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Interview with FAMWZ Director, Abigail Gamanya
Federation of African Media Women - Zimbabwe (FAMWZ)
November 21, 2002

Sixteen years later, the Federation of African Media Women of Zimbabwe (FAMWZ) is undergoing a restructuring and re-evaluation exercise to suit the needs of its target market, women. This is to ensure that whatever programmes taking place are in line with its aims and objectives, notwithstanding modern technological changes which have a direct impact on the organisation's budget. Fokas got in touch with FAMWZ Director, Abigail Gamanya and sought an insight into the pivotal acitivities within the organisation. Below is an extract from the interview.

We understand FAMWZ has gone through a restructuring exercise, can you explain?
As you are aware, organisations are born, they grow, mature and might stagnate. They start doing more of the same thing with no room for wild, interesting and crazy ideas. At some stage therefore there is need to engage in a soul searching process so as to revision.

FAMWZ has been in existence for 16 years and needed to refuel. We needed to look at our programmes and reformulate them to suit the present environment.

I understand the idea to restructure emanated from a workshop held at Pamuzinda in November last year, can you shed more light?
The idea to restructure had already been on the table, but we needed consensus from the media women. We then held a workshop at Pamuzinda where we consulted media women with the help of an organisational development consultant, Hope Chigudu. A positive development from this workshop was the resolution that the media women would spearhead the re-structuring process in the form of a taskforce.

What has actually happened within the organisation?
Through a consultative process by the organisation involving the Secretariat, the Trustees and the media women, it was unanimously agreed that the organisation ceases to be a membership-based organisation. This was because the majority of our members found it difficult to pay membership fees and even those who did not pay up stood to benefit from the services of the organisation. We also took into consideration the ever-rising rate of inflation coupled with the general poor salaries that most women get. Therefore, it only seemed proper that FAMWZ be a service provider for our beneficiaries and taking particular consideration of our primary stakeholder, the media woman.

The other factor was that, media women formed this organisation, but we also felt that our role as the mouthpiece of the women's movement and grassroots women was not being fully realised. Our stakeholders include all sectors of the whole women's movement, higher institutions and others. Because we have done away with the membership, the secretariat is now accountable directly to the Board of Trustees and not through the executive Board, which was made up of members.

In other words, the restructuring started from the top. In the past, media women used to run the organisation but because we re-defined our target group we also had to develop a skills mix within our trustees. The trustees had to be restructured as well to take into consideration the different needs of our stakeholders. The restructuring also saw the recruitment of a new Secretariat. This has further strengthened the capacity strengthened FAMWZ.

I understand that as a result of this restructuring process there is going to be a change of name of the organisation. Can you explain?
Yes, there is going to be change of the name of the organisation and as we are talking right now our papers to change the Deed of Trust and Constitution with lawyers. It was prompted by the fact that we looked at our core business, our constituency and our objective. So to suit the new needs and vision it was inevitable to change the name to be more inclusive of everybody but, putting the media woman, who is the founder member of the organisation at the helm of our activities. The new name will be Women Media Network of Zimbabwe, in short WOMENZ.

Is this newsletter a protest about how women's organisations are covered?
FAMWZ stands to harness the causes of all women's movement in Zimbabwe and can act as their mouthpiece. The women's movement recognises media as a tool in achieving common objectives and the need for all organisations to create strategic links with the media,

Most women's organisations have neither media budgets and media strategies, nor permanent staff available to deal with the media, most media coverage on women's issues are disjointed and do not positively affirm them.

There has been tremendous coverage of AIDS and related issues but this coverage has largely remained negative and in most cases lacking any in-depth, constructive or critical consideration. In some cases, the articles are outright offensive as they seek to apportion the blame of the pandemic on women.

In the same vein, there was also a realization by the organization that not all media practitioners possess the expertise to analyse gender and human rights conventions. However, critical to the organisation was the need for the media to go beyond the gutter type and sunshine journalism when it came to issues such as HIV/AIDS. There is need to also go beyond documenting facts and to start interrogating the gender dimension of the information that they peddle.

It is this area that FAMWZ thought was critical and then engaged media women with the formulation of a newsletter whose basic aim would be to churn out information which will show gender sensitivity while also catering for all sections of society across the board. The ultimate goal will be to interlink the gender concerns in HIV/AIDS and development.

What about the general portrayal of women?
The simple and straightforward answer is NEGATIVE portrayal of women is the order of the day in the media and this evidenced in two ways. The non-coverage of women - women barely feature in the media at all. Also, the way in which women feature in the media. Where women are reported on, they are projected as welfare cases and they need assistance - they have to be provided with water, health interventions, child care facilities for their children and so on. Women are also perceived as vulnerable groups needing protection, this is the image of women as victims of violence, war and so on. Women are also portrayed as physical objects such as beauty queens and models, who appear in adverts of products for sale.

All these images ignore women as intellectual beings as well as leaders, politicians, decision makers, business people. All spheres of authority and power are projected as the monopoly of men. The media therefore entrenches the stereotype of women existing only in the private sphere - helpless and needing welfare - while men are in the public sphere, making decisions for the nation.

What is the relationship of FAMWZ with other media organisations and the government?
FAMWZ has always worked with men and women in the media and I must say that we have a cordial working relationship with the various media institutions namely ZUJ, MISA-Zimbabwe and IJAZ and the training institutions. Now that we have embarked on a new programme, we have had to examine our collaborative relationships to decide how best we can work to serve our target group and the country as a whole. We are happy that at last MISA-Zimbabwe has introduced a gender policy within their organisation and I see ourselves working with them through their membership on a more sustained basis on the gender mainstreaming project.

What is it like working with media women?
It has been a challenge to work first and foremost in a women's organisation and be part of the women's movement. Working with media women and other activists has been an eye opener for me because in the past I was not fully conscious and conversant about issues affecting women. I suppose I was naïve and had blinkers. There are so many socio-dynamic issues that hold the media woman back especially the issue of patriarchy and the fact that the industry is owned and controlled by men.

I must point out that despite all this some media women have excelled and have assumed positions of key responsibility especially at ZBC as well as the within the different boards of the media houses, for example Zimpapers, Kingstons, ZimInd publications, BAZ, ANZ, ZIANA, ZBC and so on. This is one area that the Department of Information has excelled in the promotion of women within the media industry and we must commend them for that.

What the media women need is to add value in the newsroom by having gender analysis skills. Activism amongst media women is very weak and we need to be supportive of each other and lobby for change in society through the media. This can only take place through personal empowerment of individuals and FAMWZ will facilitate this process through gender training.

I am grateful to all the women and men that I have worked and dialogued with since my tenure of office. They have nurtured, mentored and supported me in my work and I am very thankful. I hope we will continue to work together for the success of the organisation and the development of women in our country.

A short background of yourself?
I was born in 1973 in Masvingo. I obtained a National Diploma in Mass Communication and hold a diploma in Public Relations from the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Relations.

I worked as Public Relations Consultant for three years, before joining MISA-Zimbabwe. I worked there for three years prior to assuming this post within FAMWZ.

I am married to Darlington and have a daughter, Ruvarashe.

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