Casting your vote

Election fever has overrun the UK! With the closest election for a generation looming, it is easy to take our universal suffrage, in free and fair elections, for granted. We do have a say in our country’s future; so many people do not.

Recent elections in South Africa and the Sudan have seen people queuing for hours in harsh conditions to cast their vote. The landmark election in Sudan was the first multi-party vote in 24 years. However, the election has been tarnished with reports of vote-rigging, intimidation and violence. Videos posted on YouTube showed alleged election officials manipulating ballots, and in the South, security forces controlled by the ‘opposition’ were accused of torturing people who did not vote for their party. Even more shockingly, the incumbent President Omar al-Bashir has also been issued with an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur.

Send a Cow is wholeheartedly against the restrictions placed on any adult to vote in Africa. Reports of corruption such as in Sudan or in Rwanda, where two high-ranking officers were arrested in relation to corruption charges ahead of the election in August, are deplorable.

At Send a Cow we promote free and fair elections. In the groups we work with leaders are voted in through democratic means. Our social development training teaches democratic processes, gender equality and inclusiveness. Sometimes, the women we work with feel so empowered that they stand for local elections and win! Many now represent their communities in local councils and associations – women like Farida Jafali.

Farida (pictured above with her husband) is a popular member of the Buwologoma Group in Uganda. Thanks to her Send a Cow training in agricultural skills, leadership, home organisation and gender skills she has been elected by the group as Vice-Chairperson. The Buwologoma Group also belongs to a wider association which includes a number of groups in the area. For this association Farida has been democratically elected, and re-elected, as Treasurer – a real achievement!

We are delighted that our work gives so much confidence and empowerment to people like Farida. We stand by our values which include full participation and a gender and family focus.

We pray that the elections in Rwanda and elsewhere in Africa will be free, fair and democratic.

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