Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) War hero Naomi Nhiwatiwa dies

COMMENT - What on earth is 'the bush war for independence'? Only the rhodesians call the liberation war 'the bush war', because they don't want to recognize Zimbabwean independence and because they lost. So NewZimbabwe's anonymous 'staff reporter' goes for the compromise. Compromise with whom? Disgraceful and unworthy of Naomi Nhiwatiwa.

War hero Naomi Nhiwatiwa dies
23/04/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

INDEPENDENCE war hero, charity worker and former cabinet minister Naomi Nhiwatiwa has died in the United States. Nhiwatiwa, a former advisor to the World Health Organisation's Africa region, died at her home on April 12 in South Bend, Indiana – three days before her 71st birthday.

At the height of the bush war for independence in the late 1970s, Nhiwatiwa attended the first Zanu PF Women's League meeting at Shai Shai in Maputo with the likes of Julia Zvobgo and Mavis Chidzonga.

At independence in 1980, she became one of only five female MPs from the Zanu PF side – and along with Joice Mujuru and Victoria Chitepo, they were the only women in cabinet.

Mujuru was Minister of Youth, Sports and Recreation; Chitepo the Deputy Minister of Education and Culture while Nhiwatiwa became Deputy Minister of Post and Telecommunications.

Armed with a PhD Intercultural and Diplomatic Communications (1979), Masters Degree in Counseling (1972) both from the University of New York at Buffalo and a Masters Degree in Human Growth and Development from Wayne State University in Michigan, she quit parliament in 1988 to join the United Nation's Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) as the Senior External Relations Officer for ESARO, in Nairobi, Kenya.

She was then promoted to World Health Organisation as Director External Relations and Program Promotion - Africa Region in 1993 in Brazzaville, Congo.

In 1998 she was again promoted to the position of Senior Advisor to the United Nations in New York, USA.

After retiring from the United Nations in 2001, she worked as a Consultant on HIV/AIDS, and as a Visiting Professor for the Department of Communications at Pepperdine University in California.

Devout Christian Nhiwatiwa founded the Zerapath charity aimed at helping HIV-Aids orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“I have to do something about it, however humble it may be,” she said of her charity work. “If everybody does something, it will surely make the difference.”
A funeral service is due to be held at the First Seventh Day Adventist in South Bend, Indiana, at 10AM on April 29.

Her family has decided she will be buried at the Southlawn Cemetery in South Bend on the same day.

Labels: LIBERATION, OBITUARIES

posted by MrK @ 6:55 PM