Empowering women is crucial for fostering sustainable development, promoting gender equality, and creating a just and prosperous world. The empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of their political, social, economic and health status is a highly important end in itself.
Investing in women is at the core of ungweru’s strategic plan. By investing in women, Ungweru organization strives to align its interventions with the 5th sustainable development goal which aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we are excited to share some of our interventions which, since 2004, have brought about women and girls empowerment. These interventions include; advocating for women’s access to customary land, economically empowering women through climate smart agriculture, and promoting and enforcing safeguarding policies.
In light of the discriminatory aspect of patrilineal cultural norms towards women and girls in the northern region of Malawi, Ungweru Organization had set out to implement an advocacy intervention in Mpherembe, a community found in Mzimba. This intervention sought to dismantle patrilineal norms which prohibited women and girls from owning customary land in the community. The intervention had achieved its objectives and in its realized results, the community began equally allocating customary land to women and girls. It should be important to note that agriculture being the main economic activity for most Malawians, ownership of customary land on which agricultural activities takes place is very crucial.
Dolica Nyirenda, was one of the project participants of Ungweru’s land rights interventions. After receiving the training and subsequent awareness on women’s land rights, Dolica persuaded her husband to give their daughters customary land.
“I looked at the suffering of my girls who have been wandering from on rented land to another with no proper settlement and I persuaded my husband to offer them a piece of land”, said Nyirenda.
To improve women’s access to income, and improve their food and nutrition security, Ungweru provides inputs to women which enables them to venture into climate smart agriculture through which they plant high value crops such as beans. One of the project participants, Finita Singini, planted beans on a 1 acre farm courtesy of Ungweru Organisation. According to Finita, she is set to transition of poverty as she will generate income from sales derived from the bean harvest.
“The bean crop which I planted courtesy of Ungweru Organisation will help my family a lot. Sales from the harvest will enable me to pay school fees for my children, build my house and help my family go the hospital when one gets sick. The harvest will also provide us food”, said Finitas.
Ungweru Organization also promotes safeguarding in its initiates which include women participation. Ungweru ensures that measures and practices are put in place to protect individuals, particularly vulnerable groups such as women and girls, from harm, abuse, or neglect