Blog

In the closing month of the year, we wish to thank our community for supporting us along this journey. 2021 was like its predecessor, a tough year. Our communities remain as vulnerable to COVID, Climate Change, Capitalism, Landlessness, and Hunger as ever! With this year\’s challenges, we wish to also illuminate some of the highlights our countries share in their reflections below, and the key events are turned into a word cloud as seen above.

Namibia

Reflection for 2021

The Feminist School consolidated a lot of what Namibia\’s leadership regarded as a highlight- Solidarity, common learning and strategies for resilience and towards building a movement that seeks to break down the impact of Capitalism. Climate and COVID19.  Some of the events to highlight;

1. Solidarity massages to Cabo Delgado, Mozambique 

This was a good reflection to the rural women to share their feelings to others, fellow women, through messages. it was built and gave women a strong feeling that whenever you are passing in difficulties they are not alone, other sisters always be next to you. They feel that wherever women are passing through challenges let us stand together and make sure our voices are being heard to help each other physically and spiritually.

1. Covid 19 vaccine webinar

Upon the introduction of the vaccine there has been much confusion and mixed feeling among our member and the people especially in rural communities has been influenced by urban citizens on the danger of the vaccine. Nrwa participated in a regional webinar on a covid vaccine with members around the country the webinar was an eye-opener to our members because they had time to share their experience with each other and to ask questions to the presenters about the number of people turning to get vaccinated had changed just after the week of the webinar which has indicated that a lot has listened and shared with others on the vaccination 

1. Seed workshop

Namibia Rural women Assembly held meetings in different Regions where they discussed about the importance of Indigenous seeds and why they want to keep them for the generation to come. Women also encouraged each other to be strong during this time of COVID 19, they expressed sympathy to the other who lost their beloved one and encourage each other to stick to the rules set up to protect each other and talking about vaccination.

Rural women expressed, showed the importance and value of indigenous seeds. Because of their importance and value, it is easy to store /save them for future users. We used ash to store our seeds to protect them not to be destroyed by insects.  Ash is not a chemical because it does no harm, a person can eat food with it. 

Women suggested that indigenous seeds must be registered as seeds not to be called grains. They need their own certificate and logo on their products. Women are the producers of the grains and seed growers or big companies take them to modify them and bring them back to sell to the farmers to make a profit from them. Women are demanding their rights on the seeds issue.

Indigenous Seeds or Traditional seeds must be recognized by the law. These are organic products without pesticides and herbicides.

• There must be a catalogue for the indigenous seeds.
• There must be a seed banks for traditional / indigenous seeds that should be made available for the crop’s producer in all regions e.g., Omusati, Oshana, Oshakati, and Kavango East. Kavango west, Zambezi.
• Substance Farmers must also be benefiting from the rural (small scare) production scheme not only larger Scale producers.
• RWA should be represented at all levels of seed committees at local, Regional, and national 
• The law should include specific rules for quality assurance of farmers seed according to criteria defined by farmers and their collectives.

Women were excited about the seed workshops because they have been waiting for it and they learn more from each other’s and planned to do the seed research/campaign countrywide. The aim is to influence and teach other women/farmers the importance of indigenous seeds and encourage them to establish seed banks in rural areas. To know more about different types of seeds in the country and to know the names of all local seeds to put them in a catalogue. In this way, the rural women/ farmers life can be uplifted and be able to take part in marketing. 

1. International Rural Women day and world food day

Objectives of the Event

• To know the important of our indigenous seeds and indigenous food.
• To enable women farmers and Youth to come together to share knowledge and     experiences
• To equip farmers with agricultural and livestock production and marketing information.
• To enhance the competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitude) of farmers,
• To enhance the interface between Namibia Rural Women Assembly (NRWA), farmers and service providers in the Agriculture Industry
• To support farmers to improve their farming practices 
• To gather information about the agriculture industry (on farm information, not just guesstimates) and most importantly to disseminate information on best practices to farmers. 
• To conduct mini agricultural show and coffer awards

  GOOD FOOD COME FROM GOOD SEEDs

1.  Food Sovereignty initiative

Food security has become a fundamental issue affecting the whole country and especially the people living in the rural areas. The covid-19 pandemic shed light on the imported products that we consume. Our core initiates it to help the government to solve the food security issue. rural women assembly members have been working around the clock to increase awareness among the community and brainstorm on various initiatives aimed at improving the livelihood of the entire community. The latter gave birth to the Community hostel garden. Most if not all community hostels are solely funded by the community members and rural women mostly carry the burden of making sure the kids don’t sleep on a hungry stomach. 

