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FASHION REVOLUTION- THREE GENERATIONS OF WEAVER

Gone Rural creates home based income for women in Swaziland giving them a voice that counts. A social enterprise that economically empowers African women through craft innovation...

Meet a female heroine, Weaver Siphiwe Mngometulu who is the backbone of her homestead. Together with her husband they had six children, building a life at his homestead. Until the day he sold all their cattle and left.

GENERATIONS OF WEAVERS

Siphiwe learned weaving from her mother at a very young age as traditionally the men went hunting or farming, the women stayed home to cook, clean, sewed clothes and made mats for their homes. And as time passed, they sold the mats and baskets they made.

Then Siphiwe joined Gone Rural and this is when her life change for the better. Through the income made from the creation of the beautiful Lutindzi African Baskets Siphiwe was able to find a piece of land and build a home as well as a new life for her family.

The crafts of Swaziland are diverse, rich in history and religion. The craft of each region reflects the influence of different “empires” throughout centuries; crafts have been embedded as a culture and tradition.

The weaving tradition of Swazi’s and those who lived before them has continued in most areas in Swaziland. In fact, many techniques and designs that exist today have survived over 500 years of being handed down through the generations

When Siphiwe was growing up in Lavumisa, she recalls that traditional weaving was done in Sisal. Her mother taught her the technique, which she passed on to her daughter when she was old enough to learn

It was when she started working for Gone Rural that she learnt the art of weaving with Lutindzi grass, not only that but also to design different patterns with mats and baskets.

INNOVATION IN BASKETRY

1995 Gone Rural’s our founder Jenny Thorne met a group of women from the Lavumisa region of Swaziland, who were looking for a market for their baskets. Given that many people already sold sisal baskets Jenny worked with the women to create a basket in Lutindzi grass, Gone Rural 's signature grass, indigenous to Swaziland, grows in the mountains, sustainably harvested each year. The grass is traditionally used to make a rope to thatch traditional bee hive huts. This group has grown and now we work with 210 artisans making our unique Lutindzi baskets.

The vibrant baskets each have the unique hand of the women who has made them.

#fashionrevolutionweek jointhemovement whomadeyourbasket showyoucare #gonerural whodyedthegrass whoweavedyourmat

An Appeal to the Women of the United States

May I make an appeal to all the women of the United States? You have been offered a once in a life time opportunity to elevate the status of women across the entire planet.

We have all heard that being a president should not be about being a symbol, that people should not vote for Hillary Clinton simply because she is woman.

Well, I humbly disagree.

When I was growing up, the Prime Minister of my country was Margaret Thatcher and she influenced me more than I ever realised. I grew up knowing that a woman could do anything.

I have not encountered sexism in my forty seven years, I know it exists but personally I have never felt less than a man.

Imagine the opportunity you all have in the USA to allow a generation of young women to grow up knowing that they too can do, or be, anything they want.

Making a woman the single most important leader of the world is not only marvellous opportunity for women but one that should be grasped for the benefit of women everywhere.

Who knows when this chance will come around again?

If some women are still anti Hilary, check out her voting record? See how she has voted over the years and see if that gels with your own beliefs?

Grasp this opportunity, please! Put a woman in the White House.

By Julie Nixon

#putawomaninthewhitehouse womenempowerment 2016

Governance

Swaziland is matriarchal, our Kings are chosen because of who their mothers are, not by birthright and her Majesty the Queen Mother has exactly the same legislative powers as His Majesty the King.

It can be very difficult for people to understand our culture of having a Monarch but we are an African country and therefore Western ways are not necessarily right for us, yet Swaziland has integrated some aspects of the modern world into our governance.

Every four years we vote for our parliament, we elect fifty eight people from our home areas to represent us in our English style parliament system. We do not have political parties, we vote for individuals and quite frankly, I hope we never have them. Politics is a dirty business fuelled by a lust for power, oiled by big business and increasingly it only works for the rich, running for president in the USA will cost a person a billion dollars, that is not democracy.

With a monarch comes the Chiefs, we have two hundred and sixty three areas across the country, each area’s first line of government is a council of elders. Wise men who are there because they are wise and have shown good judgement throughout their lives. Above them is the Indvuna (Head Man) who acts as the liaison between the community, the council and the chief.

