“MY daughter can do anything, she can do anything in life.”
These are the words which have been a driving force for Samsun Nisha, a member of the Drekenikelo Musaraat Forum (DMF).
The words were uttered by her mother because the daughter, Samsun, was at home for four years after completing her secondary school education which was then up to Form Six level.
Samsun then landed a job at a garment factory. A year later, she was a first year nursing student at the Fiji School of Nursing.
After three years, Samsun graduated and started work at the St Giles Psychiatric Hospital. She was there for 15 years before, in 2006, she took up a lecturing post at where she had trained to become a nurse.
This Thursday just past, Samsun was sitting in a booth at the lower auditorium of the Civic Centre in Suva. Next to the 50-year-old was DMF treasurer Zareen Bibi. The two were representing their women’s group at the knowledge fair organised by the United Nations Development Program through its Strengthening Citizen Engagement in Fiji Initiative (SCEFI). SCEFI is funded by the European Union.
When asked what it was the DMF did, the two women simultaneously said: “Empower women.” Samsun took it a bit further when she said, “we empower women” and stressed “girls”.
“You know, women and girls go through a lot of domestic violence and often, they do not have anyone to turn to, they are not heard, they have no voice. We hope that through our help, they will one day come forward and serve the nation.”
To these ends the DMF, which has been in existence for four years and was registered with the Ministry of Women this year, has organised and held 16 sessions — workshops and other interactive knowledge dissemination forums — on HIV. At every session there were around 40 participants. The number is the same for the three sessions they held for violence against women.
On whether they were achieving their aim of empowering women and girls, both women responded with an emphatic “yes”.
Members of DMF help women of any ethnicity get their social welfare assistance, medication, pension, reduced bus fare cards and assistance for the free water scheme.
They have also helped victims of abuse and rape by putting them in touch with the police and Legal Aid Commission.
To let members of the community know what they are up to, DMF members knock on doors to tell women in the area of what they are organising. They also tell the headman (turaga ni koro) of Kasavu Village to let their iTaukei sisters know of the activities they are planing.
Samsun helps the group in various capacities.
“I help by doing some cooking and a bit of sewing. The president then wanted me to give talks on how they can do a professional presentation, I help with the organising of workshops and also give some advice on how things are to be done and in what order these are to be done, that kind of thing.”
After all, she wants women and girls who may have not had it good along, “one day come forward and serve the nation”.
