4 women hoist Eswatini flag
MBABANE – Four outstanding women in the country have been honoured for going above and beyond to improve the lives of women and children in communities.
The women are; Bongekile Shiba, Founder and Director of Techno Friends Eswatini; Nonhlanhla Dlamini, Executive Director of Swatini Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA); Yael Uzan Tidhar, Executive Director and Co-founder of Likusasa Letfu Youth Centre for Employment and Colani Hlatshwako from the One Billion Rising Organisation.
They were recognised by the Every Girl Wins Institute from the United States of America during the celebration of the ‘International Every Girls Wins Day’, where over 35 individuals worldwide were honoured.
The event was held a week ago. The International Every Girl Wins Day is a special virtual black-tie occasion, celebrating female empowerment. This year marked a four-year milestone of recognising remarkable individuals making a positive difference in their countries.
In the past three years, Eswatini has been one of the countries where outstanding individuals who have shown a level of integrity and honour in their labour have been honoured.
Empower
According to an Eswatini Representative, who serves at the Every Girl Wins Institute International Committee, Dudu Mary Dube, the four awardees displayed exemplary leadership to empower women and children, hence the award for 2023.
Dube is also the first liSwati to receive the International Every Girls Wins ‘Unsung Shero Award’ and the Founder and President of a non-profit making organisation, Marydee Isibuko Serenity Foundation.
She said: “On International Every Girl Wins’ Day, we stand with all females for freedom and equity. The Founder and CEO of Every Girl Wins Institute, Professor Christine Kozachuk created this event to inspire the world to accept all females as equals; to stand as one to celebrate our most significant asset, our female hood.”
Shiba won the Dr Dorcas M Juma Unsung Shero Award. This prestigious award recognises a woman who goes above and beyond to improve the lives of women and children in her community. She is the founder and director of Techno Friends Eswatini, an initiative aimed at helping children acquire digital skills by introducing them to platforms where they use computer programming skills to create interactive stories, games, animation stories, art and more under her guidance online over the zoom app.
The programme helps children to think critically, creatively, solve problems, exercise logic and work collaboratively with others. She also encourages and empowers girls and boys with information, communications and technology skills to create computer science projects that can solve a problem in their environment.
Meanwhile, SWAGAA’s Dlamini received the Dr Fidelia Galon Pioneer Stateswoman Award.
The award recognises a female trailblazer that has paved the way for females in government and who has changed the laws in their country for females’ rights. She lobbied for change in the handling of survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) and that yielded positive results through the establishment of the children’s court, one stop centre and the Domestic Violence and Child Protection
Unit within the police.
Dlamini was also part of the team that drafted the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Bill which is now an Act. She is a former Member of Parliament (MP) who was most vibrant. She was Chairperson of the Health Portfolio Committee. Whilst in Parliament, she received an award from the Family Life Association of Swaziland (FLAS) for being an advocate for Sexual and Reproductive Health.
Likusasa Letfu’s Tidhar also won the Dr Ebere Nweze Woman of Worth Award. This award recognises a woman who knows her worth and is positively impacting women in her community. Yael is a professional in the field of international social development. She focuses on empowering the youth with the sincere tools that they need to make meaningful changes in their lives and communities. Her work focuses on participatory methods where all people are development partners. She has a business and project management background. Through Likusasa Letfu Youth Centre for Employment, many unemployed young people in Eswatini are equipped on life skills.
Recognises
One Billion Rising also won the Dr Carolyne A. Opinde Guiding Light Award.
This award recognises a female-founded organisation advocating and making a difference in the lives of women and children in their community.
One Billion Rising campaign Eswatini has currently established 25 GBV community circles. The GBV community circles are aimed at creating safe space for developing community-based protection strategies, which means working with community members to identify challenges and problems around safety and explore ways to address them.
This approach recognises that some GBV-related problems, such as domestic violence, women’s rights violations, family disputes and child marriage, were rooted in social norms that could only be transformed from within the community. The group discussions provide an opportunity for communities to critically reflect on these issues and on their role in preventing such violence.