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By Naomi Mugaragu
This was the theme during a panel discussion where activists were participating to the ongoing Women Deliver (WD2023) conference in Kigali that has been proved that a community needs to be able to demonstrate existing issues surrounding all domains of human being lives such as health, education, climate change, economic growth, resilience and science research projects.
Their objectives were to catalyze collective action to advance gender equality, holding leaders accountable, empowering the feminist movement, reframing who leads, as well as creating an accessible and inclusive space for everyone.
Clive Mutunga, Director, USAID-funded BUILD Project being implemented by the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), FHI360, Path Foundation Philippines, the Leadership for Development Africa, LEAD Malawi and Cote d’Ivoire (LEaD), said that people should show their activities so that can help others.
“I think as a community we need to be very stand first and regard in being able to demonstrate that through inaugurating our issues you can get other outcomes, one challenge that I would say for health sector we have not yet done already good job to demonstrate even not only for climate change, the all sectors never done already good job to assure the help benefits for other.”
He added that the sectors weather is economic growth weather is resilience weather is education and rights, so it’s clearing call to show the evidences are closed very us as policy advocacy, weather is few base program see very creator implementation science research project that making that, they could do more by supporting that such activities. They need strong evidences to show that call section integration works and it benefits other sectors.
Another person talked about the strengths of breaking silos is NICOLA OKERO, a Kenyan activist and policy officer in the organization dubbed: ‘Food for Education’ (Food4education) who raised a voice for young learners to get enough and quality meals at school.
“When you provide food at school, you help learners to be concentrated on lessons, meals allows vulnerable families to send kids to school with a hope that they will succeed, it also helps to reduce financial burden for parents, it improves growth and health for both girls and boys and boosts class attendance.”
It has also been observed that community health matters and that community health workers (CHWs) can boost health impacts if they are equipped.
Stella, young activist from Uganda that was on the panel said that “Nowhere the adolescents are in the community especially those with disabilities, they are hidden with no access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) such as access to contraceptives and Family Planning (FP) services. We have been talking about integration for so long, but when are we going to start acting?”
Shonel Lunkuse, Young activist from Uganda who was among the panelists highlights the impacts of breaking silence as a powerful tool to integrate young women and girls from gender violence to climate and to empower people.
She calls up on all key community activism players including those working around climate change, Gender-Based Violence (GBV), mental health and others to join efforts to support others.
