Skip to main content

Series of Thematic Briefs by the Pacific Women Lead at SPC programme

The series of Thematic Briefs provide a broad summary of information, analysis and key messages relating to topics which affect women and girls in the Pacific Islands.

These summaries include references to associated research and information.  The series of Thematic Briefs have been released by the Pacific Women Lead (PWL) at the Pacific Community (SPC) programme. The briefs have been updated to include COVID-19 considerations and recent programme information and are based on the original briefs developed by the former programme, Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development (Pacific Women). 

More Thematic Briefs are coming soon.

The series of Thematic Briefs cover the following topics, with more being released soon:

·         Ending Violence against Women in the Pacific

·         Women's Economic Empowerment in the Pacific

·         Inclusion of Pacific women with disabilities

·         Myths about gender equality in the Pacific

Additional briefs will be released later in 2023.

Thematic Briefs:

·         Ending Violence against Women in the Pacific

Women in the Pacific face some of the highest level of violence in the world. An estimated 60 per cent women and girls have experienced violence by an intimate partner or family.  

Link: https://pacificdata.org/data/dataset/pwl-thematic-brief-ending-violence-against-women-in-the-pacific

·         Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Pacific

Women’s empowerment and economic participation are central to sustainable development and sustained poverty reduction.  

Link: https://pacificdata.org/data/dataset/pwl-thematic-brief-women-s-economic-empowerment-in-the-pacific

·         Myths about gender equality in the Pacific

“Gender equality is a western concept and has no place within Pacific culture” is one of the seven common myths highlighted in the Thematic Brief on Myths about gender equality in the Pacific.

Link: https://pacificdata.org/data/dataset/pwl-thematic-brief-myths-about-gender-equality-in-the-pacific

·         Inclusion of Pacific Women with disabilities

Women and girls with disabilities experience multiple forms of discrimination (intersection of gender and disability) that are exacerbated during times of crisis or hardship, such as natural disaster or the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Link: https://pacificdata.org/data/dataset/pwl-thematic-brief-inclusion-of-pacific-women-with-disabilities

 

About Pacific Women Lead 

One of the largest global commitments to gender equality, Pacific Women Lead aims to promote women’s leadership, realise women’s rights, and increase the effectiveness of regional gender equality efforts.

The Pacific Women Lead (PWL) at SPC programme, termed PWL at SPC, has more than AUD 55 million dedicated to its work under the Australian Government’s AUD 170 million Pacific Women Lead portfolio. This partnership with the Australian Government commits SPC to deliver the PWL programme, as the cornerstone for the portfolio. Read More.  

2023 Pacific Regional Forum on National Human Rights Institutions

2023 Pacific Regional Forum on National Human Rights Institutions

Counselling an essential service for women and girls in the North Pacific

English

“With the support I provide to the Chuuk Women’s Council (CWC) team, they are able to facilitate awareness sessions and start to change mindsets - there’s a need for respectful relationships where women have equal access to resources and opportunities,” said Wilma Eileen, Gender-based Violence (GBV) Adviser for the Pacific Women Lead at SPC programme.

Advocacy and awareness sessions by the Chuuk Women’s Council’s (CWC) Tongen Inepwineu Counseling Center (TICC) has resulted in changed mindsets, with men now referring women relatives to the centre.

There are the only two crisis centres in the North Pacific that provide counselling services for survivors of violence against women: TICC in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI) Weto In Mour Counselling Centres in Majuro and Ebeye, Republic of the Marshall Islands.

In her role Wilma provides technical support to these crisis centres in the North Pacific. This includes support to the referral system in Chuuk, known as APIMAR Safenet, which includes of a range of ending violence against women (EVAW) stakeholders, from government ministries to the police and CWC.

“This referral system is working really well in Chuuk,” she explained, adding that through the referral system “stakeholders such as the police and the Attorney General’s office have called on TICC to provide counselling service to clients.”  

“Women have accessed the TICC services since 2020 till now. They continue to receive cases for domestic violence and women who are survivors of domestic violence as well as child sexual abuse cases. Over the past two years, around 100 clients have visited TICC,” she added.

Wilma stated that in her line of work as a technical adviser, it is important to continuously find ways of collaboration with partners in-country because they are the experts on the ground.

