WHY WOMEN IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Comfort, when you have a girl as big as this and you don’t have money to send her to university get a suitor for her and after marriage let her continue the school in her husband's house. That was the opinion of my uncle to my mother when he was called to help in funding my academics.  Ironically, this represents the opinion of the majority of men in our rural areas who are

illiterate and poor.  Yet, the role of women in community development is very enormous.  This is because women occupy such sensitive positions in every sphere of our lives, beginning from the fact that they are helpers to men to keepers of home.  When the need arises, most women play the role of doctor/nurse, farmer, teacher and sometimes financial provider of the home amongst other responsibilities.  The role of the woman is so much that they need constant sensitization in every sphere of life because in most homes and communities, the woman bears the huge brunt of the challenges and at times enjoys the successes encountered.   

Women according to  +Dan Cowling  take the first decision in matters of emergency especially when their spouses are not around.  They make decisions regarding health care providers, personal banking relationships, habits, school choices, personal family time and more.  These enormous responsibilities prove that women are among the most underutilized human resources in community development when compared to the richness of their daily activities.

Moreover, the massive responsibilities of the women tend to have toughened them and that has made lots of our women to become very courageous when it comes to achieving desired targets and efforts.  To such women, that they failed yesterday will never be the reason why they will not try again because they will always bounce back.  As a result, our women should be viewed as agents of change and advocates of successes.  Their focus is always on quality of life issues and they provide unique responses in the face of social injustice.  Lots of communities do better when they tap into women’s unique abilities for building capacity and resiliency.

Finally, members of our rural areas should be sensitized on the need to train the woman and include her in the activities that can help in bringing sustainable development within our community. Again, men like my uncle should be made to understand that although marriage is a good thing but that girls who wished to be educated should be encouraged no matter the cost.  Opportunities should be given to girls and women to make contributions and take decisions that affect them and their society. Therefore,  if a community development activity is to be successful, women must be inclusive in it as they bring valuable assets to the table that should be utilized.