By:Mutale Chanda, Vice National Youth Chairperson, Zambia YMCA

The Zambia YMCA is one of only two national movements in the Africa Alliance which is led by a woman National General Secretary. Further, two local associations are headed up by women General Secretaries.

In an interview with Mary Mubanga, who manages the Ndola YMCA local association, she pointed out that women are disadvantaged primarily because of the gender roles assigned to them by society and culture. For example, in her culture there is a saying “women should be seen and not heard”. She said that she has experienced a lack of support from society and even sometimes internally in some programmes she has initiated. However, Mary proudly says determination and focus have helped her overcome gender discrimination.

She said gender equality would be understood if people had a better understanding of how to promote the integration of both men’s and women’s perspectives into academic programmes at all levels. Both men and women should be involved in the planning stage, curriculum development and formation of educational gender policies.

The Zambia YMCA is privileged to have as guidelines the Zambia National Gender Policy (from the government), the Zambia YMCA Gender Policy, and the Africa Alliance of YMCAs’ Gender Policy. However, more work needs to be done in the local associations as the policy documents are not understood very well by all members, especially in terms of implementation. Even in terms of representation, which is an initial step towards participation and mainstreaming, she said that at Ndola YMCA, there are only two women on the board, as is also the case on the national board. To Mary, this does not represent gender equality and more needs to be done to bring women into decision-making processes. She is of the view that the general lack of skills in many women has resulted in them being sidelined when it comes to taking up leadership roles. This can be attributed to education, as well as women being passed over for capacity building and training in various institutions and organisations.

One of the ways to achieve gender equality at Mary’s YMCA is using the participatory method in all of the programmes and activities. This entails the involvement of both young men and women in the planning, implementation, management, and monitoring and evaluation of community-based programmes. Workshops on advocacy and gender equality are also organised at the YMCA.

Mary pointed out that generally men and women’s leadership styles are different as men’s style is more autocratic, whilst that of women is more democratic. She gave the example that when it comes to budgeting, women concentrate on educational, nutrition and health matters.
 

“We need to inculcate Christian values and morals in young boys and men. The Bible has all the information we need,” said Mary in response to the question as to what we need to teach our young boys and men for them to see that being a man does not rely on historical male leadership privilege, or on men using force to get their way, or on having multiple sexual partners to prove their masculinity. She also said it’s important to teach girls about stereotypes, and cultural and traditional issues to open their eyes on issues that affect their lives. Education is a liberating tool, but this message should be put across in such a way that boys are not undermined. Girls should be encouraged to take up training in courses that are seen as men’s trades. For example, in carpentry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, etc. We should also strive to impart Christian values and morals, youth development and life skills in young women to empower them for full citizenship.

The male perspective

A female General Secretary would have been frowned upon in the not too recent past, and may still seem strange to some as the YMCA is perceived to be a movement predominantly for men. It is against this background that a key male leader in the Zambian movement was approached for his perspective on women in key leadership positions.

President of the National Board, Pastor Conrad Mbewe ,who is a church Pastor and an engineer by profession, said even though the notion that the YMCA is for men and the YWCA is for women is still being harboured in some quarters of society, the Zambia YMCA has embraced women in all aspects. To this end, he stressed that there are no barriers keeping women out of leadership positions, and it is often the women themselves who tend to shy away from positions of responsibility.

Coming from a strong Christian background, and speaking from a theological point of view, the President stated that men in leadership roles should work with women as partners. He cited the example where the men are the goal getters and women are the keepers, and together they make up the soccer team.

The playing field in the Zambia YMCA has been levelled to attract women into leadership positions. A strong believer and advocate for gender equity as opposed to equality, the President is of the view that women should be in positions of leadership, and appointed to such, on merit. This ensures that having women in key positions goes beyond representation, i.e. not just having equal numbers of men and women in leadership or beneficiaries of programmes. Again this ensures fairness for both men and women.

He stated that even though local associations are alive to gender issues and have created buy in and implementation strategies for the Zambian policies, the movement at national level, through the gender sub-committee is now looking at providing new impetus on leadership on gender implementation, mainstreaming and tackling the issue of masculinity. The President emphasised that gender is not about angry women who feel men are robbing them of their full potential or about forced discrepancies between males and females.

Concerning young boys and men, the President said they should be taught that caring for others, especially their brothers and sisters is extremely important. They should also be taught that a leader should not bark orders, but should instead strive to bring out the potential of others. A home, in his opinion, should be a school where each child is taught what is applicable for him or her at that particular stage of development. Young men and boys ought to learn and practice servant leadership. as exhibited by Jesus Christ.