All governance is done at the community meetings called Libandla which happen every two weeks, any issues affecting the community from a new road, to a dispute with a neighbour is openly discussed with the council, everyone has the right to speak. Any serious issues are carried to the Chief and at the next meeting the community will hear what the Chief has to say.

My first experience of this system came when we wanted to install a borehole so our community could have clean water. I sat in the sun through the first of these meetings and as a westerner said to myself, “nothing is ever going to get done at this rate”. Well one of the most important things that Africa teaches us is patience! After four of these meetings it was all systems go, the whole community came out to dig channels, help install the pumps and now, ten years later the water system still functions perfectly. I now understand that because the entire community “owned” the whole process, all had had a say and therefore the end product belonged to everyone.

Pretty democratic in my mind.

I know because I have lived in the Western World we did not have this kind of ownership in how things are run.

I remember two million English people marching to say no to the Iraq war but even that didn’t change the politicians minds.

Of course we have individual cases of corruption and dare I say greed but humans have not evolved to the moral high ground yet and every system on the planet has these problems.

Tips for being Happy

Happiness is a decision, it’s as simple as that

In our Universe (or possibly Multiverse), the only aspect of our lives that we can control is how we feel and because the Universe is completely literal, it is our feelings that determine our fate.

Self pity is the single most destructive emotion that we humans can ever experience and if we feel sorry for ourselves, the Universe will be sure to send us things to feel sorry about

Never, ever, ask the Universe for patience – you will then be stuck in every traffic jam and till queue that exists.

Don’t feel rushed, every slow truck will be in front of you, the ATM will not work and the five hundred school children will be ushered across the pedestrian crossing just as you pull up!

#beinghappy

Everyday Tips

Don’t sweat the small stuff, learn to “let things go”, then you will be more prepared to handle the big stuff

Smile allot- go on, right now smile, bet you felt better?

Be aware of how you make other people feel – happy people show respect

Live in the present – deal only with today

Guilt is a waste of your energy – it’s in the past and you cannot change it so forgive yourself

Worry is in the future and an astonishing 90% of our worries never materialise – it’s the future and you cannot control it!

Happy people take responsibility for their actions

Finally, just go hang out with happy people! If they start avoiding you, then know they have left to hang out with happy people so you need to try harder!

#benghappy letgoandletitbe smile

Culture- Incwala

Swaziland’s culture is beautiful, meaningful and relevant.

All cultural or important events in the country are set according to the passage of the moon, even the opening of Parliament

There are a number of cultural events during each year the two most important are the Incwala Ceremony and the Umhlanga Reed Dance.

Incwala is an ancient ceremony which brings together the entire nation to sing sacred songs and dance together to bring blessings to the country. As it is open to all, a gardener dances next to a cabinet minister and a prince, a cleaner can be dancing next to a Queen and everyone is on the exact same level as the next. Traditional dancing is said to be the best way to bring a nation together and to dispel any type of class system.

In November the spiritual leaders, called the Water Party leave on foot from Swaziland carrying no water or food or money to collect the scared water from both Mozambique and Mpumalanga. They trust that people along the way will assist them, and people do!

When the water arrives the dancing begins, this is called the Little Incwala and a large bonfire is started in the kraal which will burn throughout the ceremony.

Then the young warriors are sent out to walk up the mountains to gather the sacred shrub. It is during these nights that the young men are set tasks such as carrying a load of water in a bucket with holes in, they are then named according to how the perform! “he runs slowly and brings no water”, “He who runs like a leopard”.

Once the warriors bring back the shrub, the nation gathers to sing and dance, some years there are eighty thousand people dancing and singing together. His Majesty then blesses the four corners of the country and asks for good rain, abundance and blessings.

He then calls for the rains to put out the fire. I have lived here for thirteen years and it has rained on the final day on Incwala each and every single year to put out that fire.

#Swaziculture #incwala #tradionaldance

#16Days Blog: Knowledge Is Power

As of 2014 31 Million girls of primary school age and 32 million girls of high school age were not in school!

In order for any country to prosper girls need to be educated.

UNICEF’s studies have found that educated girls delay marriage until they are older and are less likely to have a child before marriage.

In sub-Saharan Africa over one third of girls under the age of 18 are married, one third will give birth before the age of 20, behavior that contributes to generational poverty.

