Good day my name is Sibongile Mtungwa, I come from Kwa-Zulu Natal Underburg.

My work is inspired by a lot of women that have been in my life starting from my home, my mother, my grandmother, my sisters, my grandfather and other males in my life, those are the people that help me understand that gender was not supposed to be a problematic thing. 

Where I grow up everyone did every work, where I come from, work was just work and was tackled by everyone. 

This has always been my inspiration in leadership for girls and this became very clear for me in 2007 when I started to focus on girls and young women especially in rural areas and one of the work that came out of this period of 2007 and 2010 was helping young women of rural areas not to succumb to the abduction for early marriages (ukuthwalwa). 

That for me was one of the biggest achievement in my life because we are told that we cannot do that, it's going to be difficult, it is impossible to work against abduction of girls and in the Harry Gwala District we have some communities that were really into this practice and it was difficult for me as well to work on it because I experienced that in my younger age. 

So I did not want to say more about it in the communities because people would have seen me as someone who is rebellious who ran away from marriage so it was a difficult path, I knew it was achievable because when we have other women who support you, you are able to make decisions and break the culture that has oppressed you and create a culture that is about your identity going forward. 

So what I want in women leadership and training programme is to see girls where we work, choosing education as something important for them instead of choosing early marriage, this is what I have seen also being an achievement, parents supporting their daughters to get education but even more, the highlight of my work at that time was the traditional leaders who stood up not just to participate in the program but who became allies in our work and who stood up for girls and said no to the abduction of girls and that boys should not abduct girls. 

For me that was the major achievement in a way that one stage we needed to meet the late King releasing his room the traditional leader in our area they are the ones who accompanied us to meet his majesty King Zwelithini ka Bhekuzulu and they were the ones who pleaded to the King to say thst this practice has coursed so many problems, this practice brought so much pain especially at that time when the bride and young girls were dying because they were forced into marriage, you cannot negotiate safe sex, for that reason, 

Traditional leaders played a huge role in that process I always see that as success for young girls in our area. Traditional leaders were not the only ones who participated, but other groups participated too.

Traditional leaders joined boys and Men called "Inhlaba Mkhosi", where they also fought against the abduction of girls for early marriages. Till today, I can see changes, we do not see abductions as we used to see it, though it is still happening in many different ways it could be girls being expelled from home for being pregnant or the parents send them to the boys home, that is still another way of forcing girls into marriages.

So it is that kind of change that is missing in communities but we can probably say that abduction of girls for early marriage in the community is illegal, everyone knows they can choose what they want to do in their lives they can choose education and it could be their future.

So we have trained thousand of girls we are also very happy to say that out of the girls that we have trained wherever they are we are able to trace them same time we are able to see the work they are doing in their workplace now because some of them have started jobs. And that they are thirsty for the leadership that goes beyond what we see they are making things for themselves and the younger generation.

Another achievement in my life has been about girls and young women seeing beyond gender needs.but who look at the community's needs and world issues and deal with them in a very practical way locally and at the global level most of the girls that we work with have participated in biodiversity and climate change and they are dealing with the issues as they affect them but at the same time they link these issues with other bodies at the UN and regional level and at the African level.And for me it shows that no matter where girls come from they can achieve and be in platform and places that they have never imagined. What does it mean? it means girls and young women leadership it is not about tomorrow, it is about today because it is making sure they get support and get nurtured today to participate and make crucial decisions. Rather than waiting for the future to say we will wait for them to be great leaders yet we don't invest in them today if one works in leadership they have to be built today so that tomorrow they are confident in their task otherwise we are failing young people if we invest very little in them this is a challenge going forward some organisation and funders for them to support girls at young age such as eight and or nine years old they want to see a specific outcomes related to the future and then they tend to invest less. And that instead they tend to deal with the poor leadership in adulthood for example many organisations are very comfortable to support issues such as what has gone wrong with girls instead of how can we prevent bad things that happen to girls so that they can focus on their leadership.For me that is a very crucial going forward.

