Sarah Nakame
Uganda
My drive to see young women empowered and valued is what makes me a feminist.
I work with Mentoring and Empowerment Programme for Young Women
(MEMPROW) where I am in charge of the Research, Communication and
Advocacy programme.
I am a feminist because I love to see women rise to their potential through
empowerment and leadership forums. The reason I chose to work with
MEMPROW was because of my passion to reach as many young women in
order to tell them that they are equal in right and potential as men, and that
they too can excel. I am also committed to seeing women rise from oppression,
discrimination and segregation caused by the patriarchal society. My drive to
see young women empowered and valued is what makes me a feminist.
I think that the greatest challenge facing feminists in Africa today is the
patriarchal structure that discriminates and segregates women at home, school
and in the public spheres. This has resulted in stereotypes that men are superior,
and women are inferior which has caused women not to believe in what they
can be if they took up leadership positions.
One of the ways we can address this is a deep commitment to mentoring young
women to join in feminist efforts. This means building on and strengthening
leadership programmes for young women, creating spaces for young women
to reflect on and exchange experiences with feminists of all generations.
The African Feminist Charter is one of the tools that can be used in this
endeavour as it makes feminism accessible to young women. It can be used
and distributed in public universities and libraries so that many young women
can access it. In addition, the values and objectives can be included as modules
in training programmes.
In my own life, I engage in a capacity building programme for young women
at universities and high schools where I also facilitate sessions on effective
communication skills for young women. By doing this I am empowering
women to use their communication skills to compete favourably with their male
counterparts. I am inspired by women that have achieved greatly; those who
despite many challenges managed to get an education or ascend into key
leadership positions that impact on the lives of communities.
I am also inspired by women who founded community and women’s initiatives;
who continue to reach out to young women for capacity building, personal
development and growth. Finally, young women that have taken up professions
such as surveying, engineering, medicine, etc, and achieved success, inspires
me to be bold and successful also.
VPS II
. 93