Leading from a female frame of reference
“The stone that the builder refuse will always be the head cornerstone”.
Living in a community where women are regarded as powerless but now since I started working at Life savers Foundation I am regarded as the head of a community.
“Organisational work has changed my life for better, with the help of Funds such as this Gender Links Rapid Response I am now a recognised community-based worker. People ask for help regarding their social problems even when I am not at work I am always helping community members to deal with their issues”
Learning is something that never ends a we learn something new each and every day of our lives. As an organisation manager I have learnt a lot with working with people in the community but the most important thing I have learnt came about when I started working with the Social worker we have at the organisation. Many skills of working in a Victim empowerment Program (VEP) are difficult to acquire but with the little processes we knew as an organisation we managed to work through many cases but now with such a dedicated worker I have learnt many social science skills that one needs when working in a sensitive environment such as this.
The community believe in us more because with the Life Savers Foundation and Gender Links in support I have managed to provide them with the little information to help them deal with certain issues they are facing during this Global Pandemic era. The Corona Virus has put things at a standstill but with Gender Links Rapid Response grant, Life savers managed to Work during these dangerous times to ensure that people in our community are safe and know that the issue relating to Gender based violence are being attended to even during this time.
Being married in a Chief’s Family and working in an organisation where I am in the front line to help people I have managed to get the respect from my peers in the community and to give my family a good legacy that they have to live on. Gender Links is now helping build the relationship with more people in the community as I am in the frontline making sure that issue relating to women being victims of Violence at home and in the workplace are being dealt with. Women have being overlooked for a long time but changes are starting to come in our community that is why for the past years I have being able to work in this organisation leading it to many success stories and helping a lot of people at the community level with their issues.
The challenges that we have being experiencing is gaining access to the communities but with the status of coming from the traditional chief’s family people are opening up to us so that we can help the community members in reducing the cases of gender-based violence. For the future we are planning on building on this relationship that we will build during this project so that we can continue working with the communities with ease in the near future. This opportunity is being made possible by the rapid response grant and for that the organisation of Life Saver Foundation is grateful.