By Hon Agnes Kunihira Abwoli, Female Workers MP.
Women empowerment means equipping women with the skills to enable them to make their own choices about their lives in a community that offers equal opportunities to all without any discrimination on grounds of gender, social status, cultural norms, and age.
We all have a responsibility to promote the concerns of women and the girl child in our country because, ‘’when women succeed, nations are more secure and prosperous’’
In Uganda, the fight for women emancipation has been left to the civil society organizations Uganda government, women foundations and associations.
The challenge that affects women and the girl child require a concerted effort. Talk about failed marriages and the effects of living with children with little or no support at all.
Domestic and gender based violence in homes (Approximately 20 girls are defiled daily in Uganda Daily Monitor, Thursday Feb 2013), dehumanizing cultural norms like female Genital Mutilation (FGM), which, in most instances goes unreported, have adversely affected women’s ability to live a dignified life. Remember, what affects a mother, affects the child. So, if we are to save our posterity, we need to create a great deal of awareness on the protection of the rights of women from any form of abuse to all those concerned.
As Women Members of Parliament, through our various women empowerment programs, we offer support to the single expectant mothers (SEMs) as a vulnerable group in society.
We have promoted, advocated and pioneered free infant medical insurance and supported children below 12 months to access free medical protection while their mothers concentrate on basic needs. We have also promoted menstrual hygiene amongst school girls where we have trained the girl child to practically make her own reusable sanitary pads. Menstruation a normal development in girls and women, greatly affects the early childhood stages of girls, especially on how to manage it while at school. In many instances, it has been reported as one of the major causes of school dropouts amongst girls due to hindered confidence visa – as vis girls rights to nature. We believe that any challenge that affects a woman in her childhood, will be consequential in her adulthood.
Furthermore, the increasing usage and untamed access by children to internet and social media has worsened their vulnerability to online sexual abuse orchestrated by pedophiles and has caused unprecedented levels of abuse, through cyber-stalking, cyber-bullying, and blackmail and sharing of pornographic materials.
We need a concerted effort on this UWPA, with support from our partners, are piloting and online child protection campaign (OLCPC) in schools around Kampala on how we can protect our children from online abuse. So, we need support of internet companies, government, teachers, parents and the general public to ensure that children especially the girls are supported and given an opportunity to grow gradually with the utmost levels of discipline and self – assurance without seeking justification from strangers. We advocate for proper and appropriate designated education, accessible health care, in order to successfully navigate the challenges of life and determine their own destiny. This will fulfill our mission as UWPA ■
