Challenges and their solutions...???

* What are your challenges and barriers to creating change in your community?

Being young and being a woman in a developing country is a challenge in itself even in this day and age and it is no more different in our community. Its not just the mindset of the men, its also of the women, when you are little your mum keeps you in the kitchen and the boy out, school fees priority is always for the boy if money is an issue in the family and the girl later as its always assumed the girl will get married and be taken care of by her husband.

Those mind sets and stereotypes are the main barriers to creating change in my community. The turn up of women to meetings on development is most of the time at a minimum and if what was discussed or whatever transpired does not make the husband happy then know you will probably never see the women at another meeting.

There is a lot of sensitization talks happening and more and more women are finally stepping up into leadership roles and are also being accepted into leadership positions. The encouragement of girls to go to school, government policies on 50/50 representation of women in positions i.e the parliament is also helping.

I am currently back home in an internet cafe and the person sitting next to me a woman i hardly know has just opened World Pulse. I was shocked. She learned of it from a friend and is currently reading through stories. You can not comprehend how big online communities get - one click, one story and it hooks you for life to that online community and since PulseWire is mainly there to address women issues then the possibility of me overcoming challenges in my community are very high!