Wilma’s ongoing technical support to North Pacific crisis centres includes training on gender and basic counselling skills as well as counselling supervision. Her support also includes skills training on telephone counselling for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), which has extended to partners in other parts of the region last year including Papua New Guinea. 

“We continue to provide technical support as requested with regard to counselling, but we also support them in terms of their work creating awareness on the issues of domestic violence, sexual harassment and sexual abuse of children,” she said.

In the recent past, COVID-19 has shifted counselling modalities towards telephone counselling due to restrictions in movement.

“During the height of COVID-19, the development of the ‘‘Telephone Counselling for GBV Survivors: a Pacific Toolkit’was done by technical advisers and with the counsellors in TICC and WUTMI,” she said. These technical advisers were supported through Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development and the resource as well as the work to socialise it has now transitioned to the new Pacific Women Lead at SPC programme.

The Pacifiic toolkit was refined through pilot training sessions with the WUTMI, Chuuk Women’s Council (CWC), Tonga National Centre for Women and Children (TNCWC), the Tonga Women and Children Crisis Centre (TWCCC), the Vanuatu Women’s Centre (VWC) and the Family Support Centre in the Solomon Islands (FSC). 

Central to the toolkit’s development, was GBV counsellors’ sharing of lessons learned and reflections on practice.   

The eight-module course provides extensive practical exercises and real-life scenarios, to assist learners to develop the practical, ethical and ‘do no harm’ skills needed for the professional delivery of GBV telephone counselling. 

While COVID-19 community transmissions only happened this past year in Chuuk, FSM, and RMI after their international borders re-opened, remote training for counsellors in 2020 and 2021 on GBV telephone counselling gave them the opportunity to prepare.

“It was good practice to have these counsellors co-develop a toolkit, undergo the training and also have the supervision support that prepared them for the response to community transmissions,” she said. 

According to Wilma, their active participation in the co-design of the toolkit embeds skills that are not only useful during times of limited movement but provides the skills to connect with clients who seek their services via phone outside of Weno as well as Chuuk State.

About Pacific Women Lead 

One of the largest global commitments to gender equality, Pacific Women Lead aims to promote women’s leadership, realise women’s rights, and increase the effectiveness of regional gender equality efforts.

The Pacific Women Lead (PWL) programme at the Pacific Community (SPC), termed PWL at SPC, has more than AUD 55 million dedicated to its work under the Australian Government’s AUD 170 million Pacific Women Lead portfolio. This partnership with the Australian Government commits SPC to deliver the PWL programme, as the cornerstone for the portfolio.

Gender and Human Rights statistics essential for Gender Equality

English

“Gender and human rights statistics: no measure has ever been so important towards envisioning a society that is equal and safe for all of its members,” said Akhona Nkenkana, SPC’s Statistics Adviser for Gender and Human Rights.

Quality data and statistics for gender and human rights including registered births and deaths, can guide the implementation of policies, services and laws contributing to change such as ending child marriage.

“A great example of how data can contribute to improving the lives of Pacific people, is the case of girls and young women who are now protected by law to marry later in life. That means girls can, for example, remain at school to complete their education rather than marrying young,” Akhona said.

She explained how data gathered on women married before 18, referred to as child marriage, can be used by government, civil society and others to make positive changes to legislation. In Tuvalu, data was a central component of the process behind Tuvalu’s Marriage Amendment Act No. 10 of 2015. It proposed to increase the minimum age of marriage from 16 to 18 years, and came into effect in January 2016.

This change reflects recommendations by various treaty bodies and responds to the Tuvalu Demographic and Health Survey that found nearly one in 10 girls (9.9% in 2007) were married before the age of 18,. Following adoption of the new laws and other initiatives, the latest statistics found the rate reduced to one in 50 (2% in 2019), as detailed in the Tuvalu Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey. All data is available on the Pacific Data Hub(link is external).

Gender and human rights data complements Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS), which registers critical life events such as births and deaths that provide crucial information for a country to develop relevant public policies. Advancements for CRVS, including the development of specific national CRVS, have emphasised that an efficient, accurate and cost-effective registration system contributes to the achievement of basic human rights through improved planning for access to education, health, law and justice, and other public services where proof of identity is required.

