MY STORY

My name is Florence Maphosa. The supposed definition of my name are "flowering" or "in bloom". I am a vibrant lady who always strives for equality and fairness of people especially women and children. my star sign is LIbra (though I don't believe in this totally), which is well known for balance and fairness. in my space I like people to be treated with respect and dignity without any prejudice. i get along with different types of people, regardless of race, creed, economic or social standing.I am a person who does not leave issues for too long without stating out my peace of mind though at times I tend to be brasque and merciless if the situatin calls for that and the truth needs to be told. this has at times resulted in people misunderstanding me. i believe in peace and harmony in the family and always want to work in an orderly environment though may a time people take me as someone who is too strict and bossy.

When I was growing up in Zimbabwe I realised that women were not given a full platform to express themselves and were marginalised in a number of ways. my parents taught me to be independent from a young age and I remember my father telling me and my sisters to learn to stand up on our own instead of waiting for someone to do that for us.He would actually put us under a strict routine of studying hard and being accountable for everything that we did in life. At that time I used to think that he was just overdoing it and treating us rough but now that I am grown up and have my own children I understand. the other thing that he taught me was to be independent and self reliant, and now after my marriage failed I found myself being able to stand on my own and taking care of my children. he taught me to be strong and not to rely on anyone except if that someone can give me sound advice. Right now if I look back at my life, I see that he gave me a good lesson to be treasured. I am able to choose friends and avoid gossip buddies becaus according to him, I quote, "....small minds talk about people and big minds discuss business and matters of substance". though he is late now sometimes i find myself thanking him post-humously. I am an independent woman now, thanks to him.

What led me to VOF
What led me to this online community is what I discovered here in Swaziland concerning women. i wanted to find people that I can talk to and discuss matters at the same level as me and get to learn about the plight of women in other parts of the continent. I found that women in Swaziland are just marginalised. I realised that what i thought was happening to women inzimbabwe was just a small issue. What i am seeing here is uncomparable when looking at the two countries. Women here are treated as second class citizens with no voice of their own even rights to land and property ownership.

My inspiration
what inspired me to join VOF is that it is a platform that can help me help other women. Through VOF I can be able to gain knowledge and be able to improve my writing and journalism skills which might be an addition to what I already have in Education and Training. VOF also gives me a platform to get in touch with other women across the globe. It kind of opens up my mind to a lot of things like getting to appreciate the cultures of other women and situations that they experience in their lives and communities. VOF will help me grow and see the world in a bigger picture because at times if one is not exposed to different aspects of life as VOF does for us one would always think that they know it and have seen it all and at time a burden shared is a burden half solved.

My vision
My personal vision is to see a world full of happy women. A worl without any discrimination of women and equal opportunities for both men and women regardless of age, colour, race or creed. I envisage pioneering a platform where women are able to express themselves without fear of victimisation, a shoulder to lean on for women of all classes and a place where women will find sisters in each other. I feel that VOF will open that for me.