"I saw my friend and school mates shot. I don’t know how long I stayed under the cupboard, but a brave policeman rescued me and took me down stairs. It was like being in a horror movie...”
"They went on and on to lecture me on how ‘dressing in short’ [skirt] is provocative and when a girl comes to their office and reports a rape case, they ask how she was dressed and, 'If she was dressed in a provocative manner, she will be punished.'"
Zonziwoh Mbondgulo interviews Mrs. Margaret Bibum, mentor at the Buea School for the Deaf: "Our biggest achievement is having our supporters believe in what we are trying to do for deaf children and young deaf people in Cameroon.”
Bahati Valerie, co-founder of COFAPRI, has set off for DR Congo, to make a follow-up on the sewing centres and to see how the children are getting along with their school education.
Just as she did with the sewing, she is learning some knitting skills which she will be sharing with COFAPRI women and girls.
Interview by Zonziwoh Mbondgulo: "When I returned to my region, I observed that there were still cases of preventable, yet life-threatening diseases such as dysentery, typhoid, and cholera..."
It is an alarming situation in Sindh, where religious extremism activities are expanding... Those so-called Muslims are not from us; neither do they represent the entire population of Muslims in the world or the religion itself.
"We used to sleep in thatched and leaking houses, but now it's history”.... grassroots women are trained in becoming self-reliant, managing their funds and overcoming their problems.
The women I met in Chididi were inspiring. Of my three interviewees the first was calm, the second stoic, the third determined. Initially I mistook their composure for reticence, though at the end they thanked me for listening. It was only afterwards that my Malawian translator told me that, as a cultural rule, women in Chididi have traditionally never discussed their lives.