Nurse from rural Zambia awarded Swiss leadership prize

["Daphne Martin_Gnanadason" <Daphne.Martin_Gnanadason@wcrc.ch>]

World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC)

Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches (SEK-FEPS)
Joint News Release 
21 March 2011
 
Nurse from rural Zambia awarded Swiss leadership prize
  
Her actions speak louder than words. A soft-spoken Zambian nurse
is spending her retirement years quietly making a difference in
the lives of women in her rural community through a project
combining income generation, leadership training and health care.
Yesterday though, Agnes Lisulo Mulemwa was the centre of
attention at a ceremony in Switzerland when she was awarded the
Sylvia Michel Prize in recognition of her exceptional
contribution to women’s leadership.  
 
“I am humbled,” Mulemwa said looking out over a large crowd
gathered in the Reformed Church in Murten, north-east of Geneva,
for a celebratory service. “It is too much.”
 
The prize – offered jointly by the World Communion of Reformed
Churches and women presidents of regional Swiss Reformed churches
– is named for the first woman to be elected as a church
president and comes with a cash award of USD $5000.
 
The former head nurse was honoured for having created the
Liyoyelo Batik Centre in Senanga, a community in south-west
Zambia. The project provides training in income generating skills
such as making batik and candles as well as raising fruit and
vegetables. 
 
Mulemwa works with a network of church women called the Anamoyo
who are known for their active involvement in community service
in the name of the church. 
 
Martina Zurkinden-Beneš, vice-president of the Fribourg Reformed
Church Synod, paid tribute to Mulemwa saying that the Anamoyo
women are proof of the adage: “Invest in a woman and you invest
in a village. You invest in the world.” 
 
“We will only advance in church and society if we recognize the
gifts women bring,” Zurbinden-Beneš says.
 
Hedwig Schneider, a retired Swiss church leader, nominated
Mulemwa for the prize. The women met when Schneider was in Zambia
to deliver church aid. The material she was carrying included
equipment for batik making. Mulemwa learned the skills and taught
others in her community. Later the project expanded to include
raising fruit and vegetables for people living with HIV and
AIDS.
 
Women walk long distances to care for the sick in the
surrounding region, carrying fruit and vegetables with them.
“Often we arrive with swollen legs,” Mulemwa says. 
 
Wearing a brightly-coloured traditional dress based on the style
worn by early missionary women to her country, Mulemwa received
greetings brought in her own language by linguist and former
Swiss missionary, Nicole Fischer.
 
Isabelle Chassot, a councilor representing the government of the
canton of Fribourg, told Mulemwa: “When I read of your
accomplishments, I have the sense of being in the presence of a
universal woman.”
 
Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth, responsible for WCRC’s gender
justice programme, praised Mulemwa and the women working with her
for “sustaining, nurturing life and bringing hope to their
community.”
 
The ceremony was held on the day that marks the 120th
anniversary of the decision in Switzerland to allow women to vote
in church elections. It was only in the early 1970s that women
were allowed to vote in government elections.
 
WCRC was created in June 2010 through a merger of the World
Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical
Council (REC). Its 230 member churches representing 80 million
Christians are active worldwide in initiatives supporting
economic, climate and gender justice, mission, and cooperation
among Christians of different traditions.
 
The Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches (SEK-FEPS) is an
alliance of 26 Protestant churches (24 Reformed cantonal
churches, the Evangelical Methodist Church in Switzerland and the
Église évangélique libre de Genève). In terms of population in
2000 SEK-FEPS thus represented around 2.4 million Protestants.
SEK-FEPS represents the concerns of Swiss Protestantism at a
national and an international level. Organized as an association,
it is governed by the Council (seven members) under the
leadership of Rev. Gottfried Locher. The SEK-FEPS head office is
in Berne.
 


Media Contacts: 
Kristine Greenaway
Executive Secretary, Communications
WCRC
Phone: +41 22 791 6243
dma@wcrc.ch
www.wcrc.ch ( http://www.wcrc.ch/ )
   
Simon Weber
Head of Communications
SEK-FEPS
Phone: +41 78 739 5853
simon.weber@sek-feps.ch 
www.sek-feps.ch ( http://www.sek-feps.ch/ )