33 women journalists meet in Johannesburg for WIN’s Media Management Training

“The Media Management Training opened my eyes to see that women, myself included, limit themselves and hardly ever get to use their full capacities at work and at home”. These are the words of Juliet Makwama, an Assistant News Editor at Millenium Radio in Zambia, at the close of a five-day Media Management training in Johannesburg, South Africa. She said she came expecting to learn something about managing the news team she supervises back home, but got much more than that. The first module presented by Paula Fray on the first day, demonstrated to participants the obvious positions women take unconsciously at the work place, which limit their professional growth and advancement. Juliet said the module was a realization that women think in a limited way, and always seek validation, reassurance and support from male counterparts for decisions they make at the work place, and in life.

“I will not allow being female limit my career development prospects. I will do everything possible to change the way I do things as a professional, socially, at family level and community level. I know I can make a positive contribution to society. I will never accept to be put down because I am a woman”, Juliet vowed.

Sellina Khonje on her part was excited to discover that she can crack the numbers and interpret a balance sheet into simple terms after the Finance module during the training.

“I can do maths, I can look at a balance sheet and understand what the numbers mean. It is not that hard, I can do it”, Sellina said confidently.

Being a Chief Producer at Times Group in Malawi, Sellina says the Media Management Training has given her lots more useful skills than she had imagined. She adds that she realized that there were many activities she was involved in at the workplace which she didn’t know were directly Finance or Human Resource or even Marketing, despite having the job description of a Producer.

“With this knowledge, nobody is going to mess with my budgets and my account statements for the programmes I am in-charge of ”, she declared. When she returns home Sellina intends to make a short presentation to her supervisors and her news team about some of the modules of the training, as a way of displaying her newly acquired skills and to let everyone know that she can be a reference point at a new level.

Juliet and Sellina are among 33 media women in the Women In News (WIN) programme, who have just concluded their first Media Management Training in Johannesburg, South Africa, under the Wits University.

The Management training brings together women from six African countries, namely Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya.

The women will attend the second Media Management Training later this year before they are awarded management certificates.

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