With a focus on these two issues, Akhona Nkenkana, works with partners regionally and globally to fill the gap for quality, reliable statistics and data in the Pacific region – a gap shared with many other regions in the world.

“At a policy level you are going to have impact as a result of the availability of data. At an individual level data plays a level of empowerment – people have a great knowledge about topics when quality data is available,” Akhona said.

Central to her work is to support implementation of the Pacific Roadmap on Gender Statistics. Its objectives are to work with national, regional, and international organisations in the Pacific to improve data availability on gender statistics – ensuring data is available and has a high level of quality and reliability.

This work also contributes towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) progress reporting for SPC member states and the development of key indicators for the Pacific’s progress against SDG 5 on gender equality.

“The work on gender, human rights and CRVS to ensure the availability of robust data is essential in the implementation of gender equality and human rights standards and commitments, to support policy formulation, impact assessment and transparency,” Akhona explained.

Counselling an essential service for women and girls in the North Pacific

English

“With the support I provide to the Chuuk Women’s Council (CWC) team, they are able to facilitate awareness sessions and start to change mindsets - there’s a need for respectful relationships where women have equal access to resources and opportunities,” said Wilma Eileen, Gender-based Violence (GBV) Adviser for the Pacific Women Lead at SPC programme.  

Advocacy and awareness sessions by the Chuuk Women’s Council’s (CWC) Tongen Inepwineu Counseling Center (TICC) has resulted in changed mindsets, with men now referring women relatives to the centre. 

There are the only two crisis centres in the North Pacific that provide counselling services for survivors of violence against women: TICC in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI) Weto In Mour Counselling Centres in Majuro and Ebeye, Republic of the Marshall Islands. 

In her role Wilma provides technical support to these crisis centres in the North Pacific. This includes support to the referral system in Chuuk, known as APIMAR Safenet, which includes of a range of ending violence against women (EVAW) stakeholders, from government ministries to the police and CWC. 

“This referral system is working really well in Chuuk,” she explained, adding that through the referral system “stakeholders such as the police and the Attorney General’s office have called on TICC to provide counselling service to clients.”   

“Women have accessed the TICC services since 2020 till now. They continue to receive cases for domestic violence and women who are survivors of domestic violence as well as child sexual abuse cases. Over the past two years, around 100 clients have visited TICC,” she added. 

Wilma stated that in her line of work as a technical adviser, it is important to continuously find ways of collaboration with partners in-country because they are the experts on the ground. 

Wilma’s ongoing technical support to North Pacific crisis centres includes training on gender and basic counselling skills as well as counselling supervision. Her support also includes skills training on telephone counselling for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), which has extended to partners in other parts of the region last year including Papua New Guinea.  

“We continue to provide technical support as requested with regard to counselling, but we also support them in terms of their work creating awareness on the issues of domestic violence, sexual harassment and sexual abuse of children,” she said. 

In the recent past, COVID-19 has shifted counselling modalities towards telephone counselling due to restrictions in movement. 

“During the height of COVID-19, the development of the ‘‘Telephone Counselling for GBV Survivors: a Pacific Toolkit’was done by technical advisers and with the counsellors in TICC and WUTMI,” she said. These technical advisers were supported through Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development and the resource as well as the work to socialise it has now transitioned to the new Pacific Women Lead at SPC programme. 

The Pacifiic toolkit was refined through pilot training sessions with the WUTMI, Chuuk Women’s Council (CWC), Tonga National Centre for Women and Children (TNCWC), the Tonga Women and Children Crisis Centre (TWCCC), the Vanuatu Women’s Centre (VWC) and the Family Support Centre in the Solomon Islands (FSC).   

Central to the toolkit’s development, was GBV counsellors’ sharing of lessons learned and reflections on practice.     

The eight-module course provides extensive practical exercises and real-life scenarios, to assist learners to develop the practical, ethical and ‘do no harm’ skills needed for the professional delivery of GBV telephone counselling.   

While COVID-19 community transmissions only happened this past year in Chuuk, FSM, and RMI after their international borders re-opened, remote training for counsellors in 2020 and 2021 on GBV telephone counselling gave them the opportunity to prepare.  

“It was good practice to have these counsellors co-develop a toolkit, undergo the training and also have the supervision support that prepared them for the response to community transmissions,” she said.  

