The project, estimated to cost $ 7.8m (about Shs 28bn) though the five-year construction period, shall be a one-stop centre for all things concerning women.
Imara originates from Kiswahili, meaning “firm”, “bold” or “resolute”, which ably represents the strides women around Uganda and beyond have taken and are willing to take in pursuit of gender equality.
“We are saying we need to be firm and advocate for gender equality in the long journey ahead. Despite the long journey ahead, we need to build on what we have done to get us to an equal future for women and men, boys and girls,” Munabi said.
She said the center is intended to become a space where women can come to have their leadership and decision-making skills honed.
“It will be a space where women come together to strategize and think about the necessary actions we need to take
in order to occupy more space and make the women’s voices heard as we continue to advocate for many issues. The center shall become a launch pad for our campaigns on some of the issues that we usually reflect. We want the center to become a one-of-a-kind safe, empowering space for women to have zero tolerance to sexual and gender- based violence.”
Violence against women hinders their active participation in leadership as it inhibits their political and socioeconomic empowerment.
“When women that have been battered come to the center, we want them to know they are in a safe space where we can safely talk about the issues and lay strategies on how to overcome them. A space where we shall come to re-energize, reflect, rejuvenate because a journey to gender equity is a long struggle. Many times because of the work we do, there’s a lot of backlash and mental health issues. We would like it to be a safe haven for women to be able to come back, reflect and go back into the struggle.”
Aware of existing structural challenges within society, Munabi emphasized the center shall become a space where women can engage decision-makers to realize that there is need for increased budget allocations towards fighting gender-based violence.
After 27 years of existence and having powerful women such as Winnie Byanyima at its helm, FOWODE will finally have a space that also offers rent, auditoriums, restaurants and other income-generating spaces to fill the financial gap left by donors as their funding towards gender equity and the women’s movements shrinks globally.
“It is one of our sustainability mechanisms; through the center, we will be able to get resources and then inject them into the work we do. This will reduce donor dependency while ensuring sustainability of our work.”
It is at the centre that women plan to also establish a hall of fame dedicated to celebrating the different women in the women’s movement that have walked the earth.
“Different women have lived illustrious careers. We haven’t reached the nitty-gritty of who shall be considered in the museum, but one thing for sure is that we shall have it.”
Many still feel the women’s movement has largely ignored the boy child in a country where there are no “men’s movements”. Munabi said the reason there has been emphasis on women and girls is because the girl child had suffered the brunt of history, social strife and poverty.
“When there’s a problem at home, it is always the girl child to sacrifice. We are not yet at equality. At FOWODE, we have realized that we need to work with men as our allies because we exist in a highly patriarchal society; to achieve our set goals, we have to engage the men, and we are having conversations with them.”
“Our strategy directly targets men and boys; if you are talking about allocation of resources, it is the men that occupy majority of these offices. You have to work with them using the evidence of the research you have done and lobby them on integrating women and girls because they are in the decision-making process.”
ABOUT FOWODE
FOWODE is a non-profit organization established in 1995 by a group of eight women: Winnie Byanyima, Solome Mukisa, Tezira Jamwa, Margaret Zziwa, Esther Opoti, Beninya Mukiibi and Margaret Ssebagereka.
These women were all representatives for different communities in the Constituent Assembly (CA). During the constitution-making process, they wanted to emphasise their gains in the Constitution. To achieve this, they formed a special-interest group caucus that brought in women, youth, workers and some other gender-responsive men within the assembly to advance women’s rights and equality.
The caucus worked with the women movement outside the CA to provide them with information and research. To achieve their set goals for a gender-responsive constitution, the caucus scrutinized every clause in the Constitution. And due to their effort, Uganda’s constitution was praised for its gender-responsiveness on the continent. It is after the CA that they decided to form an organization that could protect and consolidate their achievements, which birthed FOWODE.
Munabi says she is proud of the journey the organization has taken from 1995, as they have done a breadth of work at both national and local levels.
“When we started operations, our work mainly surrounded building and nurturing women leadership. We encouraged women to get into leadership spaces and working with them to become women legislators in the advancement of women rights and equality. We are proud that we paved the way for women into the public arena through our work.”
“We are also proud that we have been able to nurture transformative leadership. We do not stop at those who are already made, but also operate a pipeline that churns trailblazing leaders who, once they get into the spaces, are able to continue advancing the gender equality agenda while advocating for women’s rights.”
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