Meet Faith, a woman painter

FAITH Hamachila, is a Zambian woman painter, whose pictures recently went viral on social media, with thousands of Zambia users complementing her works and challenging other women to emulate her.

For Faith, who is a teacher by profession, painting is a passion and a survival skill that keeps her going. The Daily Nation recently caught up with her.

Tell us about yourself

Faith: My name is Faith Malungo Hamachila, I am 30 years old. I am a secondary school physical education and music teacher by profession waiting to be recruited.

I chose these subjects because I love being practical and doing things not only give me knowledge but also a skill.

You are a teacher, so why the interest in painting?

Faith: Painting is a passion for me, it’s something that I enjoy doing.

What inspired you to paint?

Faith: I started painting when I was 15 years old. I learnt it from my beloved mother who is a born artist.

My mother can draw, paint and sign write. Being the only girl in a family of five, it’s obvious that I am mum’s dear heart.

She trained me and my siblings on how to paint but out of all, but only I and my immediate young brother took a keen interest in painting, the rest of my brothers are much into sign writing and clay moulding.

I never really took my painting skill seriously because of the way people looked at a woman being a painter and that discouraged me. I worked as a maid, shop keeper and as a radio presenter.

When responsibilities started piling up, I felt I needed to do much more for me to be able to meet my tasks.

So this year in February when I lost my job as a radio presenter at one of the radio stations in Mazabuka, I decided to take up the challenge and moved to Lusaka where I started my painting business and thank goodness I got an overwhelming response.

What motivates you to do this work which is perceived as men’s?

Faith: My Mother inspires me, she is my role model. She brought us up alone as a single mother and trained us to be independent and never lazy.

And so whenever I am doing my work I know for sure that mum is so proud of me and that motivates me a lot.

What message do you have for your fellow ladies?

Faith: To my fellow women and girls, I challenge you to be bold and come out of the shell, gone are the days when the world tasked men to provide and women be on the receiving end.

There is something about everyone that they are capable of doing, you have that talent all you have to do is stand out and embrace it.

There is nothing you can fail to do as a woman all you need is courage to start and just that one step will take you a million miles to success.

Your appeal to Government regarding this work you are doing?

Faith: Government should revisit our education system that gives an impression that one can only make it in life only when they work for someone or the government.

The government should also consider having more skills colleges and universities, the focus should be for example how to make a computer and not how to operate a computer. Let’s be more practical.