According to Wilma, their active participation in the co-design of the toolkit embeds skills that are not only useful during times of limited movement but provides the skills to connect with clients who seek their services via phone outside of Weno as well as Chuuk State. 

About Pacific Women Lead  

One of the largest global commitments to gender equality, Pacific Women Lead aims to promote women’s leadership, realise women’s rights, and increase the effectiveness of regional gender equality efforts. 

The Pacific Women Lead (PWL) programme at the Pacific Community (SPC), termed PWL at SPC, has more than AUD 55 million dedicated to its work under the Australian Government’s AUD 170 million Pacific Women Lead portfolio. This partnership with the Australian Government commits SPC to deliver the PWL programme, as the cornerstone for the portfolio. 

Gender-based Violence research a lifeline for women

English

“Gender-based violence research contributes to change in a number of ways,” said Kim Robertson, an Adviser with the Pacific Community (SPC) Human Rights and Social Development (HRSD) Division. 

Research can prove the extent of the harmful impacts caused by gender-based violence (GBV) in the Pacific, and also be used to advocate for change in legislation and improved support services.  

“For many women, the research is the first time they have shared or disclosed their experience of violence, a major change to break the silence,” she explained.   

Kim specialises in gender data, statistics and research. She explained doing this specialised research is very complex, and any undertaking will involve the ‘do no harm’ approach to both participants of the research and researchers.  

"Collecting GBV data is hard for researchers and every care is taken so that they are not traumatised by the information and stories shared with them."

Having research that is robust and relevant enables governments, civil society and all organisations working to end violence against women and girls.

For example, many Pacific civil society organisations (CSOs) rely on gender research as the evidence-base to prove GBV is a significant issue and to advocate for improved legal protection, support services and resources for survivors while also implementing programmes to eliminate violence against women and girls. 

Making such an evidence based accessible is also an important part of the change process. Kim has represented SPC in the Reference Group for Toksave Pacific Gender Resource, a unique regional portal for gender research and resources.   

“If you want to find out about gender-based violence in the Pacific, Toksave has over 230 resources related to GBV. This ranges includes tools and guides, briefs, blogs, reports, journal articles, prevalence studies and more about a range of topics including access to services, justice, assessments of specific areas such as Family Protection Orders, GBV and economic empowerment.” 

About Pacific Women Lead 

One of the largest global commitments to gender equality, Pacific Women Lead aims to promote women’s leadership, realise women’s rights, and increase the effectiveness of regional gender equality efforts.

The Pacific Women Lead (PWL) programme at the Pacific Community (SPC), termed PWL at SPC, has more than AUD 55 million dedicated to its work under the Australian Government’s AUD 170 million Pacific Women Lead portfolio. This partnership with the Australian Government commits SPC to deliver the PWL programme, as the cornerstone for the portfolio.

Data and statistics to assist women survivors and lawmakers address gender-based violence

English

“The gender-based violence administrative database for Chuuk Women’s Council will enable their staff to collect data to influence policy reforms or develop strategies to address violence against women and girls.”

Arti Devi, Database Officer for Pacific Women Lead at SPC programme, explains how crisis centres adopting administrative databases to track volumes of women being counselled as well as identify trends to assist support services, survivors, lawmakers and others address violence against women and girls.

In her role, Arti oversees the data management support to the programme and its partners including the only crisis service in Federated States of Micronesia, Tongen Inepwineu Counseling Center (TICC) run by the Chuuk Women’s Council (CWC) in Chuuk State. She is also currently designing a database for Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI) and its Weto in Mour counselling service.

The Gender-based Violence (GBV) administrative database is designed as a data management tool for crisis centres moving from basic, paper-based documentation of client information to a consolidated, data-focused electronic approach.

“This database has been set up to complement their services and also provide very clear indicators for them to be able to track, if there’s a repeat counselling session, how often does this particular client come in, and other details,” Arti said.

This database approach is known to assist crisis centres better track their cases, identify trends, and capture overall volumes of violence against women and girls (VAWG) compared to the documentation of client information on paper.

When used in community awareness, VAWG data has proven in several cases, to make women in Chuuk realise the large scale of the problem and to subsequently decide to report domestic violence.

