I am one of the 7 Billion

By Melody Gwenyambira

 

I was born in Zimbabwe and I am among the estimated 12 million that inhabit that land of milk and honey. The world’s population topped 7 Billion on October 31 2011  and I am among these people. As the United Nations agency responsible for marking this milestone, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is leading an innovative global campaign-7 Billion Actions-to build awareness around the opportunities and challenges of a world of seven billion people. I am joining the band wagon in building awareness.

My attention is inspired by a young girl from a children’s home from Harare.

Her name is Lyn.

I first met her after I visited the children’s home where a friend of mine was donating some food.

Lyn literally took a hold of my jeans and followed me around.

At first I thought she had been fascinated by my camera but I was her fascination.

I ended up taking the little girl into my arms.

As I lifted her up she looked at me and smiled and said, you are beautiful, I broke into laughter and said to her,

“Thank you and you are beautiful too.”

My mind was captivated by this little girl and I began to think of her future as if it were mine.

What her future going to be like? Was she going to be adopted?

What about her education?

Immediately, I realized that there was some social justice that had to be met if Lyn was and other girls in her situation were going to have a bright future.

The term EMPOWERMENT which refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, or economic strength of individuals and communities came into my mind.

What can a woman do when she is empowered? A lot, believe you me.

Two years ago a group of women in my area benefited in a bread making project.

These women were taken on a one day bread making course.

Two days later, they received two bags of flour , sugar, salt and some litres cooking oil.

Calculating the costs, everything was less than US$75.

Miracles came out of these kitchens that cook the meal you partake of each day!

These women made bread, doughnuts and buns which they sold to over 52 families in my community.

They got orders and each morning, people would queue to collect their confectionary.

Apart from getting enough money to provide for their families, they got enough to spare and develop themselves and sustain their small project which grew bigger.

One of the women even joined one of the leading Bakeries in the country as a marketing manager.

The knowledge she got from managing 52 people who queued outside her kitchen is the driving force that feeds millions of Zimbabweans!

Empowerment often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities.

Women in different parts of the world need to be empowered in every sense of the word.

The economic strength of a woman matters a lot.

For those women who are not economically strong, much can be done for them.

Self help projects in communities are very important.

Given US$100 a group of five women can buy flour and bake flour that can feed over a 100 people.

Are you seeing what I am seeing?

I see a small community bakery in the making.

Talk is talk but if it put in action, a lot can happen.

The women who are in our communities, unemployed also can do a lot and take themselves up there

I will divert you a little and talk about gender budgeting an area where I feel women are marginalized.

My colleagues and I once did a budget for home where the father earned US$400.

We were supposed to spread the money over 31 days.

Groceries, electricity bills, clothing, school fees and other things were on the list.

My female colleagues were angered after a male colleague suggested that we give a young girl in the family some pocket money after we were left with an extra US$13.

“Let’s give her a few dollars so that she can buy pads,” he said.

“What?” my infuriated friends said.

“I am actually doing you guys a favor and you are complaining,” he added.

“You are not doing her a favor. You can’t give her a few dollars to buy pads. The money for sanitary pads should be included on the groceries! She uses pads every month and they are a necessity.”

If we are going to empower women then we must not take basic things that they need and classify them as “luxury goods” that they can do without.

If you do not get that woman a packet of pads she will resort to using things like cloth while in most cases women are and have used cement bags and leaves.

These things cause infections and cancers.

If we are going to empower women let’s start with the smallest of things, sanitary wear.

Before you disburse millions of dollars let us start with their necessities, let us make sure that women get access to sanitary wear.

I propose that sanitary wear should be availed for free.

Back in the day some schools used to have an allocation of free sanitary wear for girls who started their menstruation periods “unaware.”

A packet of pads costs US$1 and on average a woman uses three pads a day.

Can we necessitate the availability of sanitary wear so that we do not lose these precious creatures to cancer.

Let us work on the empowerment of women and young girls.

The 7 Billion Actions aims to achieve two key objectives which are

*Building global awareness around the opportunities and challenges associated with a world of seven billion people.

*Inspiring governments, NGOs, private sector, media, academia and individuals to take actions that will have a socially positive impact.

And the themes are :    

The campaign will build awareness around seven key issues, then count the activities the campaign stimulates to address them. The issues are:

• Poverty and inequality;
• Women and girls empowerment;
• Reproductive health and rights;
• Young people;
• Ageing population;
• Environment;
• Urbanization.

As a responsible person who is part of the seven billion pick one of the key issues and work around it in your everyday life.

I have begun and you too can start now!