Media

One of the most memorable experiences that I have had with Gender Links was our first meeting where all of the survivors told their own stories and I told my story to others who were just like me. We all learned that we are not alone and that other people understand us. I felt free and all of us cried. It was a defining moment for me.

Nancy Mbaura is a holder of a BSc Women & Gender Studies from the Women University in Africa (WUA) and a Zimbabwean, philanthropist and gender activist. She was born at […]

Name Hawah Williams Surname Makwinja Country Malawi Give a short history of the leader I am a woman aged 37. My mother died while giving birth to me. At the […]

An organization established by Rose Thamae Activist through based on her organizational work background she experience, she became a leader to empower and educate people around the community. The Let […]

Loveness Gandawa began a poultry project in 2012. She started with a production capacity of 50 birds per six weeks. She later increased the capacity to 100 birds in 2013. The upgrading of the business coincided with her encounter with Gender Links (GL). She invested the money she received as an honorarium for attending the workshop into the business and she increased the production capacity to 150 birds. The profit she realised after selling chickens enabled her to venture into cross border trading. She started purchasing clothing material and footwear from South Africa, Zambia and Botswana for resale in Zimbabwe.

Before the training Matsidiso used to be a dress maker, making school uniforms and track suits and selling plastic packages used to pack coal in Maputo, Mozambique. The slow growth of the economy led to her business’ failure. She ended up selling the uniforms on credit hoping to recover the cash in the long run. She also blames it on bad decision making and not keeping records correctly. She never bothered saving and could not separate the business from her personal needs. Her plastic package sales dropped due to competition which forced her to halt it indefinitely.

Mildret Mango was referred to Gender Links (GL) by her ward councillor in 2014 and she immediately joined the entrepreneurship programme. She managed to attend two phases of the training but failed to attend the last phase of the training. Her phone was not reachable prior to the workshop and the organisers failed to get hold of her. She found the lesson on the importance of market research and business planning very useful and she immediately put it into practice in her business.

I was very broke; there was nothing in the house in terms of food. Then out of nowhere a friend appeared and invited me to a workshop and I had no idea what an impact it would have on my life. I respected this woman so I decided to attend the workshop. At the workshop we were asked to write our “IÀ stories on gender based violence. It was really healing to pour out my experiences on to a piece of paper. I could not believe it when after so many years I was taken to KFC for lunch. We were also given P400.00 each for attending workshop. I used this money to buy groceries for the children at Spar.

Victor Dagha Kaonga is a seasoned Malawian journalist and the National Director at Transworld Radio. (TWR). TWR is the oldest privately owned Christian radio station in the country. Interestingly, Kaonga’s name is not as famous as the radio programmes that he has been doing over the years. But how is this so? Kaonga is fond of running radio columns using a pseudonym, hence many people associate with the programme and the voice as opposed to the character.

John Khayia is the one reporter at Galaxy FM whose belief can be challenged by other journalists because it defies one of the core tenets of news telling, objectivity. Khayia believes reporters should go beyond accounting for what happened.

“I feel that is where we miss itÀ, he starts explaining. “Reporters should strive to cover issues but also unearth solutions to issues affecting our society. I feel a reporter should be emotionally attached to the story and sources because in so doing our success will not be measured by the number of the article but the problems we would have helped to solvedÀ.

While the 2014 Tripartite Election will go down in history as the most controversial due to the irregularities that marred it, Joab Chakhaza says the election will go in his story as a huge gender learning point. He remembers that whilst his team thought they were doing a commendable job in having the first ever debates in Malawi democratic history, they had all overlooked one important thing that Joab would learn through a phone call, and that is gender balance.

Gender Links (GL) and its interventions and the SADC Gender Protocol were mere rhetoric to me before 2013. At first I thought that women were not important in decision making. Through my relationship with GL I have learnt to reshape people’s consciousness and to redefine social relations to create a women-centered culture.