“It can also assist organisations like Pacific Women Lead design future programmes based on evidence,” she said.

About Pacific Women Lead 

One of the largest global commitments to gender equality, Pacific Women Lead aims to promote women’s leadership, realise women’s rights, and increase the effectiveness of regional gender equality efforts.

The Pacific Women Lead (PWL) programme at the Pacific Community (SPC), termed PWL at SPC, has more than AUD 55 million dedicated to its work under the Australian Government’s AUD 170 million Pacific Women Lead portfolio. This partnership with the Australian Government commits SPC to deliver the PWL programme, as the cornerstone for the portfolio.

Mereseini Rakuita: From a girl by the sea to SPC's Principal Strategic Lead

Submitted by JBerrell on Thu, 24/11/2022 - 13:22
English

Written by Sian Rolls for the Women In Fisheries Information Bulletin Issue 36, September 2022, available online: http://bit.ly/WIF36(link is external)

 

In a village by the deep blue waters of Natewa Bay, a loving mother and father sowed the seed of equality in their home.  

Mereseini Rakuita grew up playing in the ocean, collecting firewood and coconuts, and eating pawpaw and oranges fresh from the plantation.  

“Growing up in a coastal community, I got to see on a daily basis how my mum and aunts and grandmothers would go out to the shore to put food on the table.” 

“My mother grew up in a setting with clearly demarcated gender roles, but was applying gender equality principles without me realising at the time. She’d make sure that if I wash my dishes, my brothers do too; if one of us is late home, girl or boy, your food is kept; you mess up, you get a telling off just like your brothers – you don’t get your hair cut off just because you’re a girl.” 

This early demonstration of equality in the home despite a prevailing patriarchal culture, ingrained a standard of behaviour that has guided Mereseini’s life journey.  

“A lot of times we undervalue our upbringing and how that shapes the person that you become later on in life – the roles that you take up and how that upbringing impacts on how you see things at work.” 

From the seaside, the family moved around the country as civil servants often do – from the Northern Island of Fiji, Vanua Levu, to the Western Division and then to the capital city.  

“I spent a few years in different towns around Fiji and that gave me an opportunity to befriend children from other cultures – giving me an insight on the different circumstances and lived experiences of different families that shaped my thinking around issues that I got to deal with as an adult. I had a great upbringing, with great parents who taught me the value of hard work, of commitment, and of achieving the things you put your mind to. But also empathy, compassion and basic human decency that’s needed in every place that we serve.” 

And service was indeed her guiding star – after finishing legal studies, there was no question of where to next. 

“My father used to take me to his office and as a little girl, I’d walk in and tell myself ‘I want to work in an office like this’. I didn’t know what work I wanted to do – but moving from town to town and following my dad around communities really inspired me to venture into the public sector to serve people.” 

Mereseini joined the ranks of the civil service on the precipice of change. After joining, many senior staff were retiring and leaving positions open to younger civil servants to take up leadership.  

“Many of my mentors retired; opening a window of opportunity for me and my colleagues. As a young woman lawyer being promoted to a senior position made me realise I had the capacity to perform the role, but I may not necessarily have had the opportunity otherwise. With capacities, it doesn’t have to do with gender or age – but back in my early civil service days my workplace was a boy’s club and getting into that space wasn’t easy.” 

The issue, she says, was not a malicious one. It was, simply, gender blindness.  

“They’re all good people. I had great mentors who were men and women who taught me how to write a good legal opinion, but nobody was thinking about gender equality. No one was thinking about the impact of the gender blindness on policy, procedure or infrastructure.”  

This is part and parcel of Mereseini’s motivation to keep moving forward – from civil service to politics and now the Pacific Community (SPC) to make a change.  

As Principal Strategic Lead – Pacific Women, Mereseini stands shoulder-to-shoulder within the executive team within SPC. Reporting directly to the Director General, Dr Stuart Minchin, to elevate the importance of gender equality in the work of the whole organisation. 

“SPC is spearheading some great initiatives.” 

“The Women in Leadership programme is looking at women in the workplace; both for the professional setting but also considering the unpaid care economy and its impact on deliverables at work.” 

When considering equality in the workplace, Mereseini reflected on her own experience as a working mother. 

