Saturday, May 8, 2010

EMPOWERING WOMEN!


By Pauline Chesang Ngenoh.

Women all over the world goes through challenging moments. Wherever you go you find women with children to take care of. Some women have separated with their husbands for one reason or the other. In Kenya, like in other parts of Africa, most women go with children when they divorced or separated with the husbands. In other cases, the husband may be present but he cannot support the family. He leaves in the morning and come back late at night - drank. Woman struggle to survive. They go to work early and come home late carying food for the children. There is a big struggle - and women look to God to receive his mercies.

Women should not sit idle at home to wait for their husbands to bring home food and meet all the family needs. Both couples should work hard and in the end bring home the hard earned money and plan for their needs. In villages, women should form groups and pool their resources to be use in setting up viable projects. They should look for honest qualified leaders to handle and plan for their finances.They are to engage knowledgeable people to help them plan for setting up viable projects.Performance reports should be read to members on regular basis so as to boost trust and confidence.

The projects to be ran by the groups doesn't need to be sophisticated, but it should be developed over time until full growth is attained. The appointed Committee shall be responsible for conducting spot checks to ensure everything goes according the groups objectives. Women should come out and participate actively in improving their familiy's revenue generation. Gone are the days when wemen used to just sit at home to wait for the husband to bring everything home. When husband's of housewives, they are left devastated without any source of income. So women should never sit at home to just wash clothes, cook, sweep the house etc. They should go out and work so as to support the family.