As a way of empowering women and a girl child in the society, parents need to be close to their girls, make them feel loved, accepted by talking to them, instill discipline and let them have confidence in whatever they do so that a better generation is achieved.
According to Aghliter Shitandayi Maleya during Usemi wa Kina show on West FM, an empowered woman who doubles up as an empowerment coach and a green energy entrepreneur, an energy that saves firewood, makes improved jikos and builds permanent energy saving jikos, says that a girl child is very delicate and needs to be made feel her worth in the society instead of pushing her away.
Aghliter who schooled at Moi DEB primary school in Bungoma, proceeded to Lugulu Girls High school but later dropped in form three due to lack of school fees, stayed at home for three years doing business that her parents were indulging in before she was taken back to high school at Chakol Girls, says women are special and need to be encouraged in one way or another citing that it was her passion for business and knowing what she wanted in life that made her reach where she is.
She says through leadership, education with business, her empowerment skills have been sharpened because she is hands on in everything and hasn’t chosen what she has to do and not to do as long as it’s legal and income generating.
She says in school she secretly did business and through her interaction with record keeping and nosy trials in her parents business that made her learn as a girl and woman she can achieve greater things.
She attributes that during her 2nd year in campus she was able to grab different business opportunities in the University including slashing tenders, contracted as a watch lady and that earned her so much because she contracted people to do it and paid them as she awaited her payment at the end of the month.
After University she was employed in the banking sector but agreeing to disagree left the banking job and fully ventured in her business that has moved her to places including Germany.
Aghliter says when she ventured in her energy saving business many laughed at her because despite her education level she decided to leave the white collar jobs and took up jobs meant for men and that entitled her to dirtiness.
Aghliter says women have voices in the society because nowadays women are not discriminated against in job opportunities but given equal opportunities. She says even the 2/3 gender rule where women in Parliament have been given an opportunity and even the devolution part where women rep seats have been catered for women in the 47 Counties summarizes that women have been greatly considered.
As an empowered woman she trains girls and needy women on making and selling of the improved jikos, building them in schools, institutions and even homes, trains them on the importance of record keeping just to keep them posted on the kind of business they are engaging in whether making profit or losses.
She also trains women on impressing new knowledge to improve their lifestyle, training them on being great future wives and business ladies.
She says girl child needs to be given priority because men to some extent have been authoritative, some making them appear lesser beings in the society by having a notion that a woman’s place is in the kitchen and raising kids.
She says girls need to be taught hard life lessons including disappointments and heartaches and how to handle them in case they come across such incidents.
She also points at women who do not like jobs that are involving and that need time and dirty saying those are well paying ones and should not choose as long as they are income generating.
She encourages women that empowerment is wide and can decide to venture in farming, businesses and stop depending on handouts or their men.
Some of the reasons she says are barriers in women empowerment includes lack of finances to do some things, culture where some think a place of a woman is in the kitchen and giving birth, lack of enough skills to do some things, early marriages where some people marry off their girls as early as the age of 12 hindering them to achieve their dreams in life, also desperate in education where some choose on some courses and leave out those that can turn their lives into something better, discrimination where some people degrade women and have no confidence in what they do.
Attitudes that turn away women and placing them as lesser beings who have no control in life too saying people should change on the same and embrace women as great assets in the society.
She says there are organizations that have empowered women to an extent of offloading their problems, saying to her the greatest organization that has seen her through is the GIZ that gave her an opportunity in training and opened her doors.
She also cites government loans that have boosted women’s enterprise funds amongst others that are there to see that women are empowered and rise beyond expectations.
She advises women that no man is an island and in order to succeed must move from their comfort zones, be social in aspects, network and be aggressive in all angles. She urges women not to listen to any negativity that may demoralize their efforts in achieving what they want to become in life.
The entrepreneur says for a woman to make it in life, they should be ready to learn because there is no empowerment that comes without learning, women should not be comfortable in one position but, always look for opportunities where money is and start from anywhere, anything and grow.