The ripple effect of educating young women is wide, not only affecting their direct families and community but the generations that come after them. Educating girls also helps to break the cycle of poverty, they will have healthy babies later in life, will not suffer forced marriages, will not submit to harmful traditional practices such as genital mutilation and, most importantly, will go on to educate their own children.

There are many obstacles to girls’ education from cultural beliefs that boys education is more important, early marriages, money for education, lack of sanitation and having to drop out due to early pregnancy.

Knowledge is power is an old adage that we have all heard that but it remains true. Educating girls brings economic well being to all nations and affects generations to come.

Our planet needs girls in school, we need educated young women who will go on to become positive roles models for others, girls that go on to become teachers, doctors, lawyers.

We have to overcome poverty and one way to do that is to get our girls into school and keep them there until they graduate.

- Julie Nixon

#educateourchildren knowledgeispower #endvaw #behervoice

#16Days Guest Blog: Wolves In Sheep’s Clothing

Today marks the 8th day of Activism Against Gender Based Violence.

Our guest blogger today is a young Swazi Poet, Motivational Speaker, and Ingenuity e-Magazine’s Editor Nqobile Ndlangamandla.

________________________________________________________

We give sixteen days to actively combat Gender based violence, we raise awareness and we move those that listen. Unfortunately we do this alongside many we cannot verify, many wolves in sheep’s clothing we see march for good. How do we know that every soldier is on our side? How do we know that each is a man or woman speaking for the cause out of actual conviction and not social expectation?

I am slowly but brutally learning that the perpetrators are also good guys, that many are loving fathers and brothers, even lovers of the ones they violate. This past weekend KwakhaIndvodza had a day event planting 19 trees in honour of women that died at the hands of men they loved, yet that very day our Newspapers wrote a story on a woman killed by her lover over text messages on her phone. It appears the tree planting should have gone up to 20 in her honour. I wonder how many more women will be laid to rest in the next 29 days after death at the hand of their husbands or boyfriends.

Each death honoured by KwakhaIndvodza this passed weekend once gave her heart to a man she swore loved her, each woman laughed with this man and gave of herself fully. None of these women knew a tree would be planted in her honour after so violent a death at the hands of that very man. This is what terrifies me most, the ease with which we hand our vulnerability over and not get to live long enough to be survivors.

Earlier this year my sister spoke up about violence she had experienced at the hands of her husband. She spoke of verbal, emotional and sexual violence that ended the day he stabbed her 11 times in front of the two children they had borne together. Anyone who meets my sister can tell you that she is a fiery confident and intelligent woman, nobody can understand how she was ever a love struck teenager too scared to leave a man that only knew love in instilling fear.

Many a time we read of uncles and fathers who rape and even kill children who have always known only to look up to them. Our culture teaches unconditional respect, it apologises for stalking as courting, and we raise daughters who believe these as life.

These sixteen days of activism are held alongside those very uncles and brothers, the fathers and friends, each speaking out louder than the next for our rights. However many women still shy away from the men we speak so greatly of, because they have broken their spirits in taking from them sex and dignity without so much as a warning of their virility.

I appear to be speaking aimlessly, maybe because I do not know who to trust anymore. Who to hug and not fear being groped, who to love and not fear dying under, who to leave my children at home with in full confidence of their safety.

How do we set the vile apart from the good? We cannot judge by what they show us, we will always see just what keeps them in high esteem in our eyes. A tweet by DJ Zinhle summarized this fear quit well when she spoke against her former boyfriend being labeled a bad father, because he truly isn’t. he just lives a life that clearly makes one believe he is a terrible lover, maybe even a bad person in his other relations. How do we see the loving brothers that are also also rapist uncles, and how can we still see good in the world once this vile truth is uncovered?

-Nqobile Ndlangamandla

#16daysofactivism #endviolenceagainstwomen day8 behervoice

#16Days Guest Blog: Masculine Power

Today marks the first day of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence. We are lucky enough to have a Guest Blogger during this campaign.

Joy Ndwandwe, indigenous prophet, facilitator, motivational speaker and inspirational woman will be sharing her thoughts with us for the next four posts.

______________________________________________________________

Where masculine power is should be the dominate question as we enter this period of no violence against women and children.

As the rate at which women and children are abused indicates the loss of this masculine power, as this power is not connected to physical power. Masculine power can only be evoked at the soul level, where there is no race, colour, creed nor sex, and most significantly the soul is connected to what God, the Supreme Being has destined to achieve on earth.