1. Feminist School

Women learn more about the meaning of these 

Multi-Oppression, Agrarian transformation, decolonization’s, race, structure of oppression, the commons, economy, who has power, who control resources-land and finance, justice, and interrelationship. 

Then how to integrate these in the building of RWA.

• Make use of social, print, and electronic media
• Call out inequality
• Support non-profit organizations working for a woman
• Elicit support from men
• Advocate for women rights
• Freedom
• Dependence
• Access to opportunities
• Collaboration
• Promote entrepreneurship with our women
• Include young women help to grow the organization.

1. Climate Justice

Women demand the Government to assist in this:

• Construction of earth Dams and Boreholes to plant indigenous trees such as Acacia, Marula, Mopani, palm, Neem etc. to reduce heat and land degradation which is threatening food security.
• GRN must do research on indigenous plants/ trees to find out Medicine, nutrients, and many more benefits.
• GRN must provide Grants aimed at financial, technical, and capacity building
• Both Namibian and Angola government to set up measures on hoe to rescue to poor families that lost their homes due to drought 

7.  Value Addition food processing joint event 

Plan workshop on rural women in Agriculture (Otjozondjupa, Erongo and Omaheke Region)

Background

The well-recognized low status of women in Namibia also has implications for women’s involvement in agriculture and the returns to women of their inputs into the sector. Experience indicates that women’s involvement in agriculture is not supported by a corresponding recognition of women as key stakeholders in agriculture. Women in rural areas continue to have limited access to productive resources and services, markets, and marketing facilities. Rural women’s involvement in agriculture and their status in their households and communities also have implications for access to food for them and other vulnerable household members such as children. Overlaid on these factors are changing food

consumption habits, new technology and integration of world markets, all of which are influencing food and farming practices across countries. 

There is an increasing shift towards high value and processed food and increasing consumption of meat, eggs, fish, milk, and dairy products. These changes have significant implications for agriculture in general and farming communities including women. Key aspects that is central to the issue of women in agriculture and has generally been overlooked by many institutions including the central government. If women’s empowerment is to be achieved and sustained in agriculture, it must be complemented by programmes that include working with men to bring about the desired structural change. Gender mainstreaming should, therefore, be a cross-cutting theme across all programmes. It is in this changing agricultural context and the socio-cultural context of rural Namibia that it becomes imperative to examine the role of women through all stages of the agriculture value chain, from seed collection to crop production and marketing and consumption. Such an analysis can help identify key issues, opportunities, and constraints to the involvement of women in agriculture. 

ACCESS TO PRODUCTIVE RESOURCES & SERVICES

A major constraint to mainstreaming women’s issues in agriculture is the lack of access to and control and ownership of productive resources such as land, water, credit, agricultural inputs, training, and extension services. 

ACCESS TO MARKETS AND MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

In addition to limited access to markets and marketing opportunities, women in rural areas also face constraints with respect to access to appropriate knowledge and information on markets and related aspects. Agriculture diversification and an integrated farming systems approach offer immense opportunities for both income generation and food security, particularly for women in rural areas. It is imperative to support such approaches for facilitating women’s access to markets, and business development services. For example, it is important to ask whether collective approaches to marketing can provide women with access to other high-value markets. Furthermore, it is important to consider what kinds of marketing arrangements allow women to gain and control income, and the effects this may have on their status in the household.

IMPROVED ACCESS TO FOOD AND IMPACTS ON NUTRITION

It is well known that women are a gateway both to household food security and child health and nutrition. The influence of women’s social status on the wellbeing of their children, especially in Africa, is also known. In the context of the plan workshop, it is important to examine the role of women’s status and decision-making in the household both for their involvement in agriculture as well as their use of the products of their involvement in agriculture for their own wellbeing and that of their children. Availability of adequate food (quantity and quality), patterns of consumption and impacts on nutritional outcomes for women and other vulnerable household members are, therefore, dependent on intra-household allocation of resources. Within the context of household dynamics, food security is related to decisions regarding responsibility for food production, earning cash income for food purchases, purchasing, and preparing food and finally actual access to food in terms of consumption. 

