“We can as women” - Women of Udumuka, International Women’s Day 2018

On the day itself, women from all parts of Udumuka village met up with Raleigh volunteers and held a discussion covering various topics concerning the empowerment and development of women who live in rural Iringa, as well as their role in society.

The discussion began with singing and dancing to beautiful songs about women. As the focus group meeting progressed, every woman who attended the meeting had the opportunity to give their opinions and comments about the topics discussed. This meant that we could better understand the various gender equality issues which the women of Udumuka village raised.

Helena Liveli, one of the participants of the discussion said, “women’s unity and solidarity is important”. She believes that it is very important for the women to work together and help each other so that they can achieve their goals.

Women of Udumuka believe that they can do anything when they have enough opportunities. The meeting brought to light the fact that women here feel that nowadays their society knows and understands the importance of women and gives them the opportunities they need to participate in community development.

With regards women’s participation in village, one of the members of the discussion commented, “most of the people in the society understand the importance of women now, so I think we can as women”. In one united voice, all of the women in the focus group echoed, “yes, we can as women”.

Inclusion of all people in the village is vital to the success of the entrepreneurial programme our volunteers are encouraging community members to engage with. Catherine and her team will be in Udumuka until 25th March at which point they will take time out to review their progress in the village so far.

You can see further videos and images from the focus group on our social media pages (Instagram and Facebook).

Words by Catherine. Images by communications officer Rebbie Webb.