Gender Linked, Issue 13, January 2011

Editor’s Note

Executive Director’s Office
From the Executive Director

Corporate Services
Corporate services news

Board News
Board members stay Gender Linked

Satellite Office News

Botswana
Activities in Botswana

Mauritius
Activities in Mauritius

Laugh Out Loud

Teamwork & Dreamwork

Birthdays

Wellbeing

Gender Links Facebook

Gender Events

Public Holidays

The month of January is a very busy month for the Governance team as we are now all officially back from leave and need to advertise the upcoming GJLG Summit and Awards. We also need to secure workshop dates … Read more

Madagascar

GL’s footprints are spreading across Madagascar. Four days into the New Year, British journalist Kirstine Fryd, from the Danish Centre for Gender, interviewed Ialfine…. Read more

Namibia

Political space is polluted. Globally, regional or at local levels, Namibia is not an exception…. Read more

South Africa

It is 2011 and we are off on high note. The GL team is currently working hard to organise our Second GJLG Summit. … Read more

Zambia

Zambia has a promising track record when it comes to the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development: the country hosted the 2007 Heads of State Summit … Read more

Zimbabwe

December saw the successful launch of the newest local government publication: At the Coalface: gender and local government research in Zimbabwe…. Read more

In the last month, the Media Department has worked on finalising the Gender and Media Progress Study (GMPS) and Gender in Media Education (GIME) country reports. The two studies will soon be launched in all 14 countries across the region. The country launches will also give added impetus to GL’s gender policy work and media literacy courses. … Read more

Communications

January has been a busy month for the Communications Department and with the 10-year anniversary around the corner, we expect it to get busier! The GIME reports are in their final stages and are going to be launched in various countries over the next couple months…. Read more

I recently read that “obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.” Wow, how loaded, I thought to myself. I could not help but link it to the work we do in our struggle for gender justice and equality by 2015…. Read more

The first quarter of the year is also the last quarter of our financial year so we get into high gear this side of the house. One thing is to have too little money; another is not to be able to spend it. The year began with a hectic round of final planning and budget meetings. We swung quickly into implementation.

With the Gender Links Training Institute now almost a reality, the Director of Programmes has been deployed half time to get a major project on training South African women in decision-making off the ground. That means two programmes, alliance and governance, are back under my wing, a heavy load but exciting areas of our work.

Following our successful management retreat, writing and editing workshop at the end of the year, the communications unit is also rapidly taking shape and this will be a great relief to me. I calculated during that workshop that last year I edited 7000 pages, received an average of 96, and responded to 66 E Mails a day.

Having Gladys Muzirwa as Executive Assistant since the start of the year is a great blessing; she is already making a big difference. It’s also exciting to work towards our tenth birthday and Board meeting. For me this is like a drinking fountain after a long climb: cool, refreshing and sustaining.

We also look forward to welcoming new interns and volunteers: they keep us young. This week at HQ we will welcome the former South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to a brown bag lunch at the office, followed by an outing to a movie I would encourage all gender activists to see called Made in Dagenham about the struggle for equal pay in the UK less than 40 years ago.

As I write I a preparing to travel to London for a briefing on the DFID PPA fund that brought us great joy at the end of the year. It’s great to see field officers and satellite offices taking fund raising so seriously, to the extent that we are registering offices in Lesotho and Mozambique. We plan to have a donor briefing at the summit.

I am sure we will continue to be true to our motto of working hard and playing even harder! Remember: those who play together stay together!

This is the busiest quarter for Corporate Services in Finance, Human Resources and the Logistics sections of the department. We have our annual audit coming in a month’s time and this requires a lot of preparation and input from the Gender Links team. … Read more

We celebrated Deputy Chaiperson Scholastica Kimaryo’s birthday in absentia on 5 January. We are all looking forward to the wellness workshop with her in April, from which I’m sure we will draw valuable life lessons.

Eduardo Namburete has been working hard setting up the new GL office in Mozambique with our newest country facilitator, Mevasse Sibia.

We wish Thenjiwe Mtsintso, who had intensive medical treatment this month, a quick recovery. Knowing the fighter in her, she will soon bounce back and celebrate our 10-year anniversary with us!

The major research component of the Prevalence, Attitudes and Costing Survey will take place between May and June. The satellite office has made significant efforts in the collection of ‘I’ stories from different locations of the country. Some of these are already in hand and need to be edited into final products. Consultants have been commissioned to conduct the administrative research and the political discourse analysis. The Botswana Report should be available by November 2011. … Read more

The Mauritius Research Council has completed data collection for the Prevalence, Attitudes and Costing Survey and is now moving into the data analysis phase. Research on the other components has also commenced. We plan to complete all aspects and launch the Mauritius report by June 2011. … Read more

A man who was being mugged by two thugs put up a tremendous fight. Finally the thugs subdued him and took his wallet. Upon finding only R2 in the wallet, the surprised thug said “Why did you put up such a fight?” To which the man promptly replied “I was afraid that you would find the R200 hidden in my shoe!”

Every last Saturday of the month we will be walking for wellness. The next walk is Saturday 26 February. So get out your shoes and let us walk in 2011!… Read more

Lindiwe Makhunga has joined the Protocol Alliance and Partnerships unit. Lindiwe is a young enthusiastic woman, oozing with energy after a good stint studying and travelling. She did her Masters in Gender and Development at the University of Sussex. Welcome to the GL family! Nouvelle enfants sur le bloc Susan Mogari is not really new to us at GL. She has a long-standing relationship with us and has joined full time to help out with our heavy workload. This is her official welcome to GL. … Read more

Lindiwe Makhunga

International Womens Day: 8 March;

Mauritius Independence Day: Saturday 12 March;

South Africa Human Rights Day: 21 March