[Brussels, 29 December 2017] Sizani Ngubane, founder of Rural Women’s Movement of South Africa, member of the International Alliance of Women (EWL members), is the 2018 Woman of Distinction Awardee, an award given by the NGO CSW/ NY Committee. Sizani was nominated by IAW. Ngubane will be the keynote speaker for the NGO CSW62 Forum Consultation Day
Sunday, 11 March and will receive her award at the Reception, Tuesday, 13 March.
Sizani Ngubane is a powerful 72-year-old woman who has dedicated her life to promoting gender equality and fighting for women’s rights.
In 1994, South Africa was looking at the promise of a new democratic society. Black women bore the brunt of the systematic racism, and Sizani was a strong activist with the ANC (the social democratic political party of South-Africa). When the party was elected in 1994, she decided to make a change for rural women. Sizani and four other women founded a women’s organization, the Rural Women’s Movement (RWM).
They created an organization for rural women by rural women. In 1998, Sizani left her position as a Gender Specialist at the Association for Rural Development to concentrate her efforts on building the RWM. Twenty years later, RWM’s work is not finished, but Sizani still does not waver.
Sizani fought hard throughout her life to be seen as an equal in men’s eyes, and she is a shining example of how the hammer of fortitude can smash the glass ceiling. She is a role model for young girls and women, teaching through example that one is not indebted to one’s current situation but that instead, women have the power to break through and achieve their aims.
Read more on the website of the International Alliance of Women.
Picture article from http://www.iamwomanseries.com/our-stories/season-3-all-episodes/episode-13-sizani-ngubane/
