Commemorating the International Women’s Day in Goma DRCongo

Invest in women, accelerate change ” find here the full report in French RAPPORT DE LA JOURNEE INTERNATIONALE DE LA FEMME 28 MARS 2024

Godelive engaging women during the debate at our offices in Goma

On Thursday March 28th, 2024 a total number of 42 people composed of 80% young women and young girls came together to reflect on the Theme “invest in women accelerate change”. The discussions were moderated by our Programmes Officer Godelive Maombi who engaged the audience on the capacity of women to change their lives and that of the community.

Participants were later divided into three (3) focus groups in order to explore better ideas that can advance the situation of women in Goma currently. The meeting observed that women especially the participants lack knowledge and are less informed on various things. Despite the fact that women in Goma have access to Smart Phones and internet, the type of what they get from social media is still a problem, women also indicated that they rarely listen to Radios and many cannot access news on TVs. The participants recommended more awareness sessions among women so that they can also overcome the barrier and access information especially using social media.

The discussions also noticed that women in Goma have challenges and negative perceptions in what they should invest their money, time and energy. Most women women invest more in beauty and physical appearance rather than investing in their personal economy and knowledge. Recommendations were also formulated in this regard and more work was requested in terms of research.

It was also observed that women in Goma are economically dependent on men and very few women are economically independent, it was also recommended that efforts should be deployed in order to uplift women economy and encourage women and young girls to explore opportunities for economic investment.

All these issues addressed are attracting our attention and this should be part of projects we need to embark on in order to empower women to be economically strong, have enough knowledge, access information and leadership opportunities in order to make informed decisions.

It was observed that more information sessions are highly needed at various levels in order to challenge myths, stereotypes, and cultural belief, but also to challenge the negative perceptions towards a developed woman. 

We call upon partners to join us and together we challenge this situation.