Malawi women lobby for land rights

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Betina Sipriano Agnes Abison

Two women from Malawi made it to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in lobbying leaders to address challenges faced by women in accessing land.

The two, Betina Sipriano from Balaka district and Agnes Abison from Dowa district, were among 55 women who climbed the giant Kilimanjaro in symbolic of the hardships they face in ensuring women have rights.

Betina Sipriano Agnes Abison
Betina Sipriano and Agnes Abison went up the top of Kilimanjaro.

Sipriano and Abison hoisted the Malawi flag to the top of the mountain making it more audible that the country’s women joined the rest in lobbying African Union (AU) leaders to address their demands.

The African women have since demanded 30 percent of land ownership from men who take control of the land.

Women on the continent through the Kilimanjaro Initiative, mobilized thousands of rural women to the foot of Kilimanjaro in Mosh, Tanzania, where they developed and proclaimed a charter of demands that will be presented to the African Union and respective national governments.

The journey of women to camping at Kilimanjaro via caravans from various corners of the African continent, set a unity platform with African rural women’s voices to assert land and natural resource rights.