Windhoek-Veteran journalist and gender activist, Sarry Xoagus-Eises who died on Monday was a ‘warrior for women’s rights. This is according to gender activist, Ngamane Karuaihe-Upi who also said it would be hard to replace her.
Xoagus-Eises worked hard on the ground to ensure that women’s rights were respected, added Karuaihe-Upi. Xoagus-Eiseas was a veteran journalist, South West African Peoples’ Organisation (SWAPO) freedom fighter, and tireless campaigner for the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, and gender activist.
“As the Gender Links family we are in shock,” said Gender Links Chair Emily Brown, who is also a Senior Lecturer Journalism and Media Technology at the Namibia University of Science and Technology. “Sarry was synonymous with gender and the media, gender and local government, and Gender Links in Namibia. It is hard to imagine our work here without her,” said Brown.
CEO of Gender Links Colleen Lowe Morna said in a statement that “It would be hard to find a more loyal, hardworking, devoted foot soldier than Sarry. In decades of service to women’s rights, she traversed Namibia and Southern Africa, making the case with vigour and with humour, a voice not to be ignored.”
A founder of the Namibian chapter of Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA), Xoagus-Eises joined Gender Links in July 2009 as the Gender Justice and Local Government facilitator in Namibia.
Her gender research experience includes the media monitoring project in 2006 and the HIV and AIDS baseline study in Namibia. She was also the coordinator of the research on the representation and participation of women in local government, titled ‘At the Coalface, Gender and Local Government in Southern Africa’.
Under her stewardship, 36 councils in Namibia became centres of excellence for gender equality in local government. The Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), which hosts the Southern Africa Broadcasting Association (SABA), has also become a champion of gender equality in the media.