Gender equality_ Times of Zambia_ August 2016

Name of the story: Gender equality

Name of the station: Times of Zambia

Country: Zambia

Please share a short story that may be inspirational; emotional or significant in other ways that demonstrates the essence of your/the leaders work. In what way do you/or does the leader qualify to be a Driver of Change? Please make this clear at the outset of the piece.

I had always looked down on anything to do with Gender despite being a Journalist. I viewed Gender as an enemy to my traditional culture and values and was determined to fight the issue of Gender at every opportunity I got.

When I was given the position of Gender, I felt so degraded, demoralised and miserable and struggled to find out what had hit me.

I had no strength to fight this transfer and for the first time, I hated my Job. Because I had no strength to fight this transfer, I resorted to working out the best way I could ensure this Gender issue fails. I started reading about Gender issues in order to punch holes in them but as days went on, but as I read and came up with how inequalities and other Gender issues including

Gender Based Violence had affected humankind, especially women, my “anger” turned towards highlighting these issues and putting an end to them. I gained so much interest in Gender issues and immediately wanted to be an ambassador of change. I no longer supported my tradition and culture in issues where it violated Gender equality and promoted inequalities. I came up with a weekly Gender Column dubbed “Gender is My Agenda” in my Public Newspaper, the Times of Zambia.

On April 29, I was crowned the Best Gender Reporter for the Year 2016 in Zambia. To date, I have continued to dig out all the Gender Based violations and highlight them in my Column, which I write every week.

Through the Column, where I write about Gender ills for mass communication, I feel I qualify to be a leader or a driver of change.

Give a short history of the leader

Please give information on your/the leaders background, where he/she/you started, how you got involved in gender work.

Please capture any light bulb moments, through anecdotes and examples.

I had always looked down on anything to do with Gender despite being a Journalist. I viewed Gender as an enemy to my traditional culture and values and was determined to fight the issue of Gender at every opportunity I got.

When I was given the position of Gender, I felt so degraded, demoralised and miserable and struggled to find out what had hit me.

I had no strength to fight this transfer and for the first time, I hated my Job. Because I had no strength to fight this transfer, I resorted to working out the best way I could ensure this Gender issue fails. I started reading about Gender issues in order to punch holes in them but as days went on, but as I read and came up with how inequalities and other Gender issues including

Gender Based Violence had affected humankind, especially women, my “anger” turned towards highlighting these issues and putting an end to them. I gained so much interest in Gender issues and immediately wanted to be an ambassador of change. I no longer supported my tradition and culture in issues where it violated Gender equality and promoted inequalities. I came up with a weekly Gender Column dubbed “Gender is My Agenda” in my Public Newspaper, the Times of Zambia.

On April 29, I was crowned the Best Gender Reporter for the Year 2016 in Zambia. To date, I have continued to dig out all the Gender Based violations and highlight them in my Column that I write every week.

Through the Column, where I write about Gender ills for mass communication, I feel I qualify to be a leader or a driver of change.

 Objectives

What is his/her/your personal mission statement?

My Personal mission statement is that Gender is My Agenda. I want to get involved in all issues that have to do with curbing

Gender ‘crimes’ for the betterment of society and the forthcoming generation.

11. Key activities (300 words)

Describe the nature of your work: please include any negative experiences.

My key activities are to write or highlight issues of Gender in my Weekly Gender Column.

I also hope to attend workshops and trainings to learn more about Gender and how best to report on it as someone who just started reporting on the vice recently.

Additionally, I hope to talk to more people and interview them on issues of Gender to see how best such issues can be tackled in the face of our tradition and culture.

I also wish to spread the issues of Gender among my fellow scribes so that we speak with one voice and fight Gender inequalities and other Gender ills. Just like me, there could be Journalists who view Gender issues as a “disturbance” to the normal or rather smooth running of society. Once I have educated these Journalists, it will be easier for all of us to speak with one voice and convince the masses by changing their mind-sets on how they view Gender issues.

Key challenges

Describe challenges faced in pushing for gender equality in the media house.

The nature of my work is such that I write a Weekly Gender column and other supporting stories both of which come out every

Monday. I also gather stories from all the 10 provinces of Zambia on Gender issues and analyses them for possible publication on Mondays and other days of the week. I also attend Conferences and meetings on Gender. This helps me expand my knowledge on gender issues so that I am able to articulate issues and present them ably to the masses within and outside the country.

Whenever there is any launch to do with gender, I make myself available for such launches; an example is the recent launch of the fight for an end to child marriages. Others are intensified efforts to fight gender-based violence by the NGOs.

Additionally, as Zambia goes to the polls, there have also been issues of fighting for women representation at political level and I have been spearheading stories that discuss that aspect of gender with an aim of promoting gender equality.

Change at the individual level Please state how championing gender has changed your life? Why has it changed? What other factors/people have been responsible for this change?

