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Zambia
Life has become increasingly difficult for more Zambians, especially women. This is because of the combination of the economic, political, social, cultural and environmental factors. Social factors such as violence against women touches the lives of many women. The result is that they live in constant fear of being harassed or killed both inside and outside their homes.
The population of Zambia is 10.8 million and over 50% are female. Despite being in the majority, cultural and traditional practices have continued to reinforce women’s second-class status. Lobola (bride price) is still paid, widows are frequently dispossessed of their property and customary law upholds the notion that a married woman is a minor under the guardianship of her husband.
Women in rural areas continue to carry out most work especially in the agricultural sector. They produce up to 80% of food consumed. Women work longer hours; they also form the majority of subsistence farmers. In our liberalised market economy, price subsidies have been removed increasing the costs; earnings from farm produce have been reduced and for a woman to qualify for credit to start farming or any other activity is almost impossible.
Furthermore, there are “cultural” difficulties women face in getting title deeds to land, as property acquired by the wife is considered a husband’s.
Women in rural areas are mostly affected and so are peri-urban women. Urban poverty has many implications for households. Subsidies removed have resulted in high prices of basic food stuffs. Women spend hours searching for additional incomes such as petty trading.
Poverty among young women is particularly intense, they have less education and fewer chances to skillstraining and better paid work. Some unfortunately resort to sex work. HIV/AIDS prevalence is alarming amongst girls between 16-19 years. Fortunately it has dropped from 25% to 16% but it is still serious.
With the introduction of user fees in clinics and hospitals, poorer women in society are particularly vulnerable. Owing to women’s multi-roles in reproduction and health provision for the family, they are the main recipients of health care. Thus Health Services are vital and a human right.
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), especially women’s NGOs, are focussing on alleviating poverty among some of the most vulnerable groups, particularly women. These have been targeted by promoting self-employment and small enterprise development. The women have always been active in agricultural production and small-scale trading, but the desperate situation has led to some women going into new incomegenerating ventures. In many cases, the economic niche women and girls occupy has prevented them from increasing their incomes. The increasing formal sector makes it necessary for women to access ‘seed’ money and explore innovative methods. Moreover, the traditional skills such as sewing, knitting, crocheting have proven to be unprofitable, as the market is saturated with cheaper second-hand clothes that come from abroad.
Regardless of Zambia being a land-locked country with more than 72 ethnic groups, the country is widely known as a peaceloving nation, caring for other people from neighbouring countries who seek asylum in Zambia, with refugee camps nearly all over the country. Alas, this peace is fully enjoyed by only a minority of Zambians who have wealth, though Zambia as a country has never experienced physical war. There is another war which has affected the majority of women country-wide and this war has been brought about by:-
- Political upheavals and urbanisation which have destroyed the traditional social net of the extended family, resulting in the majority of women living in absolute poverty with no one coming to their aid.
- HIV/AIDS scourge which has led to the increase in the number of orphans and widows with no source of any form of income or proper shelter.
- Economic decline leading to an increasingly high rate of unemployment which threatens the lives of young people – more especially girls – who after completing school have very little or no hope for gainful employment, as they in turn look after their parents according to Zambia’s traditional way of life.
One of the challenges which befalls married women is being forced (or willingly) to follow their husbands who keep moving from one town to another, from rural area to urban area looking for a greener pasture which is hard to come by or non-existent. This makes it very difficult for women to improve their livelihood. These women are unable to control their children as they are out of school and can’t be fully supported and are no longer comfortable in the hands of their parents.
The Government has tried to reduce the high rate of poverty by encouraging the formation of co operatives and women have come up with a policy allowing girls who are pregnant, or have had children, to go back to school to help them secure a better future. They have re-introduced literacy classes to cut down the extent of illiteracy among women. The Government is also encouraging women to form women’s clubs; give them training on how to grow certain crops. The groups are given seeds and fertiliser and do the hard work of tilling the land themselves.
The war (against poverty) is so severe that others have come in. The first lady Mrs Maureen Mwanawasa goes around the country assisting women’s groups in whatever they are doing in a particular community. Other organisations have joined the fight, for example the Non- Governmental Organisations. Some are partly Christian organisations and they give training to women counsellors; some give credit loans after a series of training programmes on how to manage smallscale businesses.
Challenges:
- As the first lady, the wife of the current Zambia’s President goes around assisting women’s groups. Is there a future for the said groups once this term of office comes to an end?
- Groups or organisations like the Christian Enterprise Trust of Zambia (CETZAM) have been giving credit loans to hundreds of women’s groups country-wide asking for weekly payments. In case of adversity in a group member’s family, a majority of women have lost belongings in replacement for the loans, leaving them poorer than before.
The way forward
The only hope for women and poverty is he Church. More and more Church organisations are coming up with programmes to challenge the poverty, though some denominations confine themselves within the perimeters of their Church members. Our Mothers’ Union in the Diocese of Central Zambia, having built a hall in Ndola, is trying to empower women by giving them life skills through training them for six months in designing and tailoring. This Margaret School of Tailoring is expensive to run and we are handicapped through lack of funds despite help from supporters. Some of the women have set up their own small-scale tailoring shops and others look for employment in clothes-making industries which are very few. Our biggest task is to lobby the Government for assistance.
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