Email: info@.arbutuscentre.org.za | Web: www.arbutuscentre.org.za
We often deal with women empowerment in projects with a misplaced sense of responsibility:
the responsibility to empower women. It is a
very presumptuous approach. In reality women
empowerment is really about women empowering
themselves. Our role is to support them, speak with
them, challenge them and equip them. But they are
the true actors of their story, not us.
The initiative
and will to change must come from the women
themselves. That is the strength underpinning the
whole process of women emerging from a passive
condition to an active one. The principle should
always be: by the women, for the women
WORKING WITH LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS
Working with stakeholders of the community is an important and sensitive phase of activation. It can also be one of the longest phases of the project as it takes time and perseverance to know, understand,
,interact and convince communities to
adopt new ways of thinking and living. For successful activation of women empowerment, three groups are critical, women themselves, as we saw in the previous part, men, of course, but also...
various sub groups and other influential stakeholders within
the community.” In this section, we share our field experiences as to how these interactions can be made productive for the project’s societal impact.
