Yande Banda is a vibrant and passionate 16-year-old child’s right activist. She is the chairperson of the Children’s News agency under the Media network of Child’s Rights and development, an organization that works with the media to ensure the realization of children’s rights.
Yande was born on January 24, 2004 in Manzini Swaziland. She did her pre-school education at Discovery Junction in Swaziland and she went on to do her lower primary education at Kanisile and her upper primary at Kanyezi primary school which are both based in Swaziland.
In an interview with Lusaka Star, Yande said she relocated to her home country Zambia with her family in 2017 and continued with her education. She did her secondary education at Kings Highway School in Lusaka but did not proceed all the way to grade 12, she ended her secondary education at grade 10 and wrote her exams.
“I have skipped two years of school in high school, grade 11 and grade 12, and I have recently written my exams and I’m yet to go to university. I wrote GCE exams because I wanted to graduate early and I could not wait for ECZ exams”, she said.
She further added that going forward she intends to study banking and finance, Mass Communication and social work at University level.
“I want to study social work because I am quite passionate about children and I want to improve their lives and improve mine too while I’m at it”, she said.
Compelled by the need to help bring about social, Yande became a child’s right activist.
“What motivated me to be a child’s right activist is very simple, it was just that I wanted to change the world. I saw a lot of problems in this world and I was determined to be a solution to them. Problems need action, so I decided I wanted to be the change I wanted to see”, she said.
Yande emphasized that whenever there is a problem, people should not just sit down and wait for authorities to solve the problem, but should look for ways to solve problems.
She is currently involved with a lot of organizations that advocate for children’s rights, and in 2019 at the age of 15 She became the chairperson of the Children’s news agency.
“I am the chairperson of the Children’s of the Children’s news agency, what the agency does is derive change especially in the media arena. I’m also working with the United nations girls education initiative, and I am a transform education champion under there. I am proud of working with these organisations because they are bringing massive change”, she said.
In addition, Yande is also the youngest member of the Adolescent Girls Advisory Council (AGAC) for the global fund for women. She leads grand making processes and facilitates decisions made by the council. The council covers 12 different countries around the world and she represents Zambia and Africa as a whole.
“I am involved with a lot of organizations I lost count, I am the youngest member of the children’s parliament, we as young people from all over Zambia come together and drive for change through parliamentary making processes. I have published so many articles on children’s rights and I have been interviewed by various TV stations from different countries. I am glad I am a voice for the children”, she said.
Yande encouraged young people to ensure their voices are being heard and should be involved in key decision making processes at national level, primarily because to create a world that is better, more equitable and more equal there is need to be part of the process and contribute as young people.