Monday, September 28, 2009

TOWARDS A CONSTITUTION OF THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND

CONSTITUTION OF THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND
We launch this organization in honor of women who have died because of domestic violence such as Sheana Khumalo and many others. Some women have been maimed and seem to have been forgotten. We will in time make a quilt to celebrate all the women who died. If you would like to join us, please send your comments


PREAMBLE

We the women of Swaziland and supporters of women’s issues allover the world, realizing the need among ourselves for carrying out the mission of supporting women’s work in the fight against HIV/AIDS, poverty, child support, domestic violence, child abuse and helping HIV/AIDS orphans have decided to get together and form an organization that will address the issues of women living in Swaziland and all over the world.

ARTICLE 1: NAME
The name of the organization shall be the WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND

ARTICLE 2: GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND

The purpose of the WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND is to enable women of Swaziland to meet, raise funds, and discuss and do work to combat HIV/AIDS, poverty, child support, domestic violence, child abuse and help HIV/AIDS orphans under
under the following objectives:


To empower Swaziland women through workshops
To discuss issues on domestic violence
To work among orphans of those who are sick or have died because of HIV/AIDS
To fundraise for causes of domestic violence, child abuse and HIV/AIDS
To educate women about self confidence and assertiveness

ARTICLE 3: MEMBERSHIP

Section 1.

a) Membership shall be open to anybody who is a Swazi or a person who is interested in issues of women in Swaziland

b) associate membership shall be open to men and women who are interested in the

Section 2: Membership fees:
a)active members shall pay an initial joining feel of R10.00. This fee is not refundable.
b) Members who join after the first two years shall pay a non refundable fee of R 30.00


ARTICLE 4; OFFICES AND DUTIES

Section 1: The President
a) Shall be the chief executive officer of the WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND
b) Shall when present, preside over all meetings and executive meetings WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND
c) Shall be one of the principal signatories of all financial transactions of the WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND

d) Shall, in consultation with the executive Committee, make appointments to special and ad hoc committees and sub-committees created by action of the executive committee or general assembly.
e) Shall perform all public relations activities relating to the WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND

Section 2: The Secretary General
a) Shall keep the minutes of both general and executive meetings, and be present at meetings of the WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND
b) Shall be responsible for the correspondence of the organization. She/he shall obtain and integrate all report and correspondence from office bearers, reports and correspondence from office bearers pertaining to the functioning of the organization.
c) Shall perform the duties of the President in his/her absence

Section 3 The Treasurer
a) Shall be the principal accounting officer in charge of books of accounts and accounting records of the WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND. In this capacity, he/she shall present to the General Assembly a financial report to the Incoming executive
b) Shall be responsible for the management of the organization’s financial and material resources.
c) Shall be one of the principal signatories of all transaction of the WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND
Section 4. The Executive


The executive committee shall be made up of three office bearers, vis. The President, Secretary General, and Treasurer.
b) The executive committee shall carry out the mandates of the membership of the organization.

Section 5.
a) Each and every officer bearer shall prepare a type-written report at the end of his/her term of office or upon resignation

b) The reports and other documents, together with all property of in his or her possession, must be submitted to the newly elected executive committee.
All executive members shall be expected to perform duties of the WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND assigned to them by the General assembly. Upon resignation, a member shall be required to submit a written letter specifying her reasons for such action.

Friday, September 25, 2009

LAUNCHING THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF SWAZILAND

The difficulties that women face in Swaziland are many. Among these are poverty, domestic violence, child support and HIV/AIDS. It has come to my notice that we need to create a space where we can discuss ways towards getting women to come together and share ideas on how to go about fighting these evils. I grew up in Swaziland and saw a lot of poverty. Somehow hearing about the women of Ebuseleni made me think about future prospects of encouraging women to keep up the good work. Lisa Grossman has been working with these women. When we started talking we realized that more needs to be done to help women to stand up and fight even harder. I want to bring to the attention of Swazis the name of Make Nomsa Masuku of Ebuseleni, who has worked hard to start a care-point for children whose parents have passed away. It is Lisa Grossman who told me about this brave Swazi woman. It is women who stand up that are helping us see the prospects of a revolution of women in Swaziland.

Swaziland women have always worked hard, raising children by themselves and going to work in the most difficult jobs such as selling vegetables, growing crops like cotton and going across the border to sell handicrafts or buy wares to sell. I commend this hard work because it has seen most of our children through school. We need to support women by helping them to organize and have a structure through which they can request more help from government, NGOs and overseas donors.

We need to work together to understand what exactly to focus our struggle for the emancipation of women on. The ability to lead is there as we see in such women as Ntombi Nkosi, and Siphiwe Hlophe who have gone out to take care of our orphans and spoken out against the injustices that take place in the country. I want to keep us focused on learning more from women who are dreamers like these so that we can imagine how to get an organization going.

How can we start a grassroots women’s organization and make it work? At the moment, with the problems of HIV/AIDS, we need to focus on this problem because as the people who give birth to people, we cannot let the future generation go without education, food and clothes. These basic needs need to be met, and this has to happen soon. We need to rope in men who are there to help, by getting them to educate other men about looking after the future of society, and that this begins with the children. Many men are involved in these issues. We just need to change the idea that the problem of the children is a problem for women only. Our men are capable of doing better than they are doing now. They need to pay child support. Government also needs to be strict about this.

Anybody who wants to think with me on these issues is free to begin writing and share ideas on how this can be done. I am open to whatever ideas we may come up with. I would like Swazi women who are progressive to consider joing us and starting an organization and coming together and creating a space where we can put ideas together on how to structure such an organization.

It is important to focus on doing our best, being motivated and staying positive when we go out to serve people. We need to be clear on giving to our people because they are working hard. It means anybody who wishes to come on board has to agree to be hard working and do practical things to help. If you have ideas on how this can be done, let us hear your ideas. I await your aspirations for the future of a Swaziland Women’s Organization.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009