Head of Consumer Brand Marketing at Momentum Financial Services, Charlotte Nsubuga-Mukasa is making it her mission to contribute to women empowerment, especially those from rural areas. Nsubuga-Mukasa leads a team of brand designers and social media managers, who pursue creating emotional connections with their consumers but beyond this, she dreams to one day make an immense contribution to UN Women.
One day she hopes to use this platform to support women who are living with fistula, which is the abnormal connection between two body parts. Over the years, Nsubuga-Mukasa’s has been interested in obstetric fistula, which leaves behind other complications such as depression and infertility. In some instances, this leads to the affected individual being socially isolated from their communities, which further erodes their inner worth and self-esteem.
“In some of the villages in North Africa, these women are shunned by their husbands and the communities because of the scent that accompanies this medical condition but when organisations such as Doctors Without Borders come in and do a 15-minute operation to reverse this condition, which is preceded by the natural birthing process, these women subsequently return to their communities and live meaningful lives,” said Nsubuga-Mukasa.
According to the trailblazer, women who acknowledge their setbacks and their opportunities are entrepreneurial and ripe for business skill teachings. More importantly, if they partner with their community, Nsubuga-Mukasa said their testimony and an improved sense of esteem motivates the young girl child to dream of a better life.
“Once those women go back into their villages, they become economically stable. The experience of living on their own after being shunned from their communities makes them far more resourceful than when they left. It is not so much about the difficulties that they face but more on how they rise after much adversity. Good medical attention, coupled with business and resourceful money management principles, helps them to tap into their inborn talents of making more with less,” said Nsubuga-Mukasa
In addition, Nsubuga-Mukasa also explained why women’s issues are important. “These issues are important to me because I am a part of this ecosystem; I understand those silent barriers that hold you back. I know what it means not to be given an opportunity in a boardroom. I know what it means not to have money to go to university. I can relate to parents who borrow money from financial institutions that charge high-interest rates, all because they want to give their children an education that catapults or gives them a fighting chance,” she concluded.
