ZAMBIAN VP, MAMA INONGE WINA IS ‘INDEED A FEMALE LEADER MAKING A DIFFERENCE’ – LWIMBA KASONGO
By Abayomi Oyelami, Trek Africa Newspaper
L-R: VICE PRESIDENT OF ZAMBIA, INONGE WINA, VICE PRESIDENT OF ZAMBIA; ZAMBIAN SICKLE CELL ADVOCATE, LWIMBA KASONGO AND PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND, JACINDA ARDERN
• More women choose to challenge in Zambia’s general elections this August
‘It feels awesome to be celebrated as a woman not only locally but internationally. Women represent strength, courage and care. We are a force to be recognized because we are leaders, caregivers and pillar of strength in our homes, community, church, and various career and political organizations’ established Zambian prominent sickle cell advocate, Lwimba Kasongo as she spoke extensively on the celebration in the weekly virtual conversation tagged #Reminisense the TweetChat series with Abayomi Oyelami on popular microblogging platform, Twitter yesterday.
Lwimba Kasongo eulogized the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern for embodying strong leadership in the current pandemic, ‘I can give practical examples of women leaders such as the Prime Minister of New Zealand who has been ranked the best female leader to combat COVID-19 with numbers dropping to zero under her leadership. I lead in my own way especially as an advocate for sickle cell. I am a sickle cell warrior by the way.
ZAMBIAN SICKLE CELL ADVOCATE, LWIMBA KASONGO
It is my hope that we can fight COVID-19 by focusing on women to lead the fight because we are naturally caregivers and leaders.’ This is in line with the theme, ‘Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world’ which the global women body, UN Women ‘celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the gaps that remain.
The current Vice President Inonge Wina is making giant strides in the local politics of Zambia. It is expected that more women will play active roles in politics and governance in the copper-rich country as general elections hold this August, ‘Mama Inonge Wina is indeed a female leader making a difference. Actually we have seen a large number of women making headway in leadership. The opposition party recently appointed a female Vice President too. Many women have taken the lead to stand as Members of Parliament in this year’s election. We go to the polls in August’, Miss Kasongo noted.
VICE PRESIDENT OF ZAMBIA, INONGE WINA
She used the opportunity to challenge men to support women in leadership, ‘All we ask for is the same opportunity that men have is the same opportunity women must have, be it leadership, education, and other platforms.
Stereotyping in Africa is real. We are expected to stay home, cook, wash, clean and give birth. All that is fine after all we are superwomen. But that should not stop us from standing as leaders in political and business positions. We must have equal opportunities as a girl or a boy. Women have a natural gift of leading like I said we represent strength, courage, and care. However, leadership is inborn, we come from an age where our ancestors never knew a [English] word, yet educated. In my opinion, education is very important but wisdom is greater when in leadership.’
PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND, JACINDA ARDERN
FLAG OF ZAMBIA
According to the World Bank, Zambian girls are twice as likely to drop out than boys by grade seven because of socioeconomic problems. This is aggravated by the pandemic which has made many rural girls to lose access to education. Lwimba noted: ‘Education is a very important element and foundation in one’s life. Education during this pandemic has been a challenge as Africa is not as advanced in the area of online platforms. Rural areas have zero or little network. In addition, they lack the technology such as laptops and phones to host online lessons as a result many children have missed out in this opportunity. It is why we need to fight this pandemic together to enable the girl child go to class.’