“My three children are my greatest achievement. My youngest is six years old. I had him when I was a government minister. I could bring the baby to the office and breastfeed during the day.” 

Acknowledging a level of privilege, she’s encouraged by recent developments at SPC like a creche for the Nabua Campus in Fiji. “I think every organisation should look into what they’re doing to support women, including those who may not yet be at a senior level – and I’m glad to see SPC leading the way on this.”  

Alongside the ‘internal’ work, the organisation is making great strides in advancing gender equality in sectors like fisheries. 

Mereseini knows the pressures of governments to meet their own gender equality commitments – she held the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation portfolio and travelled to Geneva as head of the delegation for the 69th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 2018. In preparation for the questions from the Committee, she reviewed the available data to get a clear picture of the situation of women and girls in the country.  

Preparing for CEDAW was a ‘light bulb’ moment that cemented her lifelong commitment to gender equality in her career. The data confirmed and quantified vast gender disparities, highlighting the significant volume of work needed to address gender inequalities.  

“Looking at the statistics on labour force participation of women and gender-based violence really, really showed the amount of work and the type of work that had to be done. We could see the sectors that are ‘traditionally male oriented’ and overlook the contribution and role of women, like fisheries.” 

For example, Pacific women comprise 70–90 per cent of the tuna processing force but continue to face barriers to safety, transportation, managing the burden of unpaid care work in the home, and limited skills development and promotional activities.  

“By producing the gender disaggregated data and tools, it gives us the insight to further support Pacific Island Countries and Territories to tailor their policies accordingly – something that SPC has been doing for decades.” 

“For those working on the ground, there has been the development of tools and resources to support tailored application of gender as well as increased training facilitated through the Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems (FAME) and Human Rights and Social Development (HRSD) divisions to mainstream gender in the policy and programming work of national fisheries agencies.” 

“Through FAME, there has also been a growing body of research on gender and fisheries through country assessments as well as pre-harvest and post-harvest fishing activities. The work of the latter unearthed the volume of work that women are doing that really solidifies the kind of work that I would see the women back home in Natewa Bay doing; they’re venturing into new roles in the harvesting, value-adding and marketing space and breaking resistant gender barriers. So, I’m also glad to see the FAME Aquaculture team supporting the women oyster fishers in the Rewa River Delta in Fiji, and enabling their greater market access and training to address health and safety aspects  for the safe consumption of wild oysters.” 

These initiatives are bringing to life the parallel work on strategies like the recent and first Pacific Framework for Action on scaling-up Community-based Fisheries Management (2021) and a key guiding regional fisheries instrument ‘A new song for coastal fisheries – pathways to change: The Noumea strategy’. Also underway is a gender equality, social inclusion and human rights handbook highlighting the social dimensions across on-and offshore operations, at port or in science and management in the tuna industry. 

With gender mainstreaming a significant priority for SPC as it moves to implement more integrated programming under the organisation’s Strategic Plan 2022–2031, this volume of work shows promise in existing initiatives and ways of working. To build on the successful work thus far, an ambitious task has been placed before Mereseini. 

“In my role, I’m looking across the whole organisation to see what we’re doing as an institution on gender equality. Then seeing where we as SPC need to go from here to sustainably mainstream gender equality as part of the people-centred approach to science, research and technology across the Sustainable Development Goals. It’s not something that can happen overnight. While we are doing this work, it must also be done properly. We need the right motive for substantive, sustainable change.” 

While there is an ambitious mandate and a large organisation in the midst of change in front of her, Mereseini is not one to fear complex challenges.  

She’s inspired daily by her mother and remains steadfast in her commitment to gender equality since those early days by the ocean. 

“I’ve got all this education she didn’t, what excuse do I have not to do the work?” 

“She was able to teach me all these great things. So, rooted in faith and the ultimate belief that nothing happens by accident, I don’t see roadblocks or challenges – I see stepping stones. Every time I look back at an issue I encountered or a challenge I overcame, I see that it was an opportunity for development, to work differently or to strategise – pushing my capacity to its limit.  

“So, for gender equality and the principles that surround it – it has to do with behaviour and how our minds are shaped, especially in the circumstances we find ourselves in. It’s not just something that can be taught in school or a workshop. It goes back to parents and how we raise our children.” 

Subscribe to