This begins with Ubuntu’s first indigenous value, mutual respect within humanity, by understanding how ‘ntu’ the soul are on earth to achieve God’s mission and calling. Therefore they apply self-respect that translates into mutual respect, a preventative measure for engaging in violence against women and children.

As no self-respecting men can use their physical power over a feminine being, as they respect the essence of God within women and children.

- Joy Ndwandwe Prophet LaNdwandwe

#16daysofactivism #‪‎EndviolenceAgainstWomen‬#endviolence #day1

Swaziland: An Insider’s Story Part One

The History

There is something invisible yet powerful about this country, it captures one from the moment of arrival at the border crossings, an energy that speaks of calm, of beauty, of love, of history and culture.

From the friendliness of the people to the beauty of the natural world, Swaziland is just simply special.

Swaziland has a rich history, the World’s third oldest rocks are located here, the Bushman paintings are anything from four hundred to four thousand years old and bones found in the Eastern parts of our country, have been dated to one hundred and ten thousand years old.

It is not surprising that our most ancient ancestors chose this place to live, there is every vegetation know to man here (apart from desert that is), good rains, high mountains that offer refuge in case of invasion, strong rivers and soil so rich anything will grow.

The Swaziland we know now came into being in the eighteenth century when our ancestors moved here to flee the Zulu wars that broke out in Kwa Zulu Natal.

Our ancestors were pacifists and this philosophy is still highly practised in our current generations, Swaziland is the only nation to have never gone to war or had internal conflict. In Swaziland if there is a disagreement we come together and talk it out, sitting with your enemies is a common practise. I believe that being one tribe helps, there are no factions here.

Humans all share the same basic needs, food, water and shelter, Swaziland must be the only country in the world that gives a most valuable recourse to achieve two of them - land.

Being born a Swazi automatically makes you a land holder. Families tend to live in a cluster of houses set in large tracts of arable farming land where most of the family’s food is grown. As a family grows they can go in front of the community and elders and make a request for more land. The decision of the elders is usually based on how good of a community player your family has been. Everyone within that chiefdom can have a say on how land is allocated.

Swazi people can also go to a different Chiefdom and use the same system to obtain land in another area.

The land cannot be sold, it is called Swazi Nation land and remains in your family for all time, it can only be taken away if a family commits a terrible crime such as murder but again, it can only be taken away if the entire community agree.

And so, Swaziland, by providing land, allows her citizens to build shelter and grow food.

Fingers are often pointed at our monarchical democracy but our country makes every citizen a land holder, that is a valuable, tangible democracy, making every man equal through the allocation of land.

Behind the Scenes: Part Two

So, where were we? Oh yes telling you how special Gone Rural is!

We believe in the law of attraction here, we believe we have the power to manifest energy into reality, it’s basic science really.

When Zandile’s son, Simpihwe, was involved in a fatal car accident, the hospital rang us to say she had better come quickly to say goodbye as he was not going to make it. Our regular morning circle was formed 3 times, every day as he lay unconscious, each of us saying thank you for Simphiwe’s return to health. He was very badly injured, underwent a number of operations and lost his right eye after the accident.

But, three weeks, later he was back at University to write his final exams!

We have stopped cyclones and have the satellite maps to prove it but we don’t need proof, we have faith.

We bless the boxes full of products as they leave, (we really do) “Travel safe, sell well!”

We put up dream charts with photos of what we will achieve in life: houses, small businesses, holidays, weddings. So many of these dreams charts have big ticks against the images achieved.

One of our team had a house, a car (and a Mercedes at that!), a wedding and a very special kitchen. In just eighteen months, she manifested all of them! Well done Meg!

We say “please remember” instead of “don’t forget”

We say “I am healthy” when we feel sick.

So yes, reading this back it could easily be construed that we are all a bunch of crazy hippies! Even so, we have created income of more than 13,000,000 ZAR for rural women in the past five years, installed clean water for more than 8,000 people and we educate 300 children every year.

We started a savings and business training scheme, where 2,700 women have saved over 800,000 ZAR. We have built three community shelters and will soon break ground on a fourth. We created back yard gardens, crop diversification through the planting of cassava in the drought stricken region of our country which was the communities only source of food.

This is over and above women’s empowerment, literacy, business skills, weaving skills, leadership skills.

