Tuesday 21 November 2017

EMPOWERING WOMEN OF TODAY

Hi friends, lets empower our women together! To empower women, we need the collective efforts of both genders. It’s nearly impossible to empower women without the support of men.  It is a great feeling to have an empowered mother, wife and sister. Let’s take a break and remind ourselves of what women empowerment is.

Women empowerment is the process of increasing the ability/capacity of women in groups or as individuals to make the right choices and to transform those choices into actions for the betterment of their lives and that of their families. 

Richard Danaa with the Women of Pagsung processing "Shea Butter"

Empowered women at Pagsung
The women in the picture above are empowered women from Pagsung who take part in shea butter processing and soap making. It is from these activities they earn their living and take care of their families. I admire these women very much because they are challenging themselves to change their lives and the lives of their families. Every human being regardless of gender has the right to engage in any legal economic activity. Therefore, you would be empowering women in your own small way by just ensuring that they enjoy this basic right.

I want you to please read the next sentence aloud. Under no circumstances should women be denied to work because of their gender.  Men and women all have the same capability to work and hence women should not be denied that just on the bases on their gender. Women should be given the same opportunities as men and we would realize how much better the world would be. I have been working with five strong women in my team who are very empowered.

Jessica, Chloe, Nanna, Lateefa & Rahima during a Human Right Session


Work and happiness
It does not take much to empower women. You can simply empower women by giving them a voice in the society. Women are often neglected in societies when it comes to decision making. Men often make all the decisions and sometimes women are affected more if such decisions are not good enough. Women are very important in our society and they should be treated as such.


 Our role in women empowerment at Pagsung
You would agree with me that it is the collective responsibility of all of us to empower our women. We here at Pagsung for the past six weeks have been empowering over 200 women in three communities. We educate them on their rights as women and as human beings because ICS uses the rights based approach. Knowing what their rights are, we believe is a big step to empowering them.

We also collaborate with other women who have skills that would benefits these women economically to train them. For example, there is an ongoing training on quality shea butter production. We don’t just train them on how to produce quality shea butter and keep it at home. Through our market research we also link them to buyers, so they can increase their income.

Women should be given the opportunities to make decisions and should also be given the platform to engage in discussions regarding their welfare.  By so doing  we would be contributing to women empowerment. Ask yourself “what am I doing to empower the today’s woman?”. If you find an answer to that, thumbs up to you! If you don’t, tell yourself it is not too late!
I end by saying that, no one is too small or too big to make a difference. You are just the right person to make that difference. Go for it!

Thank you lovely readers for reading…….



Richard & Rahima facilitating a sensitization
         Written by
     Richard Danaa

photo credit: Chloe Ross-Brown & Richard Danaa

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