Happy New Year!!!

What better way to pick back up in the new year than to continue a conversation that inspires kindness. In part 2 of our talk with Gertrude Kabwazi,  Executive Director of Yamba Malawi, we talk more about Gertrude's personal connection to Yamba's mission. We also discuss Yamba Malawi's strategy towards aiding in breaking the cycle of poverty in Malawi and the poverty graduation model amongst other topics.

Here’s a snippet of the conversation we had with Gertrude:

Akinade: Thank you so much Gertrude, your personal story about how education transformed your outcomes and that of your family. Having, the buck stops with you is just unbelievably inspiring, and we're so happy you shared. We hope Malawi can find a path towards resolving gender inequality, because we completely agree with you, right?

Akinade: Just on an indicator basis, we know the answer. At minimum you are stifling half of your potential workforce, your potential intelligence, your potential human capacity by limiting woman. I would love to, kind of on the personal note, I'd love to hear specifically about how you got involved with Yamba Malawi.

What drove you to this point? And we'd love to hear about the rest of your journey. Do you mind sharing that with us?

Gertrude: Okay, I would say I'm a development practitioner by profession. What that means, is throughout my career life I've worked in the development sector. So my journey has evolved. I've worked for different organizations, both local and international, but in the development sector, doing different kinds of things.

Gertrude: But what has made me remain in the development sector is the fact that I work, I encounter, people at a different level. I always ask myself if I worked in a bank (and I'm not demeaning people who work in a bank but I'm just trying to demonstrate or explain what my point is.) If I worked in the bank, my world with the people out there will just end up at a "good morning, how much money do you want?" And I'll end up just giving them the money and they'll go. But the work that I do, I go into the communities, I cry with the communities, I dance with the communities. I am part of the community. So I enter people's lives and they definitely enter into mine as well. I see life from different versions you know, because life has very many versions

Gertrude: Trust me, it has very many versions. The way it is as of now, the way it's layered by the socioeconomics. It's got so many versions so I'm privileged to go and experience the layers of people's lives. And through that, it just makes me.... it kind of confirms my purpose, like as a human being, why I need to be where I am, and also the fact that I am trying to better somebody else's story or , enable them to better their stories. Because half the time ...we are creating... we are bridges ourselves when they have their own stories, rich and beautiful stories. All we do is just to make these stories louder, but also more visible. So I love that; being a development practitioner.

Gertrude: Coming back to how I joined Yamba Malawi; It's the mission and the vision that attracted me. You know, we want to see a world where there is justice. There's no poverty ,world where there's no poverty, especially for the children. And our mission is to end the cycle of poverty for children. Cause when children, when people experience poverty when they're young, it impacts them differently.

Gertrude: It just feels like somehow you grew up with that invisible handicap. An indescribable handicap. Nobody can see it , even yourself, you can't see it and feel it, but it's there. Because when you're growing up it's there and nobody really can see it. Nobody can feel it. Even you yourself can't feel it sometimes.

Listen to the entire conversation by clicking on the link below: