From Member to Mentor to Motivator

“I am living proof of what Believe Club teaches.”

At age 20, Katanekwa Mukelabai, or Kat as she is known to her friends, is something of a girls club veteran. She was one of the first students selected to be a member of Girls Stand Up club when it opened at St. Mary’s Secondary School in Livingstone, Zambia in 2014.

“Just the sound of it, ‘to empower the girl child’, that excited us,” Kat said in the recent WhatsApp interview.

Kat forged a bond at the club that has endured not only graduation in 2015, but also the departure of the club’s founder. When Gloria Mubita succeeded the founder as the club’s head, or Auntie, Kat came to look up to her and wanted to stay involved. Her continued interest and unique perspective as a former member, led Gloria to interview her as a potential auntie.

“For me, it was more than a job she offered,” Kat said. “I was learning from her.” In 2017, Kat took the junior girls, while Gloria took the senior girls.

“We created an openness where the girls could talk,” she said. “The girls were open enough to tell us what was happening in their lives, tell us the things they couldn’t tell their parents or family.”

The taboos of Zambian culture discourage conversation about sensitive, female-centric topics. Kat reported, “Girls who live only with men and boys can be quite ignorant and shy about things such as menstruation. I was glad to be in a position to share my knowledge and experience with the girls.”

She found counseling a bigger challenge. Although her father died when she was 3, Kat always had the love and support of her mother and three siblings. Knowing how to help girls through a crisis such as rape or sexual harassment was tough. She turned to Auntie Gloria who helped provide support and the tools and skills Kat needed to help girls cope with impossible hardships, including the importance of GSGC’s guiding principle: I see you. I hear you. I believe in you.

In March 2018, a month before her 20th birthday, Kat acted on the confidence she’d gained in her three years with the club: she left Livingstone for the University of Zambia in Lusaka. She is studying on a government scholarship to become a lawyer, and hopes to find work in the capital city after she graduates in 2021.

“I got the confidence when I first joined Girls Stand Up, which is now Believe Club” she said. “Going to university was fulfilling a dream; I wanted and needed something bigger.” Not everyone in her family has made it to university; that she is there, she said, “is an achievement, a big deal.” She knows she represents her family, and wants to succeed.

She also knows she can be a role model to Believe Club girls, with whom she stays involved. “I see myself as a motivation for them,” Kat said. “Anything is possible. We can make it if we stay focused. With love and support, we can always get there. I am living proof of what Believe Club teaches.”