Marketing Officer, Mr Navdeep Kapur, described the four pillars of the Elevate Youth programme – ‘Mix n Match’, ‘Spin n Shuffle’, ‘Rise n Shine’ and ‘Learn n Grow’, explaining how they work, and how they benefit and empower the Club’s members.
“The programme is about giving young people the tools they need to equip themselves to become relevant in the marketplace for the future” said Mr Kapur.
He spoke about how young people can register to become members of the Elevate Youth Club, by simply dialing *771# on your Econet mobile phone line, and following the prompts, or by registering online at httpss://www.elevateyouth.co.zw/account
Once registered, he said the more one recharged, the more they earned points to make them eligible for consideration as an Elevate Virtual Agent, earn up to $600 and begin to become economically independent.
He said the Elevate Virtual Agent programme would create local employment opportunities for young people, and position Zimbabwe to become a call center outsourcing hub for providing customer care service in multiple sectors, including the banking sector, the hotel industry and many others.
Mr Kapur said the Elevate Club would soon be launching other products tailor-made to suit the youth and aimed at addressing their unique needs as young people.
The Elevate Youth Club was launched in June 2017 and now boasts a membership of over 500.000 young people between the ages of 16 and 34 years.
Last month the Club unveiled the Elevate Virtual Agent programme, a job creating platform that is set to create thousands of jobs for young people in Zimbabwe.