Women in communities in this day and age have not limited themselves to staying home only to be housewives, many have taken a step to do something for themselves and their families.
Rosemary Chikaile is one of these women that have stood up to empower themselves.
She is part of a women’s group in her community that recycle plastic bottles and plastic bags and have signed a contract with a recycling company called Solid Tech System.
Rosemary Chikaile lives in Kaunda Square Stage one. She’s a mother of three but currently lives with her husband and grandchildren.
Additionally, apart from recycling, she is part of a women’s group called Village Banking and Self-Help.
These women are involved in a number of activities such as giving loans amongst each other every time they meet for their monthly meetings, recycling bottles and selling of foodstuff.
Rosemary said the village banking program was introduced in their community in 2014.
However, the women decided to involve other activities that can help with earning money that will help to contribute a large share to their village banking accounts.
“We decided to pick recycling as our other form of activity because it comes with the benefit of earning us extra money.”
Said Rosemary.
Their recycling group consists of 30 women who divided themselves in groups of six and work on different days at the plastic collection point.
“Solid Tech System is a Chinese owned company. It makes use of used plastic bottles and recycles them to make products such as boots, gloves, plastic plates and cups,”
Said Rosemary.
She added that they have an agreement with the company to pay them every time they provide the company with a load of properly arranged bottles or plastics.
She said they gather plastic bottles and plastic pages, sort them out, put them in a compressing machine, make them into bundles and then tie them together.
She noted that this was not an easy thing to do but at the end of the day she has to earn a living and take care of her family.
Rosemary is one of the many women who have taken the step to be independent and not depend on her husband to provide for the household alone.
These women have done this regardless of their educational background. Women empowerment is essential for a developing country like Zambia and seeing women empower themselves and others is highly inspirational.