Nancy Waweru: Now is the time to act on gender based violence
|Nancy Waweru from Kenya is leading the Homeless World Cup’s new programme tackling gender based violence.
Vijana Amani Pamoja (VAP) will represent Kenya at the Seoul 2024 Homeless World Cup in September.
We spoke to Nancy Waweru, VAP’s Head of Programmes at the Africa Women’s Cup in Tanzania about why it’s vital to raise awareness of gender-based violence and create safe spaces for women and girls.
Nancy is also the Regional Hub Manager for the Homeless World Cup’s new programme ‘Football to protect vulnerable women from exploitation’ which is being delivered in collaboration with the FIFA Foundation and four Homeless World Cup member countries - Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“We say in Swahili – ‘Kama si sasa ni sasa hivi’ – if it’s not now, it’s right, right now. This is the time let me tell you.”
Nancy Waweru is a woman in high demand, she’s been doing interviews with journalists all week in the run up to the 2024 Africa Women’s Cup, held in Arusha, Tanzania (29th – 30th June). Speaking to her, you quickly understand why everyone is trying to talk to her.
A trained psychologist who has worked all her life promoting women’s rights and tackling gender-based violence, Nancy was a clear choice to be the Regional Hub Manager working with her colleague Ann Nduku for the Homeless World Cup’s programme raising awareness gender-based violence against vulnerable women. The two-year programme is supported by the FIFA Foundation.
Nancy is softly spoken but you’d be naïve not to listen to her. She knows what she’s talking about and VAP’s women’s programme ‘Mrembo’ which she set up in 2007 – now supports more than 5,000 girls and women every year. ‘Mrembo’ means beauty in Swahili and the aim of the programme is to reveal the inner beauty of every woman and girl.
“Where I was growing up, I would see a lot of violations towards women, especially in Nairobi. It has always been my wish to advocate and have a programme that supports women. Looking around, looking at my friends, at my neighbours, looking at young girls having kids at a very tender age – which is statutory rape – that’s a violation. I always thought what can I do? And that’s why I came up with the programme which addresses issues on sexual reproductive health, gender-based violence and mental health.”
The new Homeless World Cup programme brings together four partners from Kenya (VAP), Tanzania (Future Stars Academy), Zambia (BUSA) and Zimbabwe (YSAD) to share knowledge and implement a curriculum on how to tackle gender-based violence against girls and women and support their mental health.
This is a project that needs to go beyond these four countries. I was reading a report and the results were staggering. It showed there was a significant global increase of gender-based violence during lockdown and an average rise of 30-50% of cases in Kenya and Nigeria. [1]
|Kenya finished third at the Africa Women’s Cup in Arusha, Tanzania.
The time to act is now
Speaking to Nancy, it’s evident that the time to act on gender-based violence and support girls and women is now.
“We say in Swahili – ‘Kama si sasa ni sasa hivi’ – if it’s not now, it’s right, right now. This is the time let me tell you. The statistics are there and they have told us what is happening.
“Gender based violence is a violation of human rights. It’s one of the most perversive forms and looking at statistics [in Kenya], in every three, one has been violated. The reason we prioritise women’s programmes is because of affirmative action, we understand that there has been a lot of historical injustice [in Kenya] towards women and especially adolescent girls.
“We feel that it’s important to create safe spaces for women to have candid conversations about issues and champion their rights and in one way or the other, we will shatter the glass ceiling.”
Enabling women and girls to speak about their experience, Nancy explains is essential. Another is including men in the wider conversation and challenging and reframing how society in Kenya sees and treats women.
“We need to talk about positive masculinity, because looking at violence against women – what about the perpetrators? They’re the men. So how is gender socialisation in our Kenyan context – how is the power imbalance and the patriarchal society influencing gender-based violence? So maybe just go back and look at how we’ve been socialised and deconstruct and reconstruct our mindset regarding women.”
One of the ways VAP is shattering the glass ceiling is creating a learning space for women and girls on the football pitch.
“Football will challenge gender norms, football traditionally is a game for boys but there is a whole narrative, if a boy can play – a girl can play.
“Football is like a religion – it brings on board different girls and here we see people from different cultures coming together. It promotes peace. Especially coming from a country where there has been a lot of unrest, we have used football to preach peace. Football is also a good avenue to teach certain skills – confidence, team-work, self-esteem and leadership.”
With a leader like Nancy Waweru championing the rights of women in Kenya and internationally, it’s evident the time for change and shattering the glass ceiling is definitely right, right now.
[1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311983.2023.2188772
The Africa Women’s Cup took place in Arusha in Tanzania from 29-30th June 2024. Nancy Waweru is the Head of Programmes at Vijana Amani Pamoja (VAP) and the Regional Hub Manager for the ‘Football to Protect Vulnerable Women from Exploitation’ programme.
The tournament is part of a two-year FIFA Foundation funded programme which is bringing together four African Homeless World Cup member countries – Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe – to raise awareness of gender-based violence and develop and implement a new curriculum to help protect vulnerable women.
Words & photos: Rebecca Corbett