Empowering women through technical training

Hon Grena Gambatula Nkhata - MP for Kasungu North East, Malawi

Victor Luwambala - Technical Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training
Authority (TEVETA)
Summary
Millions of rural women in Africa earn small amounts of extra income for their families
through petty trading. However, when it comes to technical and vocational training to run
small businesses, women are often sidelined in favour of men. In Malawi, a technical training
organisation, T!TA, is offering women the chance to learn more advanced s"ills,
including those typically associated with men, such as welding and fabrication. And the
organisation has been wor"ing with a local female M#, who is passionate about improving
the access of women and girls to training and microfinance. xcello $idana reports,
spea"ing to the M# herself and a T!TA centre manager.
Suggested introduction
#etty trading of food and other items is an essential source of money for most rural families,
and much of this is done by women. %ut when it comes to running more profitable
businesses, it tends to be men that are first in the &ueue for training and support. However,
in the constituency of 'asungu (orth ast, in central Malawi, one female M# is wor"ing to
change that.
Hon )rena )ambatula ("hata believes strongly in the potential for women and girls to run
successful, profitable businesses, if they are given training and financial support. *ecently
she has been wor"ing with a technical training organisation, which encourages women to
identify viable business ideas and provides support to get these businesses up and running.
xcello $idana met her recently, and began by as"ing why training and support for female
entrepreneurs is so important.
+, I( -In fact it is very important .
+, /,T . communities and the country as a whole.0
1,*ATI/( 23240
Suggested closing announcement
!ictor 5uwambala of Malawi3s Technical, ntrepreneurial and !ocational ducation and
Training Authority, "nown as T!TA. He was spea"ing to xcello $idana.
For further information
!ictor 5uwambala 6 vluwambala7tevetamw.com
Making the most of this interiew!
+ontact a local technical training institution and learn more about training opportunities for
women. 8hat changes 9if any: are happening in the types of training available to women;
8hat s"ills should women focus on in order to generate greater income in future;
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Empowering women through technical training
Hon Grena Gambatula Nkhata - MP for Kasungu North East, Malawi
Victor Luwambala - Technical Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training
Authority (TEVETA)
"ranscript
Nkhata In fact it is very important to empower women in development. As you "now,
in most cases women they are the ones who are the custodian of the home
and when a woman is empowered it means she is "nowledgeable enough as
to what she should do for her family. ?o empowering a woman means even
empowering the whole house and that is the husband and the children.
Zidana And what actiities are you offering wo!en in this constituency"
Nkhata In this constituency in fact we have started with a group of women, about @=
of them at (gwata Trading +entre that have been trained in ba"ery.
Zidana #hat are you doing with girls"
Nkhata In fact with girls we are having already a programme and I have already
started collecting data from the whole constituency of the girls who maybe
have reached Aorm Two, they have B+ 9Bunior +ertificate xamination:. I
want to ma"e sure that they should also get such type of training "nowing for
sure that when we train a girl we train the whole nation. I always remind them
not to shy away. They should come forward for them at least to get any other
training that they can get so that they are economically empowered. That is
what we want in this constituency.
Zidana And these days !oney is difficult to co!e $y%
Nkhata Ces.
Zidana &ow do you !o$ilise funds to support the progra!!es that we hae lined up
for wo!en in this area"
Nkhata 8e have to ma"e sure that we lin" them to these micro financing
programmes so that they can get loans from those. And in fact very soon we
will start a village saving ban" so that we can mobilise the ladies and then
contribute the little that they can have, so that after that they can start doing
something very, very great. That is what I am trying to thin" of and do with the
women in this constituency.
Zidana 'astly what adice can you offer to wo!en who are also participating in
politics to !a(e sure that deelop!ent, especially wo!en are e!powered in
this"
Nkhata In fact what I can give as an advice that we should have love for the women.
8e should care for our fellow women whom we see to it that we are
representing but they cannot ma"e it. 8e should not sideline them in the
activities that we are doing. ?o we should ma"e sure that they participate fully
so that they can be also, their lives can change. ven that is when we can
even achieve the M1)s li"e healthwise, maternal and what have you, if we
can empower these women. ?o we should not sideline them.
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Zidana )o deelop!ent starts with wo!en"
Nkhata xactly, without a woman there is nothing.
#idana )o what (ind of support and e!power!ent hae these wo!en $een gien"
To find out, * isited an organisation called TEVETA which proides training
on ocational and technical s(ills% Victor 'uwa!$ala, the 'ilongwe centre
!anager, e+plained to !e why training for wo!en and girls in practical,
$usiness s(ills is so i!portant%
Luwambala Cou agree with me that all along issues of technical and vocational training
were male dominated, but there is a deliberate policy for us to show that
women are also involved in vocational and technical education, and it is for
this reason that we have found it necessary to wor" with Honourable )rena
)ambatula ("hata to actually empower women in her constituency, in terms
of vocational training and entrepreneurial s"ills.
Zidana ,o you thin( you hae !ade the right decision"
Luwambala 8e thin" we made the right decision. /ne thing that maybe has to be borne in
mind is that when Hon ("hata visited our place she actually had a list of
possible courses that she wanted us to implement or facilitate in the area. %ut
what we told her was that we do not ta"e ready made "ind of interventions.
8e would li"e to get the needs expressed by the beneficiaries. ?o what we
did was to visit all the areas, interacted with the groups of women and got
information direct from them about the "ind of technical and business s"ills
that they needed for them to be empowered. ?o we are wor"ing on what the
women demanded and we feel it is the best way because we are actually
addressing the felt needs of the communities.
Zidana Hon )ambatula mentioned of ba"ery, you are very sure that this came from
the women themselves;
Luwambala This came from the women. Aor your information on the list that Hon
)ambatula ("hata brought to our office, the issue of ba"ery was not one of
those that was appearing. %ut when we shed some light on what we had
done elsewhere, the women found ba"ery business as one of those viable
ones. And for your information within that very area we also had a course in
welding and fabrication and we made it a point that amongst those ta"ing part
in that course, we placed emphasis of involvement of women or indeed young
ladies. Cou appreciate and maybe agree with me that economic activities
involving women are &uite few and many of them I thin" involve petty
businesses. 8e would want to ta"e them a bit higher and be involved in those
"ind of enterprises that will give them the higher income.
Zidana )o we !ust $eliee that &on -rena -a!$atula N(hata has chosen the right
procedure of e!powering wo!en"
Luwambala ?he has followed the right procedure. And with that "ind of intervention you
can actually see that they wanted to prove a point, that all along women were
neglected or overloo"ed in terms of participation in economic activities. %ut
these "ind of interventions are bringing that awareness that they can e&ually
contribute to the development of their families and in turn you would see their
areas developing and in the end you will be tal"ing about development of the
entire nation.
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Zidana )o here is a wo!an who is a politician $ut also choosing to $e e!powering
her fellow wo!en% #hat did you thin("
Luwambala This is something good. An M# who has realised that empowering women is
&uite important. ?he Dust has not sat bac" to say, -/', I am here, I am in
power.0 ?he has thought of the ordinary woman in the village who has limited
access to information, limited access to resources to actually ma"e sure that
they are assisted and they "now where to go to get assistance and that they
can also be part and parcel of the development of the communities and the
country as a whole. End of trac(.
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