The overarching objective of the workshop

The workshop aims at discussing strategies that contribute to the process of mainstreaming and institutionalizing successful approaches in agriculture development that have improved and facilitated women’s access to productive resources and services, markets, food sovereignty and nutrition.

The focus of the workshop

• Increasing availability, access and affordability of nutritious food for women and families living in poverty and supporting women ‘s contributions to food security.
• Improving women ‘s rights to access, use, control and ownership of land.
• Understanding and unlocking agricultural value chains so that the returns to women are maximized.
• Strengthening rural women ‘s voice and leadership.
• Facilitating women ‘s contributions to poverty reduction by strengthening their important role in the agriculture sector.

Purpose and objectives

The workshop aimed to:

• Help participants deepen their knowledge and understanding of issues related to women‘s access to productive resources and markets for food security and agriculture.
• Identify entry points for strengthening practice in both policy approaches and programming.
• Encourage the free exchange of information and collaboration amongst gender advisors, agricultural specialists and other development actors from bilateral and multilateral agencies, government partners and civil society.

Outcomes  

• The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication and diversifying 
• Identification of precautionary measures that could be put in place to prevent future adverse 
• Impacts of food crises on rural women, with special emphasis about women n agribusiness.
• Examination of new approaches to rural women ‘s economic empowerment.
• Identification of opportunities to scale up and replicate good practices on promoting gender equality and the empowerment of rural women.

Recommendations/Way forward

• Women Farmers called for further information in particular excursion/ exposure visit to various projects, training on poultry and vegetable gardening and chicken farming. This FID was well organized, and it was very successful. Provision of food was very good.
• The NRWA is determinant to ensure women’ emancipation, farmers productivity and increase in food production in the area. They are planning for an excursion and more training of their community members especially women and youth. It was recommended to conduct NRWA exposure visit to various projects soonest.
• Women are caretaker, conscience, farmers, educator, and an entrepreneur. The central role of women in society has ensured the stability, progress, and long-term development of nations. 

• Women are more oppressed because of some unrecognized cultural groups and beliefs. Women are forced by circumstances to join the military or many other institutions as they must bring food on table for their families as some are single head of house.

• Women play a vital role in many workplaces; they are soldiers on the frontline but are not recognised.

• As rural women we demand that the following practice should be put in place.

•  Improvement of women\’s access to health care, reproductive rights, and protection from violence have positive effects on everyone\’s life expectancy and well-being, especially children. 

•  For farmers to promote business opportunities, as it can influence policy makers to enact more farmer-friendly laws and regulations. 

• To make women more visible, to reconceptualize to improve their lives and open way for new policies

• RWA to connect Namibia with Angola sisters so we can look for a way on how to bring on board the women at etunda as RWA members that will make our work easy on finding for them any assistance.

As women, we should stand together to strive for 

* collective struggle

* make use of social/print and electronic media

* call out inequality

* support non-profit organizations working for women

* rally for political support

* elicit support from men

* We want the government to supply water to landowners or farmers 

* freedom of expression

* advocate for women rights

* access to opportunities

* promote entrepreneurship with our young women to help grow the organization

* collaboration

*dependence  

This year our sisters in Namibia took away that solidarity is key to understanding our struggle as a collective, and to creating strategies that serve us as a collective. 

Zimbabwe

The year 2021

The year 2021 was full of activity, especially for the Rural Women Assembly members. The year 2021 started the year with a country lockdown that restricted movement and women could not access markets coupled with a lot of challenges. However, as the Rural Women Assembly, the year was full of activities, some of the key activities that stood out for the year, including participating virtually at the SADC Peoples summit, participating at the food festival, participating at the regional feminist school, commemorating the international rural women’s and the RWA District meetings. 
Here are some key events and campaigns that stood out for us this year;