Women leadership and training program uses methodology of conscientization, because we believe that conscientized individuals or groups of people are able to participate in looking at what is not ok in their lives and at the same time come up with Solutions and action. Work in this way: we begin with girls from 8 to 13 years we call it pre-teen girls we get to teenage girls from 13 to 19 and now we also work with young women who are at tertiary institutions because at the Beginning we were working with teenage girls but then we started to think what happens when they go to tertiary level what support do they need. We also do workshop for girls we are an organisation that does training and when we train we have modules in leadership,life skills,culture and heritage,gender that is the big one climate change biodiversity and environmental, ethics and morality and women's health those are the key modules that we work on. We have also produced training material that could be found online that could be used to train girls and young women and training material goes beyond girls and young women it is used by all kinds of people and other in other parts of the world it is also used in the Philippines, Papaugin and Tanzania anywhere in the world people have used the training material we produced we have seen that one as as an essential to produce material that is based on lived experience of the group that we work with because the material is not taken from theory or abstract it is Monday inspired by lived experience.

And what we have achieved over the years is to take girls and young women to the United nation like the UN like the UNANCW the commission under the status of women the UNCBD, the U.N Framework on climate change and girls have gone to other level of International level.why do we do that? We believe that girls can not be contained in one space they have the right to participate and if we believe in their right to participate we need to expose them not just to the local level but to the National level to get the broader understanding of where we come from and why do we do what we do and also what change is needed out of them. What leadership is needed from them going forward to build the country and also to build the leadership in the world and how to lead differently leading differently has been essential in our work how to be a young authentic women in your space it could be a space in your home,school, tertiary institution or your workspace so that we solve your problem.another thing we have managed to do as Women Leadership Training Program is to work with boy's group we have worked with Inhlabamkhosi and traditional leadership. Usually during those days when we start it seemed impossible the fact that we started 10 12 years Argo we still working with these groups and their relationship is growing and strong the respect we get from this group is amazing sometimes we even ask ourselves why these groups that are known to be patriarch are also able to work with us how come they are able to give so much of their time and wisdom and visioning in your way of being in our communities. We see that as an achievement in most cases it is something that cannot be done another shipment in women training leadership program young women in different workspaces we communicate with them they still come to us,when we read about their work that is what makes us believe that we have done a great job in them and also when they start to plant back to their communities and into women training leadership program that is when we know they value the work we have done with them. And we also one one of the UNESCO prices in sustainable education. This was in 2019 in Japan where we won the prices of working with young people in climate change and food severity in our groups and the projects came out of it was girls have their own agricology Gardens where they work with their families at the same time girls work with water issues with their families also with other stakeholders in their communities. Again that UNESCO prices was one of the biggest highlights for us because it taught us that our work is done at the local level but speak so much as any other level at the global level it is not just work that is geographically contained but it is work that can be shared with other people in other parts of the world. Another achievement have been to see other girls and young women start their own initiative in breaking the Cycle that girls are only for marriage they cannot do certain kind of work some girls started their own consultancy some have done causes such as engineering these are girls that are coming from simple rural Communities but who have seen engineering as part of their work like today some of the achievement we are happy about although we are facing challenges but we are happy that we complement other people's work.

" mainly in South Africa women's leadership training program has been in the six provinces and I've been into those provinces because of WTP'swork to draw strength to be trained to be in other platforms I've been to Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and then the USA New York times square when I was once there in 2002 I gave a speech little did I know that I'm going to be in this job until now. I've been to Norway for gender work and Environment work I've also been to Italy, Portugal, Switzerland,Austria and Germany I stayed in Ireland studying for some time where I obtained my degree in development studies and I've been to Brazil those are the few countries that have been to so far I'm working towards being in other countries as well as promoting girls work and from my personal growth.

