From the community context one can tell that my community has needs that require remedy.Women lacking access to information on empowerment programs and they have low self-esteem which makes them fail to take up leadership roles in the community because they lack education. Therefore there is a need to bring these services closer and empower them with leadership skills.

In as much as efforts have been made to support women on entrepreneurship programs, many of them still lack the education  which in most cases is the reason for the businesses to fail. Mainly they can not hold themselves accountable because they can't read and write. A bigger number of women entrepreneurs are victims of this.

The impact of women's literacy education on the empowerment of women cannot be overemphasized. In Zambia, as in most developing countries of the world, literacy education is valued so much that it is looked upon as a pre-requisite for all the shortcomings of society as well as the surest means for empowering women and for national development.

From another perspective, there has been an increase in the numbers of Gender-Based violence GBV) cases recorded.According to the 2019 second-quarter report from the Zambian Police ,it has been highlighted that there were 1,756 cases of Assult recorded countrywide representing 28.6% of the reported GBV cases out of which 1,513 were female victims against 243 male victims.And in comparison with the second quarter of 2018,6,074 cases were recorded countrywide against 6.139 cases recorded in 2019 showing an increase of 65 cases translating to 1,1% increase.

From these statistics,it is evident that Gender-Based Violence cases have continued to rise and that a lot of cases are being withdrawn by complainants.There is still a need for all stakeholders including communities to collaborate and heighten the fight against the scourge.We are alive to the fact that some cases of GBV still remain unreported.

Mufumbwe, where I stay and work, is a district located 245km from the provincial capital Solwezi, and it takes 5 hours’ drive to access the Provincial capital. In our community, there are few if not only 2 non – profit organizations existing and these are reaching out on issues that surrounding game management protection and HIV/AIDS.

The other agency is the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services through the Department of Community Development that is reaching out to the community with two programs namely Village Banking and Fertilizer Support Program (FISP). Village Banking a program that government provides funds to women as loans with a 20 percent return rate. Women do investing in different businesses to grow the funds while remaining committed to the obligation of repaying the loan. The other program is the Fertilizer Support program (FISP) this program supplies women and men with farming inputs then repays the inputs with a specific number of bags containing maize as agreed on the collection time.

It’s a pity to report that such initiatives from the government have not been creating the impact in order to remove people from the poverty trap because they are not funded, therefore women are forced to lose confidence in the services rendered by the government.

Additionally, Zambia is among the countries that continue to record high cases of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and our community in Mufumbwe has not been left out. Women have been the victims in this case,men would prefer abusing the household income generated from the farm harvests on alcohol and gambling leaving the household without anything, it is from this scenario that women are  forced to fight back with a view of protecting the families interest  and put the man to task to use the many on household needs and not on social personal gratification and this is one among other scenarios of the cause of GBV.

With this background lies the foundation why we are rolling out Capable Women`s Expo (CWE), a program that  allows  women who lack access to information on empowerment and entrepreneurship programs have access to information through the expo,women with little education are empowered with literacy skills in reading writing and counting, a skill that will give them the ability to recruit more women to participate in entrepreneurship programs than enables them to learn the ways of marketing and packaging their products for international exhibits during festivals,it is through all these lined up initiatives that women will gain confidence and assuming leadership roles and positions in the community a skill acquired through the two days capacity building workshop.

In order to reduce the high case of GBV, the project will put up a Gender-Based Violence (GBV) committee as a support system, a committee made form the influential leaders in the community such as; Ward counselors,Clergymen, and Headmen. The committee  will be raising awareness on the dangers of GBV and provide advice and support to the victims of GBV.

All these activities will be implemented between January 2020 to June 2020 in the district of Mufumbwe in Zambia.