Maravi

15 years of WfC have not been easy - Emily

15 years of WfC have not been easy - Emily
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sunday September 30, 2007 [04:02]

WOMEN for Change (WfC) executive director Emily Sikazwe has said her organisation's 15 years of existence have not been easy. In an interview as WfC embarks on a week-long celebrations to mark its 15th anniversary which falls this Saturday, Sikazwe yesterday said the harassments that her organisation had suffered in the last 15 years were minor setbacks.

"To us clocking 15 years is a great and humbling feeling and we look back where we came from and what we have achieved and what we have to achieve.

WfC is now a teenage girl," Sikazwe said. "In this 15-year journey we have been misunderstood, insulted and harassed but as far as we are concerned, this is part of the struggle and they are temporary setbacks.

"Personally, my journey in social justice has not been an easy one. I have been accused, condemned and convicted. However, those victimisations have not changed my philosophy.

I am inspired by the words of Martin Luther King Jnr who says 'if I can help someone as I pass along, if I can cheer someone with a word or song, if I can show somebody that he or she is travelling on a wrong road, then my life shall not be in vain'. I have dedicated my life to creating a society that is just and that respects everyone's dignity, woman or man, poor or rich."

She said during the 15 years, gallant women and men, journalists, women's movement, the Church and some progressive politicians had supported WfC.

"They have shaped us as an organisation. They have encouraged and advised and we say we owe them the existence of our organisation and particularly The Post newspapers that have come to our defence when they felt we have been unfairly accused or treated,"
Sikazwe said.

"We have made mistakes as an organisation and we are magnanimous enough to say that if we have wronged someone or people in our quest for social justice and the better Zambia and world for all, we sincerely apologise, it wasn't intentional."
Sikazwe said women and men were now working together as partners in development.
"Through our work, the issue of poverty in rural areas has been put on the national agenda. We have contributed towards the discourse of social economic rights and women's rights and it's firmly on the national agenda.

We have also uplifted the institution of traditional rulers and is now on the national agenda, resulting into the re-introduction of the House of Chiefs and you can hear our traditional leaders from all corners of the country reacting and talking about issues of human development."

Sikazwe said WfC had contributed to the democratisation discourse and demanding the inclusion of poor people and women in governance.

"We have demanded the interpretation of right to life through provision of decent shelter, clean water, healthcare and other basic services," she said. "Right to life cannot be separated from social economic rights. We would like to see the enshrining of those rights in the constitution."

Sikazwe said when WfC started, it had few beneficiaries but currently it gives support to over 300,000 people to engage in income generation activities.

Labels: EMILY SIKAZWE, WFC

posted by MrK @ 5:11 AM