{"id":2799,"date":"2020-09-18T10:26:25","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T08:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rocketpad.co.za\/matoyana\/?p=2799"},"modified":"2020-09-30T10:30:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T08:30:56","slug":"warrior-woman-activists-front-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rocketpad.co.za\/matoyana\/warrior-woman-activists-front-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Warrior Woman Activists on the Front-line"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cLife was teaching me that progress and change happen slowly. Not in two years, four years, or even a lifetime. We were planting seeds of change, the fruit of which we might never see. We had to be patient.\u201d Michelle Obama, Becoming<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

These words by Michelle Obama echo the way so many of the women activists who we honour live\u00a0 their lives – creating slow change over a lifetime of work. Here is the first in a series of articles on some of the warrior women activists who we admire and who keep us inspired.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tarana Burke, Advocate and Activist\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople should know that they\u2019re not alone, that healing happens best in community.\u201d Tarana Burke<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

From The Bronx in New York City, <\/span>Tarana Burke<\/span><\/a> started the \u201cMe Too\u201d movement for women in her work as an activist in 2006. This was intended to show victims of\u00a0 abuse that they weren’t alone and give them some support in their isolation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This quote from Ms Burke from <\/span>HBR <\/span><\/a>encapsulates a lot of the feeling around how the media represents the most marginalized, and we thank her for making this more visible:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI think that the media doesn\u2019t focus on the trauma that people of colour experience. The work that we do in the movement centers on the most marginalized people. And so if you only define the Me Too movement by what you read in the media then no, there is not enough representation or even conversation about how sexual violence affects people of colour, queer people, disabled people, anybody who is marginalized. But if you understand that Me Too is not simply what the media has defined it as, it\u2019s the work that we are moving forward, then you know that our works start with and centers the most marginalized, including queer and trans people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently Tarana Burke is behind the #MeToo Voter campaign, which is a new initiative to try to hold the politicians and leaders in the US to a moral standard. Plus there’s a memoir on the way, we can’t wait to read it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nnedinma J. Ulanmo, <\/b>Co-Founder of Women Initiative for Sustainable Empowerment and Equality (WISE) formerly Women Action for Gender Equality (WAGE) and Founder of Nnedinma Ulanmo and Associates in Nigeria.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTry not to cushion the effects of your needs when demanding for what is right from life and all around you. Learn to advocate for yourself without trying to sweeten it and make yourself seem less assertive. Own your expectations! \u201d Women Initiative For Sustainable Empowerment and Equality – WISE Wage<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Ms Ulanmo’s <\/span>WISE organisation<\/span><\/a> provides Human Rights Education and Information, Legal Services, Campaign against GBV and IPV, Psychosocial support and services and Empowerment programs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Through WISE’s Empowerment programmes, they support sexual minority groups especially LBQ+ identifying women and girls to become socio-economically empowered and to become pressure groups thereby giving them the ingredients for visibility to step out of the margins and a voice to self advocate especially in this part of northern Nigeria where the LBQ+ identifying women and girls do not have visibility and have been marginalized. Where also, enough attention and resources is not given to issues of mental health, sexual health and reproductive rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through WISE’s ” Creating Visibility and Giving Voice” Project they are endeavouring to unveil the silence that shrouds issues of sexuality, gender orientation, expression and identity, GBV and IPV, abuses, sexual health and reproductive rights, poverty\u00a0 through advocacy to ensure the following:<\/span><\/p>\n