Dr Zena: ‘Rising Woman’ will strengthen Tanzania union

Dar es Salaam. The Chief Secretary of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, Zena Ahmed Said, has commended Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) for introducing ‘The Citizen Rising Woman Initiative’ (RWI) to the islands.

RWI is an annual initiative that highlights the success stories of female leaders from various sectors, aiming to promote gender equality and inclusion in the workplace and inspire the next generation of female leaders.

Speaking at the launch of the initiative in Unguja yesterday, Dr Said emphasised that this decision will contribute to strengthening the country’s union.

She praised MCL for not only bringing newspapers but also facilitating direct interactions with different individuals through physical participation in the initiative.

This approach is expected to have a positive impact on promoting unity and inclusivity within Tanzania.

“I commend you (MCL) for bringing this initiative to Zanzibar. This will enhance and strengthen the union. Instead of only bringing newspapers through this initiative, you can meet different people through their physical participation,” she said.

Regarding women’s participation in various sectors, Dr Said said that a girl child has the opportunity to reach wherever she wants to go if she puts in effort and sets her goals.

She added that although opportunities may be limited, they are sufficient if one recognises themselves and sets goals for where they want to go.

Giving an example of herself growing from a regular engineer overseeing road construction to the top position as the Chief Secretary of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, being the first woman to the office.

Earlier speaking at the event, Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) managing director Bakari Machumu explained the company decided to stage a Zanzibar edition of The Citizen Rising Woman Initiative, which is now in its fourth year, to expand their slogan of empowering the nation.

“Last year, we asked ourselves: If we want to empower the nation, as the company slogan says, then how is our coverage outside of Dar es Salaam? How is our coverage in other regions and beyond the Tanzanian mainland?” he noted.

He added; “We realised that there was a gap. So in doing self-reflection, we made a commitment to improve content coverage concerning Zanzibar. We did that by adding Zanzibar zonal pages to the Mwananchi newspaper and also organising forums in the islands.”

He further expounded that last year, MCL hosted a Thought Leadership Forum on President Hussein Mwinyi’s third anniversary as President of Zanzibar at the Golden Tulip in November.

“After that, we also participated in the marking of the 50th anniversary of the Zanzibar Revolution in January this year.”

On top of that, MCL has already introduced a daily special page for Zanzibar in the Mwananchi newspaper, as well as a category special for the island news on The Citizen and Mwananchi websites.