All vulnerable women should access empowerment fund-Limata

Deputy Minister of Gender and Child Development Josephine Limata has said all vulnerable women in the country should have access to the empowerment fund under her ministry.

Ms. Limata said in the previous government, only a few women benefited from the empowerment fund.

ZANIS reports from Sesheke that the Deputy Minister said this during a meeting she held with women in the area at Sesheke District Council chambers.

She advised all Members of Parliament (MPs) in the country to ensure that all vulnerable women in their respective constituencies have access to the fund.

Ms. Limata noted that it was unfair that only a few women, who were cadres of a particular political party, had access to the empowerment funds while denying their colleagues access to the same funds.

For this reason, she has instructed Sesheke Council Secretary Given Muleya to ensure that every woman in the area has access to the same funds through their respective women clubs.

Government has devised an empowerment fund which is being given to eligible women through the Ministry of Gender and Child Development.

Ms. Limata said there were various funds that government has put in place for Zambians to benefit from.

She said these funds include the Constitution Development Fund (CDF), women empowerment fund and youth development fund among others.

Ms. Limata said it was these same funds that could help youths to pay for their tertiary education.

And Mr. Muleya has welcomed government’s initiative to empower women in Sesheke district.

He said although it was government’s intention to empower women, it was the responsibility of the women themselves to act on this opportunity that has come forth.

Mr. Muleya said Zambia would only develop if women get empowered.

He said once a woman is empowered, her children and grandchildren’s children get empowered as well.

He pledged that his office would process the certification and registration of the women’s clubs which was a conditionality to access the women empowerment fund.

And the women in the area praised government for coming up with the initiative.

One of the women talked to, Nyama Sampene of Pilgrim women club, said the initiative is a wakeup call to the women in the area who are abused by their husbands whenever they ask for money to buy food or school books for their children.

She said whenever their husbands have money, they spend it on their girlfriends and beer leaving their wives and children in starvation.