We know we have a long way to go, we are not there yet but the journey sure is interesting and our souls benefit enormously, so we manage the stress and sheer hard work as we know what a difference we make.

I haven’t told you half of it yet, it is all just so wonderfully special!

Behind the Scenes: Part One

Gone Rural - What a special, unique company this is!

I have to tell you about this place.

We are a family like none other, seven hundred and sixty women artisans, thirty staff and over twenty thousand beneficiaries altogether, and I do mean, all together

Every morning the bell is rung and we form a circle, prayers first, they are either Christian, or non-denominational “Thank You’s” sent out to our Creator.

Going around the circle each person says a personal “Thank You”, something different every day, to highlight the things we are grateful for. We have been doing this for so many years we are getting down to “Thank you for my chickens” now!

Then we connect with each other by practising an exercise invented by a psychiatrist in Hawaii. We chose one of the team and we say “I love you; I’m sorry; forgive me; thank you”.

Sometimes we close our eyes and say it to ourselves; sometime we say it to our dearly beloved founder, Jenny Thorne; sometimes to our mothers, fathers, someone in the group...

It is about really seeing each other and ourselves through someone else’s eyes.

Then we brain gym - simple exercises that help with brain function.

The penultimate group act is to stand like super heroes, because we believe that is what we are.

Finally, holding hands we raise them up and say “Happy Monday” (or Tuesday, Wednesday...)

And guess what? We all start our day smiling.

We say I love you a lot here: to each other, to our artisans and even to some of our clients and suppliers - and we mean it! How cool is it that we can say I love you to our customers? To finish and email with “I love you” speaks volumes about this company.

We sincerely care about each other and we care about what we are doing which is to make a significant difference to the lives of rural communities.

We know we are all one, we know that if one of us is doing well, we are all doing well. We know that when one of us is sick, we are all sick. We know that everyone connected to Gone Rural is an important piece of this puzzle that is bringing empowerment to women and social development to thousands across our country

To be continued...(Because there is so much to tell!)

Heroines

When I was a little girl my heroines were in books, the young women who overcame hardships to marry the prince, who saw through the exterior to fall in love with the beast.

Later, they were the boarding school girls growing up year by year into young women. They were young, made mistakes but ended up women of character and strength.

My most liberating activity as a young girl was walking to the library alone to check out my books. I was in total charge, it made me happy, I felt independent.

Then I had Margaret Thatcher, agree or disagree with her politics, I grew up with a woman in charge of our country. A woman who stood up for herself against all opposition, a woman who wasn’t interested in being liked but a woman who wanted to make a difference

I am trying to find out why there are so few role models for girls and also, why the ones we have are so undeserving of female attention.

I have been asking why we, as a culture, put such stock in celebrities and I am slowly realising that well, actually, we don’t.

I started reading tabloid magazines to try and understand this “culture” and most have a gallery section of the current celebrities out and about. Recently I counted 10 celebrity pictures and I only knew four of the women shown, thinking that I was seriously out of touch I showed some of the women in the office and to my relief no one knew them either!

So I dug some more, I have been unable to find anyone who thinks Paris Hilton is interesting or who wants to read about anything she does and have yet to unearth a fan of the Kardashians.

I have also had a laugh at the celebrity quiz shows as, quite frankly, I am at a loss to know who they are or why they are called celebrities?

So who buys the magazines and watches the E-Entertainment channel? It seems to me that Hollywood promotes Hollywood but most of us are simply not interested, it is an industry fed by itself.

Where we do have role models, is in the music industry and this is where it can get scary. Teenage girls believe themselves to be “finite”; tomorrow is a life time away and the way it is today is the way it will always be. So when they see these super sexy, thin, gorgeous women and compare themselves, they end up with body image and self confidence problems.

My friend has an eight year old, she herself has just turned thirty and has had to block the MTV music channel on her cable TV. She found the current videos by the world’s current superstars completely inappropriate for her daughter.

I am confused as to why the vast majority of female music and film stars need to demean themselves and dress like hookers as it only perpetuates the idea that women are good for only one thing. If I see one more music video with cash being thrown at women who are being called bitches or ho’s I may vomit.

Everyone needs an income but I truly wish that these women would value their dignity over cash, that they could see how they are damaging the cause for women worldwide or simply that they would care more about themselves so that all of us women can overcome sexism.

