This International Women’s Day we wanted to thank you for all your MAKAL jewellery purchases by sharing an update on how they are helping us give back to empower women in mining.
Over the past twelve months, much of our support has been with one young mining expert at the start of her career, Candice Jumwa. Find out more from Candice about how MAKAL’s mentoring has been helping to transform her opportunities and support a wider network of artisanal women in mining, in this latest update.
This week officially marks my last few days as a Graduate Trainee at The Impact Facility, an opportunity made possible by MAKAL Jewellery and the support of the incredible team at TIF.
Leaving university, I could not have imagined what the next step for my career was going to look like until I came across this facility that has created an innovative approach in trying to solve the challenges that rock Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners across East Africa.
I was initially worried at the prospect of being a young adult trying to establish a footing in an industry that is not only young in the country but also without means to support myself and MAKAL promptly jumped at the opportunity to support a fresh female Mining Engineer, an endeavour I am most grateful for.
With your generous support I have been able to, in summary, get a clearer picture of the ASM sector in the region. Not only have I been able to visit mine sites and personally interact with miners, I have also had the opportunity to reflect on the needs of the community and in my own capacity, help. The Impact Facility make the necessary steps needed in the actualization of our current project.
Under Project Access: Professionalising ASM in Kenya and Uganda, I have been able to write and publish several blogs highlighting the realities of miners, particularly the women that often get the short end of the stick with regard to the inequality that so starkly exists in the mining industry. In relation, I have been responsible for the rollout of the TIF Newsletter, a feat I am really proud of.
In addition to this, I thought that my previous inexperience working in an organization would pose a challenge but the TIF has gone above and beyond in their support for me. Owing to the fact that this is a small team, the existence of less bureaucracy in the organization has accorded me the opportunity to dip my feet in almost all aspects f the work we do. The most exciting of which was the opportunity to accompany my colleague, David Sturmes, to pitch to a local asset leasing company.
This have me a chance to reflect on what it means to run a business and the kind of collaboration a business needs to undertake a successful and viable implementation. I have in my line of work been able to assist the team in the review of the tools and processes that key for the success of our current project, key being the TIF ESG handbook for ASM miners, adding onto it criteria that will be able to address the inequalities that women in the sector face.
My work has enabled me to network and meet different actors in the sector, from members across the Project Access consortium to different actors across both local and national government. Coupled with my increased network connection on LinkedIn that grown from fewer than 10 people to now 100, my time at the Impact Facility has been nothing short of a dream.
As the impact Facility looks to extend my contract for at least the entire period of Project Access, I have the opportunity to truly reflect on the type of career path I want to undertake. Haing been in close contact with David and Assheton, I am inclined to pursue a career in strategic management. Granted, the kind of field experience I will continue getting from working with miners will be invaluable to my career progression and the TIF team has proved to be great mentors so far.
To finalize, the financial support you have accorded me has been the anchor to my career lift off and I am forever grateful. As I move forward, I am reminded to extend the same support to the women that come after me. In whatever capacity, this industry needs the contribution and voice of more women.
Best wishes,
Candice Jumwa.
