By Salome Gangire
Gender Officer for Neno District Council, Gertrude Mphande has hailed the Social Protection Gender Equality and Resilience (SP-GEAR) Project for empowering communities in the district to develop clear household visions and enhance economic resilience.
Speaking on Thursday during a monitoring visit to beneficiaries of the Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP) and other communities under SP-GEAR, Mphande said the initiative is transforming lives by equipping households with planning and decision-making skills.
“Through this project, 12 households have bought livestock such as goats, chickens and pigs as part of fulfilling their household visions,” she said, adding that women are now able to participate in making decisions within their families which was not the case before.
Mphande said under the project, gender champions and senior gender assistants were trained in the Umodzi approach, which addresses gender discrimination norms and practices, pointing out that the training focused on three core topics: gender-based violence, the gender balance tree and household visioning.
“These gender champions and senior gender assistants are expected to cascade the knowledge to community members, particularly SCTP beneficiaries,” Mphande said, noting that each gender champion was assigned 15 beneficiaries to train and out of the 40 gender champions, 37 have successfully reached their targets.
Mphande disclosed that the objective of the training was to reduce gender inequalities within households while promoting economic empowerment through household visioning.
“The strategic objective of SP-GEAR is to support women and girls from ultra-poor households to become economically empowered,” she added.
She observed that the project has significantly improved knowledge on gender-based violence and referral pathways among both SCTP beneficiaries and the wider community.
A gender champion for Chikalema Cluster, Dani Baswell said the visioning training has equipped SCTP beneficiaries with clear goals for their livelihoods, unlike previous cohorts who did not have structured household visions.
“Each household has developed a five-year vision which they are pursuing and some are already making progress towards achieving their goals,” he said.
One of the SCTP beneficiaries, Rozalia Letulo from Chakulembera Village in the area of Senior Chief Dambe expressed gratitude for the training she received under SP-GEAR.
“This training has opened my life. Now, my household has a vision blue-print for what we want to achieve in the next five years. I want to build house with iron sheets roofing and own livestock. I have already started working towards this goal by buying chickens,” she said.
She disclosed that she has joined a village savings and loans group where she is saving money as shares to realise her dreams.
SP-GEAR is a three year social protection programme that empowers most vulnerable women and girls in nine districts of Mzimba, Ntcheu, Balaka, Chikwawa, Mulanje, Mwanza, Neno, Nsanje and Zomba and receives financial support from UNICEF, the European Union and the Government of Ireland.
