WOMEN have been urged to actively participate in developmental projects and meetings in their community to foster inclusive development to ensure their needs are catered for.
The call was made by ward 9 Bulawayo Progressive Resident Association organising secretary Duduzile Dube yesterday during a Women’s Indaba held at Mpopoma Hall in Bulawayo.
“As women, we should actively participate and take a leading role in community developmental projects and meetings so that our needs, our problems can be addressed as we will have aired them,” she said.
Dube said women should desist from being active only at donation meetings.
“As women we have power and strength to keep the well- being of our families hence the need to actively partake in developmental initiative as we need to make sure that the system tailored within our communities are inclusive as this will make our lives, as women, better and this will reduce the issue of being bullied by males in most developmental projects,” she said.
Mpopoma resident Alison Ndlovu said most organisations were uplifting the girl child, while neglecting boys.
“Most organisations have been uplifting girl children, hence neglecting the boy children, making it hard for them to have a better life, as most focus is shifted towards girl children. We need to correctly address the issue of empowerment as this will lead to the other side being disadvantaged, as a lot of programmes focus on uplifting one group,” she said.
Ndlovu said there was a need for balanced opportunities in society so that development and growth are achieved.
- R. Kelly sentenced to 30 years in sex trafficking case
- In Full: sixteenth post-cabinet press briefing June 14, 2022
- New-look Beitbridge border impresses financiers
- Abwa commissions milk plant
Keep Reading
"We appeal to organisations to cater to elderly widowers as they cater for the younger widows because they also have social and financial needs in their survival," she said.
Social activist Andrea Banda said in the last meeting males said most issues to do with gender focused on women.
“In our last session with males, they raised concern that issues which deal with gender-based violence are focusing more on women, so that needs to be addressed as it makes males more vulnerable when it comes to cases of gender-based violence, hence leading to suicide among them,” Banda said.
