Ruben Covane: Thinking big for Mozambican women

Rúben Roberto De Palnira Covane is only 23 but his vision is to see all Mozambican women enjoy their many rights. Covane, an intern at Gender Links’ (GL) Mozambique office thinks the media has a big role to play on gender equality.

He says: “I feel the media influences the way a society views things. Within a short time I have been with Gender Links, I have discovered with great concern that the media portrays women in a very stereotypical way.

“This directly impacts on gender equality efforts because the society continues to learn from them [media] by stacking women in those stereotypical positions such as the kitchen and modelling.”

Covane hopes that the expertise he is acquiring from working with GL combined with journalistic skills will help him write on issues that will help his society embrace gender matters. “I am very happy that I can now understand the concept of gender and I will use it in my writings after finishing my studies.”

Covane is this year finishing his degree studies at School of Communication and Arts at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique.

New interns
Last but not least, the GMDC welcomes two interns who have joined Gender Links. Cynthia Nandi Kalizinje joins GL from ZAMCOM. She is currently based at the Zambia Office and will be assisting with all media related tasks for that country’s local government summit. She will then move to Johannesburg where she will complete her internship before returning to ZAMCOM to complete her studies.

Loverage Nhamoyebonde, a graduate from Harare Polytechnic has also joined the Zimbabwe office as an intern. He will be with GL for the next six months.