The “So-Me” Selfie Generation

Has society become so obsessed with the “self” that we no longer understand the “we”? Do we no longer understand that we are one being, one entity will all living things? Is Ubuntu gone?

The fad of the “selfie” makes me think that we are forgetting, and fast.

Is society so self orientated that people have to their own face in every photo? Social Media says yes, it’s almost as though if your own face isn’t in the photo then how do we really know you were there?

My son knows that if I ever take a selfie he can shoot me!

I have a new name for the social media society, “The So-Me” generation because everything from the selfie to Facebook is all about “look at me, look at me”. The problem is though that they are missing out on so much, they don’t even realise that real life is passing them by.

Going to a music concert is about the experience, the feeling you get when you lose yourself in the music, the thrill of making eye contact with the artist and the shared connection of those dancing around you. Nothing can be more special than being in the moment, looking up, making eye contact with a stranger and knowing instantly you are perfectly connected in the same consciousness.

The So-Me generation at any concert today is so busy looking through their viewfinder that all of the above passes them by. I have often wondered how many times they will go back and view what they recorded? Do they? Does the recording sound like a school band practising in their parents garage? What is the point of recording it? Are brains today so damaged by technology that remembering is difficult?

What did they feel at the concert? With most technology its only good when it works so my imagination tells me that more than fifty percent of the So-Me’s are feeling frustrated that their device is either not recording sound, has turned off half way through leaving the holder with sore arms and wasted of energy. Or disappointment when they get home to put it on YouTube and find it sounds like a bunch of cats fighting and actually could be a bunch of cats fighting as the lighting is so bad!

What has happened to living in the moment?

For the first time ever I am concerned about the future for our race. I am concerned that people no longer know how to listen because they need to read it in an email, no longer feel music because they are so busy recording it, no longer understand that the beauty of a place can be remembered without your own face in it.

People eat dinner with friends while texting, people interrupt real life conversations to answer an email, people are becoming slaves to their technology.

So may I ask anyone reading this to please start living in the moment, start appreciating the people you are with, start feeling again and most importantly, be very aware of the relationship you have with social media, do not become its slave.

Don’t be a So Me, try simply being for a change.

Gogo Mavimbela

As I can only write from experience, the women of Africa have much to teach the rest of the world on strength, acceptance, making a plan with very little, hard work and a belief in a power higher than themselves.

This morning one of our longest serving women Make (Mrs.) Mavimbela came to the work shop to say goodbye.

Gogo (Grandmother) has worked for Gone Rural for twenty years but had to cease working when her health deteriorated over the past eighteen months. We have been helping her with food and taking her to the clinic.

We were taking her to the clinic today when she asked our driver to stop here at the workshop, she wanted to see me.

Gogo used to be at the workshop every Tuesday and on most of those days she “sold” me mats made out of black plastic refuse bags which I used to use as a dog blankets. I have so many of them that I think all my future dogs will have beds.

Gogo came to tell me she was dying.

As soon as she said those words I knew them to be true.

It was time she said, the clinic was only giving her “pillies”, pain killers, and she knew they could not help her.

She said that where she is going will be better than where she is now, she said she would always remember me and would see me in Heaven.

Then she told me not to cry that everything is fine.

So I tried to be as brave as she, wiped away my tears and told her that I would always remember her as well.

I hope that I will have that level of acceptance when my time comes, I hope that I will look forward to going to that “better place”.

Women are truly amazing creatures yet are still not equal and women in the southern hemisphere are still way behind their northern sisters.

So even in sophisticated first world countries the inequality is still there just as Patricia Arquette said at the Oscars, not even female movie stars earn the same as their male colleagues.

It’s time the world woke up to the fact that women and men are equal and now it is time to start treating our sisters as such

#IWD gonerural women

I Love Women!

No, I am not coming out or anything but have just spent a week with seventy women on a Vital Voices leadership course!

It was incredible, I came away inspired by the strength, dedication and the passion of so many women leaders. Some have overcome serious personal tragedies such as childhood abuse both sexual, physical and emotional, poverty and illness to become women that give back

Self pity is so comforting yet so incredibly damaging that many of these women could easily have decided to become victims. Instead they have become heroines.

My new friend Consoler was subjected to such terrible abuse as a child growing up that she has permanent brain damage and spinal problems yet she has gone onto providing a refuge for 21 young women. She is giving them a loving home, educating them and teaching them skills so they can go onto taking care of their own needs.