1. SADC Peoples Summit

The SADC peoples Summit which happened from the 17^th to the 19^th of August 2021 and ran under the theme Bolstering, Productive Capacities in the Face of Covid 19 Pandemic for Inclusive, Sustainable, Economic and Industrial Transformation. The issues that were discussed during the 3 days include, Discussions done during the first day were centred around topical and current issues that are affecting rural women farmers and how these could be addressed. Some of the issues discussed include the impact of natural disasters (floods, cyclones, drought and pandemics like Covid 19).  The participants who included farmers, funding partners and other women’s organisations discussed how women have been impacted by these factors in their businesses. They further came up with alternatives and climate resilience strategies. Some of the issues that were raised by the rural women during the Peoples Summit include, women produce nutritious food but they are not recognised, women produced crops remained trivialised and are excluded from the market, Governments are under pressure to give value to hybrids and chemical that are harmful to our food system, food systems are captured by capitalists, the food system is profit oriented not people / health centred, lack of technological investment in value addition/ assisting devices for processing indigenous food, limited engagement of women in food dialogue and food policy processes and food is expensive and beyond the reach of many

2. Food festival

The 2021 Food festival was commemorated both virtually and physically. The virtual commemorations were done from 29 September and 30 September 2021. The theme of this year’s festival was good food comes from good seed. The physical displaying of seeds and the rural women on the 2^nd of October 2021. The women came together with their seeds and shared seeds and the knowledge on seeds

3. Feminist School

The Zimbabwean chapter joined the regional sisters and participated in the regional feminist school from the 29^th of November 2021 to the 3^rd of December 2021. This years feminist was outstanding as it focused more on the young RWA members.

4. RWA District Meetings

The rural women conducted district meeting in Gokwe, Makoni, Chipinge, Nkayi, Bubi, Gweru, Hwedza, Makonde and Gwanda. The district meetings were conducted during the month of October and November 2021. The rural women had to do the district meetings due to the COVID 19 regulations which are limiting numbers. The women had a time to share their joy and concerns. They also had a time to celebrate how they survived during the difficult year of 2021.

RWA really took advantage of the loosening restrictions on our movement and curated a few golden moments with our communities.

Lesotho

The Endless Crisis, little relief

The year 2021, has in some parts felt like an endless struggle- Lesotho has been through a lot but there is a lot we can celebrate.
Some of the key events that really stood out are as follows;

1. Feminist school
2. Cabo Delgado webinar
3. International Rural women’s day and World food day
4. Climate justice clean-up campaign in Butha-Buthe district
5. GBV workshop in Leribe district
6. HRWA staff and farmers got a chance to attend permaculture training.

RWA Lesotho really took advantage of connecting with our members again. After about a year of lockdowns and isolation from social gatherings and collective work, this year has allowed us to bridge into projects that brought us back to our members. We truly missed and appreciated being able to spend this time out in the rurals, in a way that 2020 did not allow. Continued hybrid events which were online and offline, kept our connection to the region equally strong. 

Zambia 

The year of online solidarity and Community Mobilization 

For the first half of the year 2021, RWA Zambia concentrated on seed sharing among its members and member mobilization at the community level. There was also participating in an online indigenous seed protection campaign in collaboration with partner organisations. Due to COVID – 19 most activities were not implemented. However, as the restrictions relaxed, this opened the way for programs and activities to take place. Here are some of our key events;

1. Cabo Delgado Webinar: RWA Zambia members began half the year by showing solidarity to the sisters in Cabo Delgado, demonstrating with placards and chanting slogans. A letter was also written to the Mozambican embassy to further their cause.
2. Local Elections : The mid-year also came with elections and activities were slowed down to allow for time to vote and wait for election results. Ultimately, the elections were successful and a government chosen by the people was ushered into power.
3. SAPSN: Meanwhile, preparations were underway for the peoples’ summit in Malawi and on the actual day at least 50 sisters took part in the online discussions as they joined on a few phones in large numbers.
4. Expansion of RWA into new communities: In terms of member mobilization, RWA Zambia expanded to add new members based in Petauke and Lufwanyama to the districts in September.
5. International Rural Women\’s Day and World Food day : In October, International Rural Womens’ day was celebrated alongside World Food Day and RWA Zambia in its various regions had women gather and celebrate the indigenous seed and food grown in their local communities. A team from the Copperbelt region participated in the National Seed and Food festival in the country capital on World Food Day.
6. Zambia Independence Day: Independence day for Zambia is on the 24th October and the sisters also gathered together to celebrate and appreciate the rural woman. Two media team members attended a media training for two days in South Africa.
7. Global Day of Action for Climate Justice: November began with the Global Climate week and yet again sisters joined in solidarity online to campaign and advocate for climate justice.
8. Feminist School: The year closed with the Feminist school being celebrated in the individual country chapters with some sessions being conducted online. 2021 has seen more young rural women come on board and this has been an inspiration to existing and potential members. The activities such as seed sharing has enabled RWA Zambia to build on its membership and solidify further connections with existing members. Many members have had to learn to use online platforms and this has been an added beneficial skill to the sisters.

