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| Some of the Super Girls who received the training |
They sing joyously and smile as they prepare to attend
class.
These are 42 young women of Pemba District in Southern
Province, most of whom are victims of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and early
marriages.
Some have gone through beatings, torture, painful divorce
and others went through difficult delivery as young mothers.
But in the past two days, they were all smiles at the Pemba Teachers Resource
Center to acquire knowledge in business.
These young women live in Pemba, a newly created district which
is predominantly rural and whose residents mainly depend on agriculture for their
survival, are strong and role models to other women.
In a society where women rarely come out in the open over issues such as wife battery and abuse, the women of Pemba seem to be a rare breed.
In a society where women rarely come out in the open over issues such as wife battery and abuse, the women of Pemba seem to be a rare breed.
They attended a two day training in entrepreneurship
being led by Nalituba Mudenda and Nang’amba Chintu, both 2016 Mandela
Washington Fellows who spent six weeks at the University of Iowa and University
of Nevada –Reno respectively under the US State Department’s Young Africa
Leaders Initiative earlier this year.
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| Nalituba Mudenda conducting one of his lessons |
During the training, he was joined by Ms Chintu who
established the Pemba Super Girls Club last year to help female victims of GBV
come out in the open and gain enterpreneural skills.
During the traininhg, the 42 women went through courses
such as business models, customer segments, record keeping and customer
relations.
“The response towards entrepreneurship by these women here
in Pemba is overwhelming. Am seeing powerful business women in Pemba, this will
reduce on the rate of poverty, child labour, gender based violence because
more women will be empowered to become successful entrepreneurs,” said Mr
Mudenda who drove over 500 kilometers from the northern Zambian city of
Ndola to conduct the free training at his own cost.
He adds that the women have a lot of potential: “These women have brilliant ideas which when
developed can turn into successful businesses. The only challenge many
entrepreneurs here face is how to do customer discovery, hence going into wrong
businesses.”
For Ms Chintu who started the club without any external
funding, the training is a dream come true.
“Of the 42 members, 22 of them stopped school in Grade
Nine due to early marriage, pregnancies or GBV while others stopped school in
Grade 10. The training on entrepreneurship is a dream come true because I have
always wanted to equip them with entrepreneural skills so that they can have income generating projects whose proceeds can
go towards their children’s school fees and opening their individual start ups,”
she said.
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| The Super Girls during one of their computer lessons |
During the workshop, the women also benefited from lectures given by a manager
from Investrust Bank who took them in financial
subjects such as types of accounts, loan services and products which the bank
can use to help the club as part of its corporate social responsibility.
Judith Mwale, one of the beneficiaries of the training, says
she learnt a lot.
“The training is beneficial because am being taught to
work in a group and the other thing I have learnt is financial management and entrepreneurship,”
said Mrs Mwale.
The Pemba Super Girls, who meet regularly for such
activities as netball and computer lessons, have become a household name in
Pemba.
The group is involved in information sharing activities during
their netball games with other women groups in the villages surrounding Pemba town.
These activities include the promotion of taking back
female pupils to school so that they can be given another chance to continue
with their studies.
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| The joyous Super Girls after playing netball at Pemba Grounds |
Last week when Pemba District held activities to commence
the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence, the Super Girls were
instrumental in the marchpast.
One of the Super Girls Egala Kabesha was even honoured by
Pemba District Commissioner Reginald Mugoba for defying the odds and taking her
husband to court for GBV.
Starting in January 2017, the 42 Pemba Super Girls are
expected to start going through literacy classes as a way of keeping them busy.
All these activities are being done with the consent and
support of the spouses of those ‘girls’ who are married to avoid conflict in
the houses.
For a rural area like Pemba, the support of the spouses to
the Super Girls’ activities is critical to avoid further violence in the house
when the women return home late from club activities.
