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Celebrating a life - Jennifer Makunike Sibanda
Patricia Anne Made
September 30, 2003

For years, Jennifer Makunike Sibanda dedicated her life to her family, her profession, and to encouraging women and men she knew to reach for the stars. She died suddenly at the weekend in the United Kingdom, after attending a professional meeting in Geneva.

Jennifer, whose abundant spirit and infectious boisterous laugh helped many, was always a pioneer. She believed that women's access to expression in and through the media was pivotal to their empowerment, and although she was one of the few women to reach the senior management levels in the broadcast media of Zimbabwe, she spent a large part of her more than 20 years in the media profession working on developing community media initiatives for women throughout the Southern African region, and in West Africa. Media for development was no longer a dream for Jennifer, but a reality that took shape in the radio projects for women she helped to initiate.

Developing the capacity of media women was her passion. Prior to the 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, Jennifer was among the African women who participated in the UNESCO process on Women's Access to Expression In and Through The Media'. She also helped to co-ordinate in Zimbabwe, some of the earlier research by UNESCO on women's employment patterns in the media. At every meeting she attended, she spoke about the achievements, as well as the needs of women in the media, and of the empowerment that women gained when they had control of the media to use their voices for their families and communities.

As the first executive head of the Federation of African Media Women-SADC, which received support from the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), she worked with media women's associations to reach beyond the capitals and the urban centers, to provide women in rural communities with a voice. These community or development through radio projects were showcased not only within Africa, but also internationally where Jennifer was a sought-ever consultant on media and communications issues. She wholeheartedly gave of her time to the Ford Foundation in West Africa, the Nordic-SADC Institute in Maputo, Mozambique, the Southern African Media Trainers Association, ADMARC, among others.

While it is with sadness that this message is sent to inform all of those who knew her of Jennifer's death, looking back over the years of her living passionately among us, we can also celebrate a woman who believed that while it was important to obtain the professional degrees and achieve, she never forgot that service, encouragement and help to others was the rent we pay for living. Philanthropy does not always have to take place in the form of huge foundations. Jennifer showed us that the abundance of altruism and the spirit of philanthropy resides in the inner spirit of a woman with a courageous heart.

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