Her way: A podcast with stories to uplift women

“Hi there and welcome. We are project girls for girls and this is our podcast…” A vibrant instrumental ushers you into the Project Girls4Girls (G4G) very first podcast of “Her way.

The episode hosts Diana Ninsiima Kibuuka, a team leader of Project Girls for Girls, a corporate, tax and project finance expert and Sigrún Ingibjörg Gísladóttir, a co-director of Project Girls 4 Girls in Iceland and also an attorney and a partner at Réttur-Adalsteinsson & Partners, the leading Human Rights firm in Iceland.

Her way podcast

In celebration of Women’s Day, Project Girls 4 Girls Uganda, an international non-governmental organisation launched the Uganda and Iceland partnership Podcast dubbed Her way podcast at Fairway Hotel, Kampala.

 The podcast is meant to mentor women in their career environments. The project will bring forth outstanding women from Iceland and Uganda to discuss and share their experiences on career, culture and leadership.

Diana Ninsiima Kibuuka, the country lead at Project Girls 4 Girls Uganda, noted that Her Way Podcast will provide a platform for women to create positive change and nurture leaders.

“We intend to groom women leaders who can drive action and foster women to create a legacy in the spaces they occupy. We help women develop a strong sense of self-esteem and boost confidence in their abilities,” Kibuuka says.

According to Solaire Munyana, Her Way Podcast producer, also a television and film producer, the unique thing about the podcast is that it is not preachy in any way.

Perks in the project

Munyana says joining G4G back in 2019, she found interesting stories from women who had once thought their stories were not worth being told. She related to those stories.

“Joining G4G encouraged me not just to get in front of the camera but also behind the camera, learn how to tell stories, write scripts, and learn how to produce, edit and engage with the audience,” she says.

Through the podcasts, leadership journeys of established women from politics, business, education, sports, arts and culture domains are told to inspire and mentor young girls to take on leadership roles. “We also support women on leadership journeys with skills to enable them achieve their objectives,” Munyana says.

Courses

Kibuuka mentioned that Project Girls for Girls has a mentorship course, which involves six modules including building trust, making courageous leaders, art of communication, the art of negotiation, public leadership, ethics and values.

“More than 2,000 women have been mentored and 350 mentors trained yielding to great leaders such as the 87th guild president of Makerere University, Shamim Nambassa,” she mentions.

Sharon Tumusiime, a now G4G mentor, as well as an author, says: “We are shaping the lives of impoverished women and girls for powerful futures and encouraging them to transcend the limits of society.

The podcasts are enriched with educational and economic development skills to support girls to develop their careers and build economically stable lives,” Tumusiime says.

Beneficiaries

Some of the women who have featured on the podcast since its inception (2020) include Esteri Tebandeke, famous for Queen of Katwe, a filmmaker, actress, dancer and visual artist, Barbara Ofwono Buyondo (PhD), chairperson of Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Limited (UWEAL). Others are Philipa Ngaju Makobore, an electrical engineer and head of Instrumentation division at the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), Victoria Ssekitoleko, former Minister of Agriculture, and Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir,  the current minister of Science, Higher education, Industry and Innovation in Iceland, among others.

About Her Way Podcast

The Iceland and Uganda partnership Podcast comprises interviews of credible and successful women from Iceland and Uganda discussing their career, experiences, challenges and lessons on leadership. The lessons therein shed light on common challenges women face across cultures.