Don't give up, women journalists told

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Friday December 17, 2010 00:00

Giving inspirational talk to a group of Women in News (WIN) from Botswana, Namibia and Zambia in Johannesburg, South Africa, this week, Mike Daka said that one must be very clear about what they want to do instead of going on with their lives haphazardly. 

Daka quit his civil service job and sold his family house to start his own radio station, the first commercial radio station in Zambia, which broadcasts to a radius of 120 km from the rural town of Chipata.

He explained that persistence is important if one wants to start up something. 'If it does not work, don't give up. When you plan a project you set goals because you are the only one that knows the plan. Don't give up easily on your dreams or listen to negative criticism,' he said.

He said that commitment is essential so that tasks that one set up are completed. He advised the women to appreciate what they have because there are worse people who have nothing out there. 'I have been hearing a lot of complaints from you but what I can advise is that you have gratitude for who you are and what you have,' he said.

The former head of ZAMCOM, one of the leading media training institutions in Zambia explained that work was not designed to motivate the employees by satisfying them financially. 'The motivation cannot come elsewhere except from doing the work that you love passionately and being paid for that. You must love what you do because that is where your motivation would come from,' Daka said. 

He said that the painful thing about women is that they tend to depend on other people than to look into working for their own successes. He said African girls from a young are taught multi skills, which is good preparation for their lives but they allow men to hold them back and depend on them. 'Be clear about what you want to do and have a clear self evaluation. Success comes from achieving what you have set out to do, just like you cannot expect to marry into marriage and be successful.'

He further advised the women to include their families when planning their careers, as nothing tangible would happen to them if their families were left behind.  

Women in News is an initiative by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) to help women in middle management in southern African news media to advance their careers. The six-month programme's events included panel discussions, one-on-one coaching, training sessions and personal mentoring with local and international coaches to assist the women map out their career road maps.  According to Kajsa Tornroth, Director of Media Development for WAN-IFRA, the goal of the project, funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), is to help women media professionals, who are under-represented in top management positions, to excel in their careers.

The Women in News programme aims to equip middle-level managers with the strategies, skills and support networks necessary to advance their careers and achieve their professional goals. This is the first time WAN-IFRA has created a media development programme that specifically targets women media professionals.

The programme continues in 2011 with a new intake from different newsrooms in the same countries.