If you doubt that women in rural
areas play a crucial role for the family and community development, you should
have seen my late grandmother Violet Mkisi. May God rest her soul in peace. I real admired
and I still admire her hardworking spirit. And if there is something I will
take from her it is this, she was spirited towards hardworking. And I can openly say she left an
indelible mark to her family and neighbors.
This is a woman who new that the difference
between successful people and unsuccessful people is how you spend your time
both during the day and at night. No wonder she committed herself to work hard
no matter what. She never missed village community work, unless she was ill. Unlike
my grandfather who would say “hatuwezi
kwenda wote, ukienda wewe nimeenda mimi” literally meaning that we can’t
all go if you go it means I have gone also” .
Taking absolutely total
responsibility of family matters from paying school fees, to health care. Pushing
the wheel forward as she new that life has to be lived like a clock. A clock
ticks clockwise and not otherwise. This wasn’t an easy choice for her but I
learnt soon that she was faced with these choices. And if she never chose to
take the total responsibility, we would have suffered a lot. Thanks my grandma.
And sorry that you had to shoulder all that load alone. I wish I was old enough
to help.
It is from her where I learnt to
wake up at 0500am. She was always the last person to go to bed, but the first
person to wake up. She would wakeup at 0500am, at this time everybody else is
fast asleep, lit the fire at the fire place, prepare for us whatever was
available for breakfast. By 0600am wake up us ready to go to school as she
readies to go to the farm. Going to the farm with my grandfather was a rare
phenomenon.
At a time when my late grandfather Thomas
Msyete. May God rest his soul in peace. Would
go at a local brew joint and spend some hours there, my grandmother just like
many other rural women would be busy doing this and that for her grandchildren,
her own children and her husband. At that age I couldn’t tell. But now I know
that the workload between my grandfather and my grandmother wasn’t evenly
distributed amongst them. From outside people would think my grandfather is the
one who was contributing most to the family, but in actual fact it wasn’t
Thomas but Violet.
Violet my grandmother isn’t the only
unsung heroine, there many of such in rural areas, just like my grandmother,
they are denied most of their rights, including education, to own land. They produce
much, but they have no say on what they produce. They can’t even decide the
number of children they want. Leave alone other conjugal rights.
Rural women just like my
grandmother work in dangerous environment, to some farms aren’t close to their
communities, they go to fetch firewood and water far from communities hence
risking to be raped or harmed in any other way. This is a rural woman. Men,
CSOs, the government need to support these creatures who give and give and give
and keep giving their love to their families and communities. They endure a
lot.
Time to bridge the gap between
rural women and urban women. If the majority of the population live in the
rural area. And statistics tell us that the majority are women. We need to
harness their potentials and channel their potentials to bring about development
for this country. There are so many benefits if the gap between the rural woman
and urban women will be bridged. Such benefits range from health families to
increased family income and community development.
Future development of Tanzania
and any other developing country depends on how we empower women especially
rural women who are the majority. Efforts should be put to educating more goes
who are women to be, as the more educated women/girls a nation have the better
health and fewer children each mother conceives.
October15 is The World Rural Women’s Day, it was celebrated
internationally for the first time in 2008, as a way to honor rural women who
make up a quarter of the world’s population, who in Tanzania contribute to 80%
of food production.
According to United Nations
website rural women play a critical role in the rural economies of both
developed and developing countries. “In most parts of the developing world they
participate crop production and livestock care, provide food, water and fuel
for their families, and engage in off farm activities to diversify their
families livelihoods. In additional they carry out vital functions in caring
for children, older persons and the sick.” Reads part of the UN website.
This day is also important as it
is used to raise the profile of rural women, sensitize both the government and
the public to their crucial, yet unrecognized role and promote actions in their
support.
As we celebrate The World Rural
Women’s Day it’s time to bridge the gap
Author
Kenny Simbaya
Teacher, Journalist, Activist for
youth participation, and a consultant in management and community engagement
My mission is: To live people and organization better than I found
them.
