Know me for my abilities, not my disability

September 8, 2020BLOG

Valerie Olesia Busaka, is a third-year student at Kenyatta University, pursuing Gender and Development Studies. She is also the Congressperson for Kenyatta University students with Special Needs, a volunteer for the Do It With Boldness Foundation, and an ambassador for the Gifted Community Centre.
She is a fan of sports, adventure and politics. Busaka has been in a leadership role for the last
three years and she is inspired to showcase her leadership capabilities at the national level in the
coming years.

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Raising Awareness and Educating About Women’s Issues Online

September 3, 2020EmpowerHerSegment

Creating a change in our society is strongly dependent on our understanding of the current situation. If we recognise that something is wrong, but we don’t know why or how it came to be, we cannot initiate positive change. Education is the best form of empowerment.

That is why, in the beginning of 2020, Kristina Hemzacek started a project called FemEd – Feminist Education in the Croatian Context, which is intended as a knowledge base of articles on feminism and the women’s movement globally and locally (to Croatia, but also other countries from former Yugoslavia). As part of this project she writes about the history of the women’s movement, different approaches to feminism, and how acknowledging women can have a positive influence on our production of knowledge.

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Rebuilding the Broken Bridges

August 26, 2020EmpowerHerSegment

Winnie Ayieko is the Founder and Executive Director for Do it With Boldness Foundation (DWB). Do it With Boldness (DWB) Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental local organisation duly registered under the Societies Act (Cap 108) of the laws of Kenya in August 2018. The Foundation aims to create a haven for vulnerable children, girls and young mothers, one where they can discover themselves, develop leadership skills, resiliency, enhance their talents as well as gain financial independence through education, mentorship and entrepreneurship training.

She is an Independent Consultant with Master of Business Administration (Human Resource Management) and Bachelor degree in Counseling Psychology who works with vulnerable communities to develop affordable, innovative solutions that raise the quality of education for all through a mentorship approach. She advocates for women’s rights, sexual reproductive health (SRH), menstrual hygiene and gender equality. Winnie has devoted the past 5 years to mentor, train and empower young girls and women in marginalised communities.

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Gender Based Violence during this COVID-19 Pandemic.Part 1.

May 6, 2020Gender Based Violence

Disease outbreaks affect women and men, boys and girls differently, and epidemics make existing inequalities for women and girls and discrimination of other marginalised groups such as persons with disabilities and those in extreme poverty, worse. During this COVID-19 pandemic, where movement is restricted, people are confined, and protection systems have weakened, women and girls are at greater risk of experiencing gender-based violence, and are at the threat for harmful practices including female genital mutilation and child, early, and forced marriages, especially for girls in disadvantaged and hard-to-reach areas and areas where patriarchal systems are very high. DWB is encouraging you to help the victims through the following ways:

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EMBRACING POSITIVE MENTAL ENERGY DURING COVID19 PANDEMIC

April 23, 2020Mental Health

Treat each day as a new beginning. Be the person you always wanted to be. It’s never too late to become that person. Don’t live to solely impress others or live out someone’s dreams. Even if you fail, it will be on your own. Stop Complaining, as it is a waste of the precious time that we have. Life is unfair; it’s short and brutal. We die at the end. Usually, it ends quite badly. Since we all know this, why trouble yourself with complaining? It doesn’t help. It actually makes you feel worse and bothers anyone who listens to you. Accept what you can’t change and spend the time you’ve allotted to complaining toward modifying what you can actually change.

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Empower Her

January 29, 2020Women Empowerment

The Kajiado Mentorship Camp Phase One under the theme #empowerakenyangirl aimed at empowering the rescued girls from 5 different rescue centres within Central Kajiado.The 260 girls aged 7-24 years are survivors of sexual abuse, Female Genital Mutilation(FGM) and early/forced marriages still largely practised in communities such as Maasai Community in Kenya. This camp brought to our understanding that what seems so obvious and so rightful to you is not for everyone out there. We trained the girls about the Sexual Reproductive Health(SRH), life skills and self awareness.It was a life-changing, transformative and inspiring moment.

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Breaking the Barrier

January 29, 2020Women Empowerment

Francis, a third year student pursuing Gender and Development Studies at Kenyatta University and a volunteer at DWB, sadly narrates how gender stereotyping in his culture denied his sisters the opportunity to access education.

“Having been brought up in a patriarchal family with most powers vested on men, I have grown up witnessing a lot of injustices done to women and girls. Most of these injustices are culturally determined. One of the things I have seen and broken my heart is seeing my own blood sisters denied the opportunity to go to school because they are women and according to our culture, women cannot be as brave as men and therefore, educating them will be a waste of resources.”

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Cost of Traditions

January 29, 2020Women Empowerment

It is very painful, yes very painful to see girls of 10years old and below being forced to undergo FGM all in the name of traditions claiming that they are reducing the sexual feeling of the girls. These girls are usually still in primary schools therefore these automatically means that after the practice the girls will be forced to drop out of school and therefore get married at a very young age.DWB Foundation under its program Community Mentorship Camp(CMC) aims at ensuring that the rescued girls become the change agents in the community through various trainings such as life skills, sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) training, soft skills and entrepreneurship training.

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