Irene Nabusoba
12 August 2008
Kampala — FOR many, the kind of environment they grow up in determines their careers. And quite often, their fight is to better the world they have lived in. But this is different with Dr. Hilda Tadria's story.
Tadria, in her sixties, grew up in the 'best of homes' as she puts it, and is fighting to ensure that other girls, have a similar opportunity.
Through the Mentoring and Empowerment Programme for Young Women (MEMPROW), which is her brain-child, Tadria believes the fight for gender equality will be advanced.
Started in January this year, MEMPROW launched its first two-week empowerment training programme for 38 female students from Kampala International University (KIU) recently. It closes tomorrow. The programme aims to develop the capacity of young women to engage more actively in the transformation of their socio-economic status in an environment based on respect for women's worth, rights, empowerment and gender equality.
"MEMPROW is a response to the need for young women to develop personal empowerment skills and change their negative images of social worth, as a way of enhancing their opportunities in a competitive environment," Tadria says.
"These are positive ways of expanding choices and opportunities for young women," she adds.
She says their focus is on capacity building for social survival and self-knowledgeâ-‚of women between the ages of 16 and 25 years. "I believe that understanding one's self-worth will ultimately contribute towards the expansion of socio-economic as well as leadership choices and opportunities.
The programme will focus on creating a strong network of inter-generational mentoring partnerships for women in different socio-economic environments.
The KIU initiative is one of MEMPROW's activities that include two-week social survival skills training programmes, gender dialogue network programmes, and a gender awareness development programme for participating institutions.
Tadria says she has picked young students because "we have focused on rural women, school drop-outs and those in politics, yet there are many being made pregnant because of fees."
Formerly an Associate Professor at Makerere University and regional gender adviser at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Tadria says MEMPROW is coming at her dusk to pass on what she has learned, to the new generation.
"I have been doing this kind of work for 30 years. My mother was a community development worker in the Mothers' Union and she used to take me along to work with women groups in my holidays. I remember holding women's hands to teach them to write and read English," she says. "I grew up knowing that empowering women was my cause. I'm now a socialist in gender work.
"Look at domestic roles and how they have been defined; sexual gender-based violence... I also see families breaking up because the woman has not borne a baby boy, girls thinking they can't do sciences because they have been made to believe so. I may not change everything but I have the passion to make this world a better place for our girls," says the mother of two.
"We just want equal opportunities. Let girls be kids as much as boys. Treat them equally," she says.
Born to George William and Justine Kabushenga, Tadria studied at Kabale Junior School before she joined Gayaza High School and later Makerere University. Tadria got a First Class degree in Sociology at Makerere University, which earned her a scholarship to Cambridge University in the UK for her Masters.
"Girls' education was not much valued then, but my parents were empowered. As the only girl among four boys, my mother sent me to boarding school at the age of five, thinking I could not have the same opportunity to study like my brothers. She thought dad would not support me but she was wrong. He knew that it was the brain that mattered. I was sent back home because I was too little," Tadria recounts.
"There was nothing to fight for in our home. We were treated equally, regardless of sex.
"We impart social skills because there are a lot of bad things happening to girls. There is a lot of violence, sexual abuse We need them to have social intelligence and differentiate between perspectives and realities," she says.
She adds that in Uganda, most of the gains in gender equality and empowerment are a result of women activism, hence the call to network with the young generation. "We have discovered that sexual abuse is going to educational institutions because we have not discussed it openly."
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