The World University Service of Canada jointly with the Tea Association of Malawi (Taml) has launched a one-year programme to empower women in the tea sector with access to leadership skills.
The programme, Supporting the Empowerment of Women is targeting three tea growing districts of Thyolo, Mulanje and Nkhatabay.
Launching the programme on Friday in Thyolo, WUSC Project Coordinator Bertha Mbichila said the project aims at improving leadership capacity of women in the tea sector.
She said very few women occupy managerial positions in the sector.
“Our main objective is to achieve a more meaningful and rewarding employment for women in the tea industry.
“The underrepresentation of women in decision making positions and lack of effective sexual harassment reporting mechanisms leave female workers feeling unsafe, vulnerable and unmotivated. This can affect not only the wellbeing of workers but also the overall production of tea estates,” she said.
Mbichila also said the project will also look at increasing tea estate management’s knowledge and understanding of gender and labour laws.
Taml Chief Executive Officer Clement Thindwa said the project aims to empower 240 women that will be trained as Trainers of Trainers (ToTs).
He said the ToTs will then train an additional 1,920 women through peer support networking.
“The tea sector employs an average of 60,000 people of which 30 percent are women. Through this project we expect the number of women to improve in the sector,” said Thindwa.
He said by increasing the number of women workers in the tea sector, production is also expected to improve.
The project is being supported with funding from Manitoba Council for International Cooperation (MCIC) and Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation
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