Theresa Manzi sits quietly, hands clenched nervously between her knees as she glances at me, unsure but ready. We introduce ourselves and I explain that I am meeting with 34-year-old Theresa because of her participation in the Lusaka YMCA’s preschool teacher training programme. This is an initiative designed to improve both the social development of children and the opportunities available to unskilled adults in Lusaka. An initiative that, she believes, has become a bridge to her dreams. Theresa does not linger on her past as she explains the personal ramifications of what I have come to understand about the varying degrees of degeneration and regeneration noticeable throughout Lusaka.

Theresa leans forward, thoughtful, as she tells a story heard too many times across the continent. A woman, born into a country so torn between instability, growth and debt that even in peace the difficulties experienced by her female citizens are deep, continuous, and seemingly insurmountable. At 16, she met her future husband and fell pregnant soon after. Out of necessity, she dropped out of school in Grade 10 to marry her daughter’s father, a man who would later prove to be an unsupportive partner and parent. Two years later Theresa gave birth to her second daughter, and found herself overwhelmed with the harsh reality of trying to support her children with no skills or income. Despite attempts to improve her opportunities through casual work and a computer course, stable income remained elusive. She was often left without a home, income, or the support of her husband, whose own business was regularly not profitable enough to support them or pay for their children’s school fees. Even when her husband was earning well, he treated her and the children dismissively, occasionally throwing her out of the house, and leaving her with no choice but to rely on family and friends for survival. Theresa pauses for a moment, and then says with determination, “I’m trying to be stable – to be totally financially stable on myself.” It is not ego, or a desire to accrue wealth that Theresa speaks of as she says this, but the simple need to ensure her children have a stable home and are able to remain in school and later go to college.

She cocks her head to the side, lifting her chin with growing confidence as I ask how she faced these difficulties. For the first time she smiles broadly, her soft shy smile giving way to the source of the inner strength she has drawn from over the years. Her hands lift, a graceful gesture as she says simply, “I said to myself, ‘Lord, you’re going to help me ’cause I need to do this.’” The pressure and discomfort in the room leaves as she speaks these simple words, hands more freely giving life to her words now, “my greatest desire is to find my own home… to buy a house.”

GENDER FOCUS: ZAMBIA YMCA The Zambia YMCA actively adopts and supports the principles behind the Africa Alliance Gender Policy. This is evidenced by the lead the organisation has taken in gender transformation by appointing Annie Ngwira as its National General Secretary. A gender committee has been established, comprising both volunteers and staff. Although self-identified gaps remain in the gender-related knowledge of volunteers and staff, they feel confident in knowing what is needed to best mainstream gender activities. All programmatic activities of the Zambia YMCA contain gendered dimensions. For example, the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme looks to support the most vulnerable of women and orphans in an effort to ensure their long-term financial wellbeing. The Zambia YMCA has ensured gender considerations take part at all levels of programme development, from policy formulation, to project planning, inception, implementation and evaluation. The Zambian YMCA ensures that training programmes achieve a 50% female participation amongst beneficiaries and in some cases, programmes see a much higher participation, as is the case with the 95% female participation in the preschool teacher-training programme. Currently, the Zambian gender policy has been accepted in principle and awaits ratification at the National Assembly to be held in October 2008.

A simple dream, taken for granted by too many, but precious to someone who has no home and relies on the sometimes begrudging hospitality of family. This became especially true for Theresa when, in 2003, she was diagnosed as HIV-positive while pregnant with her third child. Family and friends “started to shun me” she says quietly. “They told me I reap what I sow, because I married before finishing school, but it’s not like I wanted this to happen.” Theresa talks dismissively about her HIV status now, laughingly surprised I would even ask permission to publish that detail about her.

In the midst of these hardships Theresa found herself joining the Lusaka YMCA’s preschool teacher training project in 2007 after finding it advertised on the walls outside the building. She explains that the project teaches you how to, “take care of children, to watch the behaviour or performance of children in the class and make an effort to find out why it is like that.” It is easy to see though, that the project goes further to provide much needed opportunities for women and men in similar situations as Theresa. On completion of the course, Theresa began work at the Lusaka Islamic Cultural and Educational Foundation (Licef) Primary and Secondary school as a substitute teacher. She stops for a moment, thinking before finally stating with confidence and loyalty, “if it wasn’t for the YMCA, I wouldn’t have that certificate.” A piece of paper, I can tell, that has come to represent a future that Theresa can finally look forward to.

Christine Davis, Media 4 Change