VOF Week 1: ( PulseWire- My Mentor )

Given an opportunity to speak, speak out. To have a voice is something I am not used to. Women in my community are socialized to speak when they are spoken to. So opinions do unexpressed or suppressed to the point where, you don’t have opinions of yourself anymore. Our husbands, chiefs, church elders, teachers and politicians think and speak for us.

I am at times afraid to speak. I have been afraid all my life. Web 2.0 gives me an opportunity to freely speak my mind without fear of victimization, fear of rebuke, fear of a beating or fear of being called an outcast because the purpose of this online community is to speak and be heard.

I have a voice on pulsewire. I matter. It builds my confidence to know that people care to know about my opinions on any postings I create or the journals that I write.

I speak for me.

It heightens my consciousness. I am, more often than not, keen in looking out for issues that need to be spoken about. My level of consciousness about the on-goings in my community has increased tenfold. I have become the ambassador of women without a voice in my community.

I speak for them.

I speak for the victims of domestic violence, the victims of rape, forced abortions, female genital mutilation, poverty, unemployment, gender discrimination, racism, and segregation ... generally, those who are afraid to speak out. I am the voice of my people.

Web 2.0, more specifically, pulsewire, acts as my support system. Negative phenomena are taking place in my community (Nairobi, Kenya) on a daily basis. 1st World, 2nd or 3rd world country, poor or rich, black or white, we as the human race are facing similar issues in varying degrees and they affect all of us in similar ways.

Sharing of solutions is the essence of my participation in Pulsewire. Where else to find determined women, motivated women, strong women, experienced women, survivor women? Where else to find me? I do not have to re-invent the wheel in my community, i just have to apply the advice of women who have paved a way for us,the future.

Mwana Wa Mke