Women's rights: Let's deal with poverty

Women's rights are for those who have an income. In order to effectively tackle their rights, we need to tackle poverty.

Many poor women in Africa still receive little or no education and, are unlikely to find a job which will enable them earn a decent living and are certainly not equal - in fact they are at the bottom of the pile.

These women face so many problems that their 'rights' are a long way from their minds. However, I have seen change in them when they graduate from business-centred training programmes which, not only give them business skills but improve their self-esteem. Organisations like Hand-in-Hand Eastern Africa are giving deprived women the know-how to work their way out of poverty.