I was
born in Zimbabwe
My
attention is inspired by a young girl from a children’s home from Harare
Her
name is Lyn.
I
first met her after I visited the children’s home where a friend of mine was
donating some food.
Lyn
literally took a hold of my jeans and followed me around.
At
first I thought she had been fascinated by my camera but I was her fascination.
I
ended up taking the little girl into my arms.
As I
lifted her up she looked at me and smiled and said, you are beautiful, I broke
into laughter and said to her,
“Thank
you and you are beautiful too.”
My
mind was captivated by this little girl
and I began to think of her future as if it were mine.
What her future going to be like? Was she going to
be adopted?
What about her education?
Immediately, I realized that there was some social
justice that had to be met if Lyn was and other girls in her situation were
going to have a bright future.
The term EMPOWERMENT which refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, or
economic strength of individuals and communities came into my mind.
What
can a woman do when she is empowered? A lot, believe you me.
Two
years ago a group of women in my area benefited in a bread making project.
These
women were taken on a one day bread making course.
Two
days later, they received two bags of flour , sugar, salt and some litres
cooking oil.
Calculating
the costs, everything was less than US$75.
Miracles
came out of these kitchens that cook the meal you partake of each day!
These
women made bread, doughnuts and buns which they sold to over 52 families in my
community.
They
got orders and each morning, people would queue to collect their confectionary.
Apart
from getting enough money to provide for their families, they got enough to
spare and develop themselves and sustain their small project which grew bigger.
One
of the women even joined one of the leading Bakeries in the country as a
marketing manager.
The
knowledge she got from managing 52 people who queued outside her kitchen is the
driving force that feeds millions of Zimbabweans!
Empowerment
often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities.
Women
in different parts of the world need to be empowered in every sense of the word.
The
economic strength of a woman matters a lot.
For
those women who are not economically strong, much can be done for them.
Self
help projects in communities are very important.
Given
US$100 a group of five women can buy flour and bake flour that can feed over a
100 people.
Are
you seeing what I am seeing?
I
see a small community bakery in the making.
Talk
is talk but if it put in action, a lot can happen.
The
women who are in our communities, unemployed also can do a lot and take
themselves up there
I
will divert you a little and talk about gender budgeting an area where I feel
women are marginalized.
My
colleagues and I once did a budget for home where the father earned US$400.
We
were supposed to spread the money over 31 days.
Groceries,
electricity bills, clothing, school fees and other things were on the list.
My
female colleagues were angered after a male colleague suggested that we give a
young girl in the family some pocket money after we were left with an extra US$13.
“Let’s
give her a few dollars so that she can buy pads,” he said.
“What?”
my infuriated friends said.
“I
am actually doing you guys a favor and you are complaining,” he added.
“You
are not doing her a favor. You can’t give her a few dollars to buy pads. The
money for sanitary pads should be included on the groceries! She uses pads
every month and they are a necessity.”
If
we are going to empower women then we must not take basic things that they need
and classify them as “luxury goods” that they can do without.
If
you do not get that woman a packet of pads she will resort to using things like
cloth while in most cases women are and have used cement bags and leaves.
These
things cause infections and cancers.
If
we are going to empower women let’s start with the smallest of things, sanitary
wear.
Before
you disburse millions of dollars let us start with their necessities, let us
make sure that women get access to sanitary wear.
I
propose that sanitary wear should be availed for free.
Back
in the day some schools used to have an allocation of free sanitary wear for
girls who started their menstruation periods “unaware.”
A
packet of pads costs US$1 and on average a woman uses three pads a day.
Can
we necessitate the availability of sanitary wear so that we do not lose these
precious creatures to cancer.
Let
us work on the empowerment of women and young girls.
The 7
Billion Actions aims to achieve two key objectives which are
*Building
global awareness around the opportunities and challenges associated with a
world of seven billion people.
*Inspiring
governments, NGOs, private sector, media, academia and individuals to take
actions that will have a socially positive impact.
And the
themes are :
The
campaign will build awareness around seven key issues, then count the
activities the campaign stimulates to address them. The issues are:
- Poverty and
inequality;
- Women and
girls empowerment;
- Reproductive
health and rights;
- Young
people;
- Ageing
population;
- Environment;
- Urbanization.
As
a responsible person who is part of the seven billion pick one of the key
issues and work around it in your everyday life.
I
have begun and you too can start now!
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