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Overview
of the SiMuka! Campaign
The
Women's Trust
May 02, 2013
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Who is the Women's Trust?
Let me start
by saying that TWT is a not for profit organisation working for
the empowerment of women (both young and old) in leadership and
decision making to enable them to fully participate in national
development processes.
Our vision is
a world in which men and women participate equally in decision-making.
Our mission is to expand opportunities and capacities of women and
organizations to engage in transformational leadership for equality.
Our mandate
is to contribute to a better society for women where there is justice,
mutual respect, valuing of every individual no matter their status,
political, religious or sexuality. We focus on elevating the status
of the woman. We do not apologize that we are a feminist organisation.
We use a rights based framework and a feminist framework of analysis
to empower women, demand and protect the rights of women. Our focus
is on women but we do work with men to the extent that they are
duty bearers and our stakeholders.
We work with
a network of organizations that we work with which includes community
based organizations, local authorities, parliamentary women's caucus
and women's wings of political parties - we understand there are
currently 25 registered political parties but our work is within
the confines of the three parties to the Global
Political Agreement. On the ground our work is made possible
by community facilitators and young women leaders in the 7 provinces
that we are active in. We also work with our alumni of our leadership
programmes as well as tertiary institutions.
The
campaign
In 2007 - 2008 TWT ran the Women Can Do It! Campaign which raised
the visibility of women during the elections. The WCDI campaign
contributed to increased public acceptance of women as leaders and
saw a 50% increase in the number of women that contested
Parliamentary seats in 2008 compared to 2005 this resulted in
a 53% candidacy of women in the Parliamentary and Council Elections.
The WCDI! Campaign
was based on a global campaign by the same name with its origins
in the Norwegian labour party women's movement and the Norwegian
Peoples Aid and has been used in over 25 countries worldwide. It
is a global tool for advocacy in the form of a thinking framework
that can be used for GBV, women's unpaid work or women in politics
amongst others. TWT located this campaign within the Human Rights
Based approach and translated it into a digestible message namely
'Give us a chance to lead 'The aim was to raise women's confidence
in their own abilities and motivate them to participate, in large
numbers in the electoral processes at all levels.
Our strategies
included radio debates, a dedicated call line SMS and telephone
responses, TOT, media orientation, jingles, TV programmes, leadership
diary, billboards, Women's (Skills Power Attitude!) SPA corner,
pamphlets among others.
The SiMuka!
Zimbabwe Women Get Counted campaign is based on the momentum and
women's mobilisation of this campaign and is building on these successes
with a specific focus on encouraging women to get up and participate,
to have their say and use their voice. SiMuka! Zimbabwe as read
is a social visioning tool that informs our campaign. While the
WCDI campaign focused on the woman to get into politics, SiMuka!
is focusing on women amasses the woman the electorate.
According to
the 2012 Zimbabwe Census We are 53 percent of the population, and
with this majority voice women CAN influence the direction of critical
policies important to us - like good service delivery in health,
social amenities, schools, economic security and empowerment and
personal security from all forms of violence. Also retirement security,
job opportunity, good schools and housing costs are all of HIGHER
importance to women.
The objectives
of the campaign are three-fold:
1. To encourage women to register
2. To encourage women to vote and
3. To encourage women to vote for other women
Like before
we will use different strategies to mobilize and engage women with
our message. We need you the media to have a greater reach.
SiMuka! Is a
simple message that cuts across the divide of women, we know women
are not homogeneous so we are targeting everywoman old young, rural
urban ALL the nuances for the sophisticated SiMuka means: Get up
and wake up - Arise and shine. We are saying women stop complaining
have your say be responsible get up and participate - Pinda pindawo,
kuluma makazana. Pakama Zimbabwe, SiMuka! Zimbabwe.
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