 The Real Face of Global Women—By Rachael Post Published: July, 2006  Uganda native Lydia Bakaki All her life, Uganda native Lydia Bakaki watched women laboring in fields they had no right to own. Her heart went out to these starving women, who could be removed from the land they had farmed all their lives if their marriages ended. In Africa, women do about 80 percent of household food production, in spite of unequal access to land, seeds, and fertilizer. A year ago, Bakaki dared to dream that Ugandan HIV/AIDS widows and survivors of domestic violence could own land and feed their families. Less than a year later, Bakaki has helped more than100 women purchase one acre of land each, paid in full. "I wanted to find a way for women to benefit from their sweat," she said. Bakaki is one of 15 graduates of the first class of the "Women Leaders for the World" (WLW) program sponsored by the Global Women's Leadership Network (GWLN) at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. GWLN cultivates powerful international leaders and establishes worldwide connections that support their success, offering tools including WLW, which is a two-week residential leadership development program for women from diverse professions. But WLW is more than a leadership training program, as Bonita Banducci can attest. She is a founding faculty member and president of Banducci Consulting, which provides training in gender communication in the workplace. "Lydia has become the real face of African women — a true inspiration to me," Banducci says. "If she can make a difference in Uganda amid so many obstacles, I can resist the pressures of my own culture to make a difference, too." Banducci explains that transformative leadership — the foundational teaching of the WLW program — is not just about achieving something, it's about going beyond who you know yourself to be. It means taking new actions in new arenas, fully expressing who you are. "What's different about the program is how it shifts your relationships with people," Bakaki explained. "You become more of yourself; you become centered in the mission of your life." That mission has led Bakaki far from presenting policy to the Ugandan parliament. In September, she will testify before the congressional Human Rights Caucus, of which California's representative Tom Lantos is a member. And her dream continues to grow. Bakaki, who hopes to go to the United Nations to rally for property rights for women worldwide, said she wouldn't have begun to think this big before her WLW training. The ripple effect of women leaders working together and sharing best practices runs deep. Bakaki's efforts are now bearing fruit in the heart of rural Uganda. Miriam Mukalazi is a single mother volunteering with her church on behalf of battered and displaced women. Bakaki asked Mukalazi to apply for this year's WLW program. But Mukalazi could not afford the journey. She wrote to GWLN to say that she would sell the four cows she received as an inheritance from her grandmother. The group's response was immediate: Do not sell the cows. Instead, at a recent GWLN fundraiser in Palo Alto, they sold "cow shares," raising over $3,000 to finance Mukalazi's trip and tuition. "Look what happens when women step into leadership roles with power, grace and determination," says Linda Alepin, founding director of GWLN and former executive at Amdahl Corporation. "Today's economic, social, political, technological, spiritual, and environmental challenges demand new levels of creativity, talent, and innovation. And to meet that goal, we provide women access to the tools and training they need to be successful global citizens." The GWLN will host 20 women from around the world at the upcoming 2006 WLW program from July 22-30 at Santa Clara University. For more information, visit http://www.gwln.org. | ||
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