‘WOMEN KEY IN INCOME-GENERATING VENTURES’

By ROGERS KALERO WOMEN must continue to contribute to poverty alleviation and food security by engaging in various income-generating projects that will help improve livelihoods in communities, Kalulushi Mayor Rashida Mulenga has said. Ms Mulenga said it was important that women set a firm stage for economic empowerment and self-sustenance by embracing the culture of entrepreneurship in their various communities. The Mayor was speaking at the weekend when she officiated at the Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) National Women Affairs Committee (NWAC) fund-raising tea party to raise fund for a printing project and the rehabilitation of the institutional house. Ms Mulenga said it was good that women from MUZ had decided to engage in a project so that they could become self -sustaining instead of begging money from the union for any project. “As Kalulushi Mayor and as a woman, I must say it is good that women from MUZ have decided to embark on a fund-raising tea party to raise money for various projects which would include printing of T shirts, banners, caps and others. This is a well thought out project and in this, small and humble beginning, the women will be defined for greater heights. “Let me urge women to continue proving that they have capacity to alleviate poverty and promote food security in various communities.  It is such small projects that can set the stage for a successful entrepreneurship in communities,” Ms Mulenga said. Earlier, NWAC chairperson Gift Mwila said the NWAC was looking for more than K80, 000 to start the printing project and also rehabilitate the institutional house in Chamboli township. Ms Mwila said the committee included miners’ wives because they needed to be embraced in empowering women and fighting poverty, starting from household levels.