Christina Mabika – Mutare City Council COE

“Winning the COE for the best council was a proud moment.”

Mabika met Gender Links (GL) in 2014 and she vividly recalls that day because it left indelible marks that will never be wiped from her mind. Fortunately, these marks where the genesis of the transformation that took place in her life.

“When I first encountered GL in 2014 I had already heard about their work from various councils that they were working with and was so excited to be a part of this institution., said Mabika

Her first experience with other participants of the Centres of Excellence (COE) programme was a COE meeting in Nyanga. There the council developed a gender action plan which helped them realize the gaps that needed plugging vis-à-vis gender issues.

Mabika is the Gender Focal Person and has quickly managed to ensure that the council institutionalizes gender. Her efforts have seen council come up with a vibrant Gender Team of Departmental focal persons who help her undertake her duties.

“It is never easy to do these gender things, one always has to create time in their schedule to do the tasks that GL ask us to do”, says Mabika. Despite this, she perseveres and ensures the council is abreast with gender activities in council. Fortunately, the support she gets from her Town Clerk has kept her going.

 “The programme made me be abreast with times. The ICT training empowered me and the networking skills further widened my horizon and gave me enough space to showcase my capabilities. I was gradually transformed into a professional who can help workmates to solve ICT problems. The situation I found myself in motivated me to pursue my studies and I added another professional certificate on the walls,” said Chinyemba.

Mabika gave credit to GL for these changes that took place in her life. Tapiwa Zvaraya played a very crucial role in the transformation that took place in her life. She also singled out Dorothy Mavolwane with whom she is good friends. The support she got from GL and other colleagues helped her to change people’s perceptions of the organization.

Mutare is revising its policies and is hoping that a component of M&E will be incorporated into these. She hoped that the mere fact that the council had won the best COE council award in the 2018 summit would be a push for the council to recognize the need for ensuring gender practices are not ignored. She hopes to continue with her work and hopefully have more hands assisting her other than the Town Clerk and the Gender Team.