Reflections for 2022 from the leadership

We hope to receive support to do activities in the existing and newly established districts. Do more membership mobilisation as well as resource mobilisation. Hope to have provincial seed banks as well as more capacity building in agroecology and organic farming by using our available natural resources. We also hope to mobilise funds for an AGM.

South Africa

The eye of the storm has passed

For RWA South Africa, operating in a country that is in constant trauma makes it hard sometimes to recognise progress. However, this was in reflection, quite a powerful year, which sets the foundation for next years demands and actions towards relief for the strain that rural women have to carry in this country. Some of our key campaigns and victories came in the form of six main campaigns:

1. ONE WOMEN ONE HECTARE

• Land campaign in Boschendal where women decided to reignite the One Women One Hectare campaign.
• Picketing across the country dropping banners for the OWOH campaign as to collect women signatures who wants to acquire land.
• Big Marches across the country, marching to Municipal offices carrying our banners for OWOH campaign, the main aim for the march was to attract and hold government accountable for our land. Each and every province managed to have a march and carrying the letter of demands from us women from the rural areas because we want fertile land with an access to water
•  Guerilla gardening’s across the country where women were planting in free spaces in their communities
• Agro ecology trainings throughout the year “training of the trainers” the reason for this is to help people from the rural areas to fight food insecurity and hunger.

2. GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

• Awareness raising in Bullying in schools seeing that the Bullying is taking place and school kids are affected because they even commit suicides
• Handing out our SMS helpline stickers to every public area so that people can get help
• RWA SA in the Eastern Cape region took part in a rape case in one of the schools around and we became helpful to the school because we did an awareness and we helped the victim with the necessary help and we sent the case to counseling facilities and clinics for testing.

3. SEED Audit

• Women were engaged in seed work and tasked to verify our own indigenous seeds and to complete the list of the seeds we have in our country

4. BASIC INCOME GRANT

• RWA SA took part in this campaign as to fight for an increment of the social grants for our people who are suffering and people who do not have an income to survive since the R350 is not enough to sustain a family for the whole month.

5. CLIMATE JUSTICE

• RWA SA in the Western region had a picketing in front of the parliament so as to say NO to the polluters who are polluting our ozone layer, RWA says NO gas emissions and pollution.

6. FEMINIST SCHOOL

• RWA SA had a feminist school that was an educational platform and an eye opener to us as a way on how we view life and its perspective.
• We learnt about structures of oppression
• Tropical cyclone that affected our neighboring countries and its impact on women and children

Much like is true for the other countries in the region, the feminist school really brought together the theme of solidarity and movement building. The majority of the sisters that attended the Feminist School from South Africa were newer members who may not know too much about RWA. After the feminist school, solidarity bridged our borders.

Madagascar

An unrelenting year of fight for rural women

The year 2021 was a year of an unrelenting fight for rural women in Madagascar. Destructive mining and natural resource extraction projects continue to threaten rural areas, particularly in the south with the ilmenite mining project, and in the north with the rare earth mining project. Thus, the women of RWA Madagascar have consistently raised their voices to counter these projects and preserve their communities.

In the same vein, RWA Madagascar has engaged in a general campaign for Climate Justice and the Right to Say No in anticipation of COP 26 which was held this year. On July 29, rural women gathered to receive training on Human Rights and Climate Justice as a start to the campaign. RWA Madagascar then kick-started their action on September 24 by participating in a public forum where a representative from RWA Madagascar\’s Southeast region gave her testimony about the damage caused by a mining project on her community\’s life. The next day, September 25, rural women also took part in a public event to raise awareness around their struggles, again as part of the campaign for Climate Justice and the Right to Say No. They also held a celebration for World Food day and Rural Women’s Month in October. The protests, statements and demands of rural women then continued until November 6, when they gathered again for the Global Climate Action Day, and took part in the Madagascar Festival of Ecology. They exhibited their products, their achievements during the year, as well as their demands and expectations for the COP 26 which took place the same day. This festival was the largest event in which RWA Madagascar participated, and all the efforts made during this year 2021 were in order to carry out this campaign and leading up to this very significant date.

