She says women have the brains and education opens up their world, empowering them with the much-needed confidence to believe in their dreams. Sadza, who heads a tertiary institution that has an enrolment of 3 400 students on a ratio of 80% women and 20% men, did not walk an easy road to empowering women in her country.
“The idea (of the university) is to empower women who have not had the opportunity to further their studies for various reasons in the past. The challenge most women complain about is time,” she said.
“Women say they do not have time to study (because of the many societal roles that demand their attention). But I say, they can do it. They only need to manage their time well. They have 24 hours multiplied by 60 minutes each day and they need to learn to manage it and avoid saying they have no time. What education does is open up one’s mind. I am not saying we have made women clever; they were clever already but the education has opened up their minds and made them more clever than before.”
It is with that education Sadza believes the women in her country and beyond can lead big initiatives perceived to be men’s territory. Talking from the experience of the challenges she faced following the WUA dream, she has warned women of great challenges that await, which she insists should not discourage them.
“Do not be afraid that you have no money, money is not an issue, what is an issue is your idea and the fact that you believe you can make it. There will always be people telling women that they cannot do it and if they are not careful they would also get into the chorus “I can’t do it, I can’t do it,” she said.
“Women have the ability to build communities. It is important that as women we help others to prosper, it does not have to be necessarily big. Even paying one child’s fees would make one feel good.”
Post published in: Analysis