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Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
MORE than 40 children from Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, who share their birthday with President Mugabe, arrived in Victoria Falls yesterday ahead of the 21st February Movement children’s party this evening.

The children, who were accompanied by their chaperons, landed at Victoria Falls International Airport aboard a chartered Air Zimbabwe plane at 9AM and were welcomed by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority officials and their host, Zanu-PF Youth Wing members.

The other group from Manicaland, Masvingo and the three Mashonaland provinces, will arrive this morning ahead of their party scheduled for 6PM.

Zanu-PF National Secretary for Youth Affairs, Cde Pupurai Togarepi, will host the children at their party which, according to the programme, will be held at Victoria Falls Farm School.

Today, the entire group of 110 children and their chaperons will visit the Rainforest, go for a boat cruise, visit the Crocodile Farm and enjoy elephant rides. Yesterday, the 40 children were treated to lunch before visiting Victoria Falls Bridge to have a feel of one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Annastancia Moyo, ZTA head of the domestic market, led the children on the tour of the bridge.

She said the children would go back to their respective provinces as tourism ambassadors and help boost domestic tourism.

“These are children who’ve come through President Mugabe’s birthday celebrations. Eleven were selected from each province including the disabled and we’re taking them for a lot of activities. We would have wanted them to go for lion walk but because of their age and some security issues we won’t be doing that.

“They’ve a unique opportunity afforded to them to tour the Rainforest while ZTA have been afforded an opportunity to boost our domestic tourism as our receipts show that numbers are going up. When they go back they will be ambassadors and will help us market our tourist destinations which will encourage schools to go on trips to tourist resorts,” said Moyo.

She said plans were underway to come up with strategies to boost domestic tourism as most locals were not familiar with tourist attraction centres in the country.

The children were visibly excited after visiting the mighty Victoria Falls for the first time. They also congratulated President Mugabe for turning 91 on 21 February.

Shanice Ndlovu, a 13 year-old pupil at Evelyn Girls’ High School in Bulawayo, said President Mugabe was an iconic leader and philanthropist because of his love for children.