By Kuda Pembere
Paving way for the forthcoming Southern African Regional Students and Youth Conference (SARSYC) in Botswana this July, SAYWHAT held its sixth Quiz Challenge at their Studio of Choice pitting students from 12 State Universities in Zimbabwe in the battle for top honours of the competition.
The competition held annually provides the students drawn from the countries’ State Universities to exhibit their knowledge on various issues.
“This year’s 6th edition is coming ahead of the SARSYC conference which will be held in July in Botswana. The quiz challenge is important as it is getting the young students prepared for the conference.
“As we take it to regional and international frameworks, we have young people attending SARSYC who are ready and knowledgeable about international and regional frameworks,” said SAYWHAT communications and advocacy lead Isabella Michael.
The competition ending tomorrow is running under the theme, “Unpacking and pushing for Global Goals.”
“We have 12 state universities who are gathered here competing in the National Universities Quiz Challenge. The theme of the quiz challenge is Unpacking and pushing for Global Goals. They will be quizzed on themes such as Sustainable Development Goals, Maputo Protocol, East and Southern Africa (ESA)Ministerial Commitments, ICPD 30 and United Nations High Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB,” Michael said.
Aside from the opportunity to participate at the SARSYC Conference, Michael explained the winner with the most points will walk away with the trophy.
“Today we have the first round, second round and third round where each of the 12 universities presented today will have an equal chance to compete against each other on the same questions.
“By the end of the day, they will have accumulated points and the bottom four will be eliminated from the competition and the remaining eight will compete in the semi-finals tomorrow.
“End of day tomorrow, we will have the winning universities with the most points take the roving trophy home,” she said.
The competition is supported by the Swedish Embassy in Zimbabwe.
“As SAYWHAT we would also want to thank the development partners who have supported the SAYWHAT quiz challenge such as the Embassy of Sweden in Zimbabwe, helping us build a generation of healthy and empowered young people. We would also like to thank institutions from the private sector such as UNICAF and FaithWearthat have joined SAYWHAT in empowering young people in the SAYWHAT challenge,” she said.
Benhildah Tawonga Mugwanyu, a 23 year old student from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) found the competition exhilarating prompting them to think on their feet.
“Actually, it’s fine, it’s simple and fine. Like, they can literally ask you the things that you overlook, and it’s actually good because you get to understand some of the things that we think that are not even important to us. The information that they’re trying to disseminate is actually going well,” she said.
Her counterpart, Kevin Bepete noted on the sidelines of the competition they have been working to deliver their all.
“The competition has been quite amazing so far. I’m still working on delivering my best because the first day doesn’t really say anything with regards to taking the trophy home,” he said. Rafiq Satiya from Midlands State University found the competition unbiased.
“The quiz competition is quite fair and the questions that are being asked are quite relatable because these are some of the things that we find every day.
“These are things that we are supposed to know as young people because most of them, most of them, they are centred on young people and also they are there to support the livelihoods of young people.
“So it’s quite a good experience and the questions are quite frank and they are quite okay,” he said.
