happiness Chikwanha
Tendai Gukutikwa Post Reporter
A delegation of female parliamentarians from Malawi was last week charmed by the female-led rural empowerment projects in Mutasa North.
The parliamentarians had visited Hauna Growth Point in Mutasa.
They pledged to sponsor a number of women to travel to Malawi to train rural women on how to run empowerment projects in their respective communities.
During the Mutasa visit, the delegation’s leader who is also the Malawi Parliamentary Women Caucus chairperson, Honourable Roseby Gadama said they were impressed by the women empowerment projects in Mutasa.
“We have witnessed how rural women here in Mutasa have been empowered and we are impressed. We will borrow what we saw here and take it back home. We will sponsor some women from Mutasa to visit Malawi and train their counterparts because we want an empowered woman at all levels of the society.
“They are producing commodities using locally available raw materials, which is very commendable. As a result, they have created their own income generating projects. When they sell their commodities, they are able to take care of their families,” said Honourable Gadama.
She also encouraged women to network with their counterparts in the SADC region.
The Women’s Leadership Exchange visit between Malawi and Zimbabwe’s Women’s Parliamentary Caucus teams was a week-long visit.
The parliamentarians from the two countries toured female-led empowerment projects in Mutasa North and Harare. Honourable Gadama said they are going around lobbying women to elect fellow women into key decision making positions as this will boost women empowerment.
She said with women being the majority of the population in both Malawi and Zimbabwe, supporting each other should not be a problem.
“As women, we should support other women so that they get into leadership positions. Women face a lot of challenges daily and they should work towards finding solutions through electing each other into leadership positions,” she said.
Honourable Gadama said they were also in Zimbabwe to learn and exchange notes on the Zimbabwean Parliament’s quota system. Currently, only 21 percent of Malawi’s parliamentarians are female, while Zimbabwe has 32 percent.
Oxfam Malawi’s country representative, Mrs Lingalireni Mihowa thanked women in Manicaland for the pleasant welcome.
“We will continue sponsoring female-led empowerment projects in Malawi because the results we witnessed here in Zimbabwe are encouraging. As women, you should know that the best products are those produced by women and that you should continue soldering on,” she said.
Mutasa North legislator who is also a member of the local Parliamentary Women Caucus, Honourable Chido Madiwa said there is need to continue voting for women into power as they know how best to tackle challenges faced by fellow women.
“The delegation was impressed by the projects being rolled out by women in my constituency. I believe these projects were a success because the beneficiaries elected a woman to be their representative in Parliament,” she said.
Ms Nyasha Nyashanu of Shelter Empowerment Project that manufactures perfumes, roll-ons, lotions and detergents, thanked the delegation for their words of encouragement.
“We are delighted to get such praises from other countries’ parliamentarians. When we started this project last year, we never thought that we would be where we are today. We will continue soaring and penetrating new markets. We hope to use this opportunity to penetrate the Malawian market,” she said.
The Zimbabwean Parliamentary Women Caucus visited Malawi last year on the same exchange programme.
Online Reporter