The issues women want government to prioritise

Agnes Nandutu Speaker People’s Parliament at NTV. Courtesy photo

FROM THE WOMEN. On every International Women’s Day, government comes up with a theme that is probably agreed upon in some boardroom. However, what do the women really think should be addressed? Gillian Nantume spoke to a cross-section to glean their ideas.

Agnes Nandutu
Speaker, People’s Parliament, NTV
“This government has done a lot to help women with education. However, this is not enough. They have neglected rural women who are upholding the economy because they are the ones who till the land to put food on our tables. What the rural woman needs is economic empowerment. This is a woman who will go to dig just to get money to buy an exercise book for her child. So what if we have many women representatives in Parliament or a Speaker who is a woman? What have they done for the rural woman, except exploit her for votes?”

Gloria Kambabazi
Administrative Assistant
“Our most pressing issue is security, especially now that rapes, kidnapping, assaults are rampant. It has got to a point where women need to learn the art of self-defence for their own security. Domestic violence and trafficking of women and girls within Uganda and across the borders is also something the government should look into seriously because these females are later forced into commercial sex and slavery. Availability of water is also a problem because in my community, in Nakasongola, women and girls have to go to the wells every day to fetch water for home use.”

Sheila Kawamara Mishambi,
Human rights activist
“Women are more insecure now and prone to all kinds of abuse because they are an easy target for anyone who wants to cause insecurity. Even those who are supposed to protect us put the blame on us. When a woman is murdered, you will hear police saying it was because she was moving out late, dressed indecently, or she was a prostitute. When women were murdered in Entebbe, I was very disappointed that when the President visited the area, he repeated his usual statement of installing CCTV cameras. Now he is talking of getting people’s DNA.”

Josephine Nanyanzi
Housewife
“I think the government should improve its attitude towards rural women and the urban poor women. These women need to be uplifted because they are treated badly by the society. When their husbands leave them, they have the burden of bringing up the children. Some of them are taking antiretroviral treatment and they suffer from depression. These women need some form of help because we are living in a hard economy and some of them are forced to do things they would not normally do, such as selling their bodies or joining criminal gangs to be used to lure victims.”

Salima Nakiyemba
Rural farmer, Busowera, Iganga District
“In this village, besides subsistence farming, women are rearing cows and goats to pay their children’s school fees. However, our husbands are now leasing the land to sugarcane companies which pay them Shs100,00 per year for an acre. Few women see that money. Government has ignored rural women because even the women’s groups we have are not registered so we cannot target poverty reduction schemes. Government should find something for us to do so that we are not idle, waiting for men to buy every necessity in the home.”

Winnie Ndagire
Receptionist
“The voice of women has not yet been heard by the government. We are not considered to be first-class citizens of this country because we do not have security. Women are battered in their homes and the cases they report to the police stations are not really investigated to a conclusion. Women in the rural areas are living in poverty yet their men leave them with the responsibility of looking after the children. Government should come out with a strong stand against men who make women pregnant and deny the responsibility of taking care of the children.”

Faith Murket
University student
“Government has good policies towards women but implementing them is a problem. They are trying to get more girls to school and more of us have been able to enter university because of those 1.5 (affirmative action) points. I calculated my points and I realised that if I did not have those additional 1.5 I would not have been admitted. However, government has failed to curb traditional norms that degrade women. For instance, how can an MP say that women should be beaten? Some girls at school even supported him. Urban women are empowered, but who will shield the rural woman?”

Sex worker
“I have been a sex worker for six years and I have discovered that many young girls go into prostitution because they do not have opportunities to do honest work. I appeal to government to help us by setting up institutions where we can learn skills that will empower us economically. I see so many young women here, taking drugs and selling themselves because they do not have any other option in life. They should also go further to give capital to every girl who completes the course so that she can start up a self-sustaining business.”

Joseline Nassuna
Politician
“The government should seriously look into the crime of trafficking young girls. Girls are brought from villages to work as housemaids in town but they are not paid. In frustration, they end up being sex workers. The urban poor women should be facilitated to train in skills that can help them create employment for themselves, and give them capital to start those businesses. When women are economically empowered, they are not a burden on the government because they can pay for their health needs and pay their children’s school fees.”

Rhoda Namukhwana
Health worker
“I provide health services to the community in Kimombasa, Bwaise, especially the sex workers. They have unique demands and challenges with sexually transmitted diseases and HIV. Most of them are stigmatised because of their profession whenever they visit government health facilities and because of this, they do not take their antiretroviral treatment as regularly as they should. Instead of neglecting them or wishing them away, government should recognise that these women are human beings, just like other women, and provide them with the services and care they deserve.”