This year is coming to an end, but as long as the voices of rural women are not heard and as long as their rights are threatened, the struggle will never end.

Malawi

2020 wrapped in 2021

This story focuses on our country-level reflection of the year. We will look into the events/campaigns that stood out for our country chapter. Due to Covid-19, we didn’t engage in many activities earlier this year because of the restrictions our country had put in place and the impact it had on gatherings in Malawi.

1. Tree Planting

The members of RWA Kalumbu-Lilongwe west still gathered and observed the covid-19 measures and planted 1000 trees. This activity took place on 25^th February. The women did this because they understand that they are the guardians of land, life, Seeds and Love.

2. Seed Audit

The seed audit process for us was also one of the top events for us. The involvement of young people as enumerators was a learning process for the youth. The members that were being interviewed were also interested in sharing about the seeds and it was more like an exchange of information hence this is a learning process for RWA members in our country to understand the importance of research. It has been on going but it has been a key activity for Malawi. The coming in of this research has opened understanding and can easily participate in similar activities in the future.

3. SADC

This took place in August and it is also one of major activities of 2021. The RWA-Malawi members talked about FISP promoting multinational companies to make business e.g. MOSANTO, SEEDCO and how these companies contribute in destroying our indigenous seeds. This act causes small holder farmers mostly women to use hybrid seeds than indigenous food so the women demanded that there is a dire need to promote agro ecology in Malawi.

4. International Rural Women’s Day

The commemoration took place on 15^th October, 2021 at Gogo primary school in Dowa district. This year’s theme was Building Rural Women’s Resilience in the Wake of Covid-19. To create awareness of the women’s struggles, their needs, and their critical and key role in the society by strengthening their sustainable livelihoods and wellbeing. It was a standout event for Malawi as different women from various associations, NGOs and RWA members gathered together and presented their concerns. The minister of Gender Community Development and Social Welfare – Honourable Dr Patricia Kaliati and other members of the parliament were present on this function.

5. Feminist School

The feminist school is also one of the major activities for our country. This is an important aspect of RWA as women gather together and learn different things from the school. These schools comprise of both young and old women. The school this year had a good representation of young girls and for Malawi this is a good way of training the young members. It is important for them to be involved in various activities. It is a good leaning space for our members.

6. Established RWA

The last major activity of 2021 is that RWA members from Kalumbu organised themselves and went to Zomba to establish RWA. This happened on 15^th December. The women visited women from T/A Malemia. They created awareness on what RWA does and importance of being part of the assembly. Some of the important key issues that were raised were ending child marriages and promoting girl child members in this area as these problems are common this part of the district.

RWA Malawi left the year on an exciting note. These are good building blocks for actions in the new year, as we look forward to keeping hope alive.

Eswatini

A year of struggle continues…

RWA Eswatini has had a tumultuous year of struggle for the democratisation of Africa\’s last monarchy. This struggle saw many lives lost and even more lives disrupted. This year has not been easy to organise in-person engagements, but the few interactions of solidarity for us and our crying country really developed a strong bond that we wish to honour in the extended post.

1. Beginning of year, kuba be Reference Group meeting where we plan for activities for the year

2.International Women’s days in March and 14 February – 1 billion sensitization on GBV

3. Project management and induction workshop

4. Community mobilisation during unrest, demonstration in demand for democracy

5.Humanitarian disbursing

6.Civil society dialogues on the Swaziland we want

7.Seed Audit

8.Webinars on the Vaccine

9.Webinars on the political question in Swaziland(Including during SAPSN)

10. FMSS WORKSHOP

11.GLOBAL ACTON, PUBLIC MEETING – IDRW

12. PHYSCOSOCICIAL support and trauma counciling

OSISA RESEARCH ON GBV

13. Protests & Demonstrations

Protests and demonstrations continue in this festive period and we call on awareness and solidarity at this time. 

The Rural Women\’s Assembly Southern Africa wishes our community well over this season. Our offices will be in hibernation while we regenerate our energy for the year that lies ahead. The offices will reopen and activities for the Rural Women\’s Assembly will slowly restart from 6 January 2022. Be safe and stay in solidarity and hope as we welcome the new year.