Empower women through life skills

Feb 11, 2009

ON a recent visit to Maracha county in the newly-created Nyadri district, I was saddened by what politicians in the area are doing (distributing salt and soap to women) supposedly to empower them.<br>

Denis Lee Oguzu
ON a recent visit to Maracha county in the newly-created Nyadri district, I was saddened by what politicians in the area are doing (distributing salt and soap to women) supposedly to empower them.

It is unfortunate the history of Maracha continues to be littered with bribery and manipulation of women through such hand-outs.

How many kilos of salt and bars of soap shall we need to liberate women from poverty, violence, illiteracy, and discrimination in Maracha? I wonder if the adage: “show someone how to fish rather than give them fish to eat” means anything to the politicians of Maracha?

Pretentiously as a word of empowerment, women were told to run away from their husbands and children. In my opinion, preventing violence against women is more than telling a woman to abandon her family.

It takes studying the causes and consequences of violence against women and the effectiveness of preventive measures; but not breaking families.

Giving women salt makes them dependant on others, thus, limiting their ability to have control over reproductive and economic life. Skills-building and other trainings should instead be supported to empower women in all aspects of their lives.

There are over 100 organised loan and saving associations in Maracha. Why not support such initiatives? Politicians should rather design projects that raise the incomes of women, engage them in income-generating activities, and train them in production and business skills, functional adult literacy and reproductive health services.

Politicians should also recognise education as a human right that when enforced, can liberate women, and make them self- reliant and conscious of their human and constitutional rights.

Research shows that two thirds of the 960 million illiterate adults in the world are women. The relationship between women’s education and child survival is crucial.

In Kenya, for example, 10.9% of children born to women with no education will die by the age of five, compared to 7.2% of the children of women with primary school education, and 6.4% of the children of women with a secondary school education.

The writer is the founder of West Nile Rural Development Agency

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