Women Standing Up To Change A Nation

More at http://www.theuptake.org Excerpt from President Obama's Speech:
Magodonga Mahlangu and the organization that she helps lead -- WOZA, which stands for Women of Zimbabwe Arise, and is represented tonight by one of its founders, Jenni Williams.
As a young girl raised in Matabeleland -- in the Matabeleland region of Zimbabwe in the early 1980s, Magodonga witnessed the -- I've got to make sure I get this right -- Gukurahundi massacres -- the systematic murder of many thousands of people, including her uncle and several cousins -- many of whom were buried in mass graves that they'd been forced to dig themselves.
She witnessed the fearful silence that followed, as talking about these events was forbidden. Magodonga found this to be intolerable. She wanted to speak out -- she wanted people to know the truth about what was happening in her country.
So it was a revelation when, years later, she discovered a group called WOZA whose mission is the very opposite of silence. WOZA was started back in 2003 to empower women to speak out about the issues affecting their families and their country -- desperate hunger; crumbling health and education systems; domestic violence and rape; and government repression ranging from restrictions on free expression to abduction and murder of dissidents.
WOZA's guiding principle is "tough love" -- the idea that political leaders in Zimbabwe could use a little discipline. And who better to provide that than the nation's mothers? Since its founding, the organization has grown from a handful of activists to a movement of 75,000 strong. There's even a men's branch, I understand -- MOZA. And over the past seven years, they have conducted more than a hundred protests -- maids and hairdressers, vegetable sellers and seamstresses, taking to the streets; singing and dancing; banging on pots empty of food and brandishing brooms to express their wish to sweep the government clean.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• WOZA
• Zimbabwe
• Mogodonga
• Mahlangu
• Jenni
• Williams
• Obama
• Kennedy
• award

[hoopsfan100percent]

I hope you do not quit captioning your videos. Great stuff

[UpTakeVideo]

Thank you. When we have a transcript, we try to make sure they get captioned.

[biocybernaut]

Obama this demon from hell will sell out the united states to a World Government at the Copenhagen Treaty starting 3 days from now, and so is our scumbag shit government here in Switzerland doing!

They are selling us out to a fascist dictatorship!

Folks, you better pull your little shrunken heads out of your tightbuttholes and go read what that treaty from hell states! It is a binding agreement that will create a world government, and once signed there is no way back! NEW WORLD ORDER, bitches!

[rgabrielmugabe]

Crimes in Zimbabwe have all been commited at the expense of the people of Zimbabwe. Everything has an end, and that includes bad leadership, corruption, nepotisim, and all the other isims that Zimbabweans have been mercilessly subjected to. This is my own way of saying, I AM SORRY ZIMBABWE. WE were wrong and we did a lot of wrong things. CHINEMANYANGA HACHIPUTIRWE. Ask Pius, he will tell you this saying is TRUE. We have looted this country dry. Diamonds almost finished by ...You know who

[rgabrielmugabe]

The most powerful and effective speech ever made by a sitting US President on Zimbabwe. Mahlangu, you are atrue heroin. Everyone in Zimbabwe should learn from your courage. People Rise Up and claim whats rightly yours. I am a Malawean. Chokwadi ichokwadi, the people that say everything is ok in Zimbabwe are the very people feeding off the system, fools idiots, people without a brain of their own. Yes, YOU...

[arotog]

I am so proud of Jenny & Magodonga, its good to see they have been recognised for thier efforts.