Scholarship fund for women

By Brenda Kageni

The media have not been spared. A massive layoff of journalists from media houses in Kenya, most of who were women, prompted the Association of Media Women in Kenya (Amwik) to start a scholarship fund in 2004 to allow members access better education and thereby improve their chances at employment.

"Many female journalists lacked papers; most were just diploma holders. We decided to do something to help our members access better education. We came up with a scholarship fund," says Jane Thuo, the association’s secretary general.

Previously, journalism and media training were not offered at undergraduate level at universities and most journalists who had diplomas ended up stuck at the lower cadre of the profession.

"When you are working in an organisation, you reach a ceiling as per your qualifications," says the association’s chair, Sylvia Machini. "We need to support members further their training by raising some money and paying for a few others. If members are not well educated, they cannot grow in the job or do consultancies. Education opens up more opportunities. They do not have to get stuck in the media. The media have too many problems relating to women. As Amwik, we are giving our members an opportunity to look outside the media," she adds.

Ms Jane Thuo, Amwik secretary general says the association supports members to further their training. Photo: Moses Omusula/Standard

The fund is revolving where a beneficiary repays 75 per cent of the amount loaned once they have completed their studies and gotten a job. In the past, the association that comprises of women in the media, communication and public relations fields, has held dinner events to raise money for the fund. This year, they will be holding another dinner on Saturday, October 30, and hope to raise more than Sh2 million.

So far they have been able to take 13 members to local universities — 11 for undergraduate and two for postgraduate studies.

Particularly concerned about the number of women holding management positions in media houses, Ms Thuo hopes the association could get more sponsorship, especially from academic institutions that can take up students.

Gender policies

"Currently we have less than two per cent of women in management in media houses. There seems to be too many push factors and most of them opt out."

Thuo, who feels there has been a lack of deliberate effort by media houses to promote equality due to unfocused gender policies, hopes that empowering female journalists through the scholarship fund will help place them in positions where they can influence policy and have more options open for them.

"We need women journalists. We need that woman angle and passion. We need to keep them in the media houses. We need to get them to management levels. We need more women looking out for the interest of society as they are less biased," she says.

The association aims for a highly professional membership and sees the scholarship fund as one way of having members who can participate across board in areas of media and society.

"The moment we have powerful people up there, we can start influencing policy change. If we do not, the portrayal of women will not be satisfactory. A big number of women can be loud enough while a small number, as we have right now, is easily drowned out," says Ms Machini.

Amwik was formed in 1985 prior to the UN women’s meeting in Nairobi the same year, from the realisation that media houses were not giving women issues any or adequate space.

"The little that was there was focusing on stereotypes about women as models," Machini says.

Women in the media recognised the strength they had — they could help the womenfolk highlight their issues in the various media. Then came the realisation that if they were going to discuss women issues, they needed training on tackling gender issues, dealing with changing environments in the media houses and addressing issues that promoted inequality, especially in their own workplaces.

Two concerns

Their activities since then have been geared towards promoting information and awareness among women in the media and in the larger community.

"Our activities are two-pronged," says Thuo. "We have gender and governance training on how women can use the media to position themselves in the community as leaders. Then we train journalists on how to address gender issues and to encourage them to promote gender equality by giving space, prominence and quality reporting to both men and women."

These programmes were to address the two inherent concerns that were causing a very low visibility of women in the media, a problem with the media conditioning and with the women themselves.

"Women are socialised in such a way that they do not see themselves as spokespeople for the society. But if someone is going to be in leadership, they have to learn to stop shying away from the media and to expose themselves to public scrutiny," says Thuo.

They started teaching women to let the public know them and on how to use the media to gain visibility for their issues.