My new friend Namakau is seriously ill with cancer and at first was not sure she could make the trip. Each day Nama thought in the morning “ok, maybe today I will not go to the cultural event, maybe today I will miss the afternoon training” but she was there each and every day taking part in all the activities. Not once did she complain, Nama decided she would learn and experience as much as possible so she could go back home and share her experiences with her team.

Then we have these amazing young women all working in the IT world which has always been seen to be a man’s world. Oreoluwa, Tsabi and Lumbiwe are not only changing the face of IT in Africa they are blazing the way for more women in these areas. They are often disrespected my their male colleagues simply for being women but they overcome it by being so tech savvy that their male colleagues cannot be anything but impressed!

Guatemala has seen a 33% increase in violence in children and Gaby is working with youth to provide safe havens so that they do not get sucked into gangs at a young age. Gili from Israel is working in India to provide income for women weavers, Rosemary is working with Tsonga people to provide income generation, Elnura started a Braille school for the blind in Kyrgyzstan, Chido is creating income for women and young girls through mushroom farming, Saba is a peace activist working to stop the abuse of women in Pakistan, Portia is a children’s rights activist in South Africa, Christina works against people trafficking in The Philippines, the list is endless.

Women are incredible! They suffer and go on to love, they are sick yet find hidden strength, and they face discrimination but overcome.

To all the VV Lead delegates, coordinators, teachers and trainers, you are all incredible, inspiring women and you are changing the world for good of all

During this past week there were 74 women and only one man, he was the camera man in charge of the live streaming of the workshops. On the last day we were each asked to say one word of how we felt about the week, he answered “educated”!

Women’s Rights ARE Human Rights!

We have been taught that speeches or blogs should contain a call to action, well today I just want to shock you. Hopefully shock you out of ignorance, out of ambivalence and out of your comfort zone!

There is a new Pandemic out there, it is not a virus or a disease it is the systematic killing and abuse of women

Since sex selective abortions started in the 1980’s it has been calculated in a number of studies that there 144, 000,000 “missing” females.

One hundred and forty four million “Missing” girls and women, That is horrifying!

We all know that the one child policy of China has contributed to this figure, a company selling ultrasound machines there was selling over 5000 units every day. Every remote village clinic in rural China has a machine so that females can be aborted.

But it is not just in Asian countries, we are talking about educated wealthy Western women who “choose” to have a boy.

Why is this happening, when did normal rational women allow themselves to believe that a boy child is more important. Most of us in the world no longer live in a society where women cannot inherit, Jane Austen would have a hard time with plot lines in most countries

Why are women not valuing women?

Is it because there are not enough role models out there? For young women there doesn’t seem to be any at all, young girls only have celebrities such as pop stars to look up to and quite frankly the sexualisation of women in the music industry is disgraceful. Again, women are doing it to themselves I am sure that people such as Nicki Minaj are in complete control of their own “artistic” creativity and image.

Is it because there are not enough female leaders out there? Women make up just 17% of parliamentarians globally according to UNICEF. We urgently require more women in leadership roles right now. Women who can shape the future, who set the budgets, who put women first. Next time there is a woman candidate in an election vote for her

And this is why,

Violence causes more death and disability worldwide amongst women aged 15-44 than war, cancer, malaria and traffic accidents (World Bank Study World Development Report: Investing in Health, New York, Oxford University Press, 1993.)

Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. At least 1 in 3 women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime with the abuser usually someone known to her (General Assembly. In-Depth Study on All Forms of Violence against Women)

Globally, 10 million more girls are out of school than boys (Calculated from data contained in the UN’s The Millennium Development Goals report 2007, New York: 2007, p11)

41 million girls worldwide are still denied a primary education. (UNESCO, Education for all: Global monitoring report 2008, Oxford University Press, Oxford: 2007, p184.)

Women produce up to 80% of food in developing countries, but are more likely to be hungry than men, and are often denied the right to own land (Food and Agriculture Organization

Source reference- Womakind Wordwide

Be aware of what women are facing in today’s world, I have worked for a large portion of my life for women’s empowerment even I am shocked by some of these statistics

Decide right here and right now that you will value women. Be the change, if you are a women, value yourself, value other women, put women first. If you are a man, be a gentleman, value your daughter, give her the strength to stand in her power.

This world needs women

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