Championing Gender has greatly changed me. As a Mother of both girls and boys, I have stopped segregating my girl children against the boys. I promote equal work for everyone.

I am also teaching the girl children in the home on issues of sexual abuse and early marriages .For difficult topics, I tackle them through my Column and give my children at home to read and understand these issues.

Both my 12-year-old son (Grade 7) and 14-year-old girl (Grade 11) have gone ahead spreading the Gender messages in my Column to their friends at school.

Please ensure that you provide name, surname, organisation and designation if applicable.

There is a provision for readers to send their views on my Column. Please find below some of the readers and their email addresses and some phone numbers.

Dear Charity

Refer to the story on Gender Equality in Agriculture still a Challenge. As much as women will not apply themselves would be difficult to bridge the gap.

It is therefore incumbent upon every woman to ensure that, they develop belief and altitudes that ultimately will result in the

Expected, but before every man’s effort and other stakeholders, Women are encouraged to have the interest and everything will follow. Nice once more reading your publication. Its full of insight and the accurate observation indeed.

Good day,

Winstone Mulenga

Dear Charity

Was taken aback when I read your story in times of Zambia in article number 17,499 dated 27/06/2016.

Your article was well searched and leaves me in an astonishment as few ladies sink this height to genderly balance that way. Men and women who are in relationship need not to utterly postpone issues in between them. They ought to be finishing

everything well.

Pelekelo kabulubulu

Change at institutional level

Please state how the change in your life has brought positive change in your institution. What innovation have you brought to the institution in light of the Post 2015 goals?

The change in my life has brought positive change in my institution because people are now more aware of gender. Through the Column, both readers and my fellow workers are now more gender aware.

The publication of the Gender Column every week has been a step towards ending Gender censorship that was reported as still a glaring reality with women’s voices making up only one- fifth of those whose views and voices are heard in the news media in Southern Africa.

Through the stories and the Column, I am ensuring that more and more women are featuring on the news content to change the previous situation as reported in the report, where women made up 20 percent of those whose voices were accessed in news content in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).

Evidence of change at institutional level

Please provide testimonial evidence Please give examples and quote others. Ensure that you provide name, surname, organisation and designation if applicable.

Hi Charity,

I am an ardent reader of your column and would like your advice with the problem I have. This is in no way related to the article you wrote in the Times of Zambia of 27 June 2016 entitled Dealing with nagging spouse. Vernon

Capacity building

Please give an outline of any activity or training you undertook to build the capacity of others.

I attended the last Gender Links media COEs consultative meeting held in Lusaka to discuss the post 2015 SADC Protocol Agenda ahead of the Ministers and Heads of State Summits in August.

As part of the Media Centres of Excellence in mainstream gender I was part of these meetings and after the deliberations, I wrote a story, which was published in the Newspaper as follows:

By CHARITY MOONGA

GENDERLINKS (GL) has urged local authorities in Zambia to mainstream gender in diverse areas of their work.

At a meeting for councils, held at Cosmic Executive Lodge last week, GL said councils should mainstream gender at policy and implementation levels.

The meeting was held to discuss the post 2015 SADC Protocol Agenda ahead of the Ministers and Heads of State Summits in August this year. The meeting considered the importance of empowering women and ending violence.

It also looked at Gender Responsive Budgeting, issues of Climate change and sexual and reproductive health.

According to deliberations at the meeting, GL called on councils to diversify in programming through strengthening their gender sensitive involvement and action planning on issues such as climate change, Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights

(SRHR)…

Ends/

Lessons learned and shared

What lessons have been learned in the process?

I understood the importance of local authorities to mainstream gender in the diverse areas of their work. It is important for Councils to mainstream gender at policy and implementation levels.

I further understood the importance of localising SDGs at provincial, local government and community levels and the roles that councils and partners like United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) should play in localizing the SDGs.

Further, I understood the importance of empowering women and ending violence as well as the importance of Gender Responsive Budgeting, issues of Climate change and sexual and reproductive health.

Next Steps

What are your plans? Concluding thoughts.

My plans are to continue pushing ‘My Gender Agenda’.

Through my Column and other articles, in a country where women are not so respected, I want to ensure that I write articles to promote the rights of women and girls. I want to tackle gender-based violence, the situation of adolescent girls and child marriage where girls as young as 10 are sometimes married off and are thus prone to suffer debilitating ailments such as vaginal fistula caused by early pregnancy.

I want to address cultural norms and ensure an end to child marriages. I also want to ensure gender equality where women and girls will also receive equal empowerment and they should have a voice in the political, social and economic leadership and development of the country.

I also want to push for the establishment of the Gender Equity and Equality Commission. I believe it will go a long way in assisting women assert their rights, push for women empowerment, battle for equality, ensure women are in leadership roles, assist fight GBV, ensure security reforms, promote health of women, ensure finances for the womenfolk, secure land rights for women and help mobilise resources for them.

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