The women who are part of the Daughters of Mumbi network come from all age brackets, though we have some groups that are specifically for youth. We have a significant number of members who are single parents, including widows and widowers, as well as grandparents raising grandchildren orphaned through HIV/AIDS. Most of them are the main providers for their families and toil to provide food, shelter, education, health care, as well as water, fuel wood, and lighting. A majority of members are low-income and/or low-wage workers who do subsistence farming or own small village-level businesses and struggle on a daily basis to meet these basic rights. Most of them live in rural or peri-urban areas and have limited access to land, hence the use of garden bags as an effort to alleviate the dependency on the cash economy for every meal.
The girls and young women who are in the Daughters of Mumbi network primarily come through their parents and guardians, with the exception of those who are in the youth groups. Most of them come from the families described above and have little prospect of breaking the cycle of low-income/low-wage meager existence. However, in our programs and activities we draw on the four meanings of Mumbi and emphasize the need to value, educate, and protect the girl-child, consequently laying the foundation for the woman that she will become.
Our priorities include, in no particular order:
The root causes of the problems that women face are poverty and patriarchy. These twin oppressions limit and hinder women’s access to economic, social, religious, and political opportunities. At the same time, patriarchy and poverty foster conditions that lead to the violation of women’s rights to health, education, safe water, bodily integrity, and freedom from violence (physical, political, economic, cultural, etc.). Daughters of Mumbi programs and events work to expose the root causes of women’s oppression by working with groups of women to begin to confront the oppression and exploitation they face by unpacking and demystifying the oppression that women deal with on a daily basis.
Exposing and demystifying poverty and patriarchy begins to show women that the system that oppresses and exploits them can be subverted and/or overcome. For instance, if by planting garden bags, a woman reduces dependence and earns some income, she can begin to see herself as a contributor to the family income. As one woman put it, “it cracked open a window into her own potential.” Since many women say they stay in abusive relationships because they cannot support themselves and their children, the potential for economic independence is critical to the advancement of women’s human rights. Additionally, in the autonomous groups that are part of the Daughters of Mumbi network, women exercise leadership, strategize together, and learn from each other, thus creating a support system which helps strengthen women.