" in my journey working with girls and women at large I've realised that if you want women to be authentic good leaders and invest in them at the young age you will never go wrong the reason I say that is because i myself as well I was supported cared for by women at an early age.When I finish matric my journey started there so I believe in starting early starting early does not mean after matric that was my experience. Starting early for us as I said we starting at an age of eight formerly the girls are taken into the three years leadership program focusing on different things so that has been my journey and that is what I've realised you will never go wrong if you start at an early age. And another part that has been very important for me is to understand the layers of different generation historically structural oppression that girls and women have faced for example I've gone to understand that the struggle of women is not just the easy one they have to deal with issues of gender but underneath that there's apartheid that the previous generation have faced and then it has been handed down to them and the colonization that has been with previous women. I have learnt that societies have an opportunity if you take from decoloniality books to work on opportunities they can rehumanize themselves and reimagine what will work well in the future. So that for me gives me hope.What also gives me hope is that young women have got their urgency they are not sitting and waiting for Sibongile who is now 40 years plus. they are breaking their own part and able to start things that we've never imagine in our times and the agency has to be supported not just by space but by all the people they need to grab that space and teach us the old ones how it should be done. I can also see that the way they have taken in the issues of climate change climate science issues of biodiversity issues of biodiversity and running with those issues in their daily lives they can teach us a lot like today will depend a lot on their skills and running our lives during covid-19 they organise our lives in this technological space we connect without missing so much of course we still miss the physical but we still continue with our work and form that is possible at least for me because girls have created technological opportunities and close the gap that always existed.

Also working with girls and women has deepen my understanding of who am i myself when I go and work with women it is not about giving to them no!.I receive a lot in girls and women of all ages.I get energized yes of course sometimes it becomes very painful because I learn their struggles.that I never thought existed in women's lives.at the same time I get excited that together with them I can participate in changing the past that has not been good at the same time I have learnt to work not only with girls and women.I believe so much in intergenerational work because one of my best friend who is 81 years old who has been my friend for over 20+ years.and other friends are younger they could be my children they are in their 20s so in terms of generational work for me is something that is missing a lot in the structures in our days.usually today things devide the young and the old the man and the women.especially in terms of age you can see that it is a structural problem younger people you must work on their own older people must rethink their ways or shift their ways.and that is a divide and conquer strategy because I am learning that should this group's work together with their wisdoms many challenges can be conquered. Instead of dividing the people of the society another thing I have learned is that to understand the struggles of men,I came in my journey as someone wounded by gender and patriarchy I was so angry.I have learnt not to be angry anymore.I am not angry at men as people I'm angry at the system which is patriarchy.I have found out that man as well are so damage by patriarchy in a way it even so difficult for them to escape and as a result in any work that I do I don't see women's struggles only I see boys and men's struggle and always willing to be in a dialogue and discussion how the pain they are experiencing how can work on those and fine a way out and reimagine new ways of being and taking responsibility in society as they imagine it should be. So I have grown to embrace people within their diversity sometimes within their not understanding where things are.to say that space you are transitioning to your new vision or discovery it's never dangerous space in fact it is a space to embrace.that is why I got a new consultancy called transition and embrace.we help everyone who is in different kinds of transition to embrace the beauty of change the beauty that comes out of any chaos in your life and to change that into a positive thing that one could be proud of.one thing that I have also learnt is to say as much as my focus is on girls and women but to never separate the struggles of women to that of other people in society.We work a lot non indigenous knowledge and people and many people don't agree that they are indigenous maybe that is because they don't believe in that. Some of us believe they add a lot in our indigenate because we have done research and understood our indigenate better. for me that is one I have learnt that I have grown so much into embracing that each person has got the right to embrace their own indigenate in this present stage of our lives.I like that idea very much that one has their own identity that is linked to the past at same time linked to the future. I'm very excited about this indigenous knowledge and our own indigenate.I have also learned so much to connect things so that things don't work in silos because that is one of the biggest problems face that we like to work into boxes not to connect with others so working with women in leadership nd training program we have got all this thing's of leadership, gender biodiversity cultures and heritage women and health helped me look to look beyond specific area of focus which is girls and women. I have done some work focussing on women's health also in that field. i have seen myself growing, as in 2017 I won the Dikano Atlantic fellowship I was part of it was the first of its kind in South Africa.its still continuing now I'm a proud member of the Dikano Atlantic fellowship.because it has exposed me to gender as a determent of health also do other health issues that I was never aware of in my community issues of mental health in relation to girls that have been abducted, raped and harassed in their lives.so my life has grown to embrace diversity but at the same time connectedness of issues instead of diving issues and people at the same time.