‘Empowered women crucial to economic growth’
Consol Homes Orphan Care has asked men in the country to give their spouses freedom to participate in economic and rights-based self-help groups (SHG) if communities are to register meaningful and sustainable socio-economic development.
The organisation’s executive guardian Philip Chapomba made the remarks last week when he addressed an SHG Approach open day at Mfera Primary School in traditional authority (T/A) Kalolo in Lilongwe.
Consol Homes Orphan Care is currently implementing SHG Approach to empower women and the marginalised to actively participate in economic activities through savings loan initiatives.
Chapomba said through their involvement in SHGs, women gain power, knowledge and capacity to enable them freely own and spend the revenues from their businesses, and become involved in social and structural improvements for their community.
“Unless husbands give their wives freedom to participate in these initiatives, our communities cannot register meaningful socio-economic development,” he emphasised.
SHGA assistant national coordinator for Malawi, Eleazar Mkundika, said the major objective of the initiative is to uplift lives of poor communities by, particularly, providing women living in poverty with tools for making changes in their own lives based on their own priority needs and at their own pace.
He said the approach focuses on poor communities or households and succeeds where beneficiaries are eager to change their social and economic livelihoods by adopting a saving culture.
“What makes us happier is that apart from uplifting their livelihoods, members of the groups are also contributing to the social and economic transformation of their societies by engaging in self-help public works initiatives such as construction of bridges, roads and early childhood development [ECD] centres,” he said.
Village headman (VH) Kambuku of traditional authority (T/A) Kalolo in Lilongwe has spoken strongly against the culture of depending on handouts. n
