VOF Week 2: The Trek to Rediscovering Myself

I was one of the lucky people who were selected to be the first reviewers of the website before its launch. I enjoyed it immensely and it was one that I decided I would want to remain connected to. The website grew to have a lot of interesting groups and sharing information that is vital for ordinary people’s lived realities.

I had not visited the PulseWire website for a few weeks when the announcement for Voices of our Future landed on my desk. Part of it was procastination, and part of it was to do with the maddening frequency of power cuts and the disruptions in internet connectivity. The announcement, calling for applications for the Voices of our Future project, was written in such a way its beckoning was irresistible. I just had to be part of this. Those skills that had lain dormant, and were crying out for release, just shouted louder. I felt this was the time I should speak my word, be heard out there. What a way to say the issues from deep down my heart, while at the same time sharpening my skills.

I am a perpetual volunteer, deriving immense satisfaction from doing things with and for disadvantaged communities. My work has always involved mobilising communities, and as I currently do work around health, HIV & AIDS, and women’s and children’s rights in general; I feel I need more and more information, and also need to share. With the current challenges I face – ever busy, frequent power cuts, limited or no internet connectivity most of the times – I am attracted by the prospect of getting all the information I need, and sharing mine, on one portal. The fact that I had started sharing with the communities using my lived experience as a mother, grandmother, woman, consumer of health services, and woman living with HIV, and seeing the impact and response from the ordinary people I interact with, encouraged me to participate on any platform that encourages sharing information without taking me away from my working base.

The PulseWire website has been very appealing in that it is addressing the issues women are concerned about.