Lessons from my aunts, who showed me how to build a more equal world
My family lost three trailblazing matriarchs to COVID-19. On this International Women’s Day, their legacies are a reminder for women everywhere — we belong in seats of power, we deserve to follow our passions, and we can transform the communities we live in and serve.
Marty Mukasa is a program associate at PATH where she works with the DMPA-SC Access Collaborative. The Access Collaborative supports governments in scaling up access to contraceptive self-injection, a method that enables women to practice self-care and exercise agency over their reproductive choices.
International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate women around the world who are building a better, more equal future. And women worked overtime this past year, stepping into the COVID-19 response as health care professionals, frontline workers, caregivers, community organizers, and policymakers. As a member of PATH’s Sexual and Reproductive Health team, it’s also a time for me to reflect on our collective commitment to health equity, which relies on the ability of women and girls to have decision-making power over their own health and bodies.
But International Women’s Day is a bittersweet celebration for me this year. In the midst of a pandemic that has wreaked havoc around the world, my family has faced our own COVID-induced grief, losing three incredible women — matriarchs of the family — who broke down gender barriers and advocated for women’s rights long before I was born.
They were my aunts, and they were also sisters, mothers, advocates, and trailblazers. Aunt Freda was a Member of Parliament in Uganda who used her position to pull her community forward. Aunt Ruth was the first woman to serve as head of security for the Peace Corps in Uganda. And Aunt Sarah, a doctor, moved to South Africa during apartheid to ensure that skin color doesn’t determine access to health care.
As my family grieved what COVID-19 took, we also celebrated who these women were to each of us, and to their communities. Each family Zoom call and WhatsApp message uncovered a new detail about their incredible lives. It became clear that they set an example for every woman in our family, and every woman in their lives — we belong in seats of power, we deserve to follow our passions, and we can transform the communities we live in and serve.
So this International Women’s day, I celebrate Aunt Freda, Aunt Ruth, and Aunt Sarah by telling their stories and sharing the lessons they taught me.
Lesson 1: As you blaze trails for yourself, look back to pull others forward.
Witty, elegant Aunt Freda Kase Mubanda would visit my family in Nairobi every two years, from New York, where she worked as Chief of Acquisitions for the United Nations (UN) library. She always brought with her stories of the city, of travelling, of watching politics unfold around her. A passionate advocate for voting rights, she later joined UN election observation missions to Namibia, Cambodia, and several other emerging democracies to ensure people knew how to exercise their rights.
After she retired, Aunt Freda moved back to our ancestral village in Uganda, where she spent time reacquainting herself with the community and speaking with women about the challenges they faced in becoming economically self-reliant. She supported many young girls in getting an education and launched a program that enabled women to buy, raise, and sell their own livestock. Never one to let grass grow under her feet, she was soon running for Parliament, where she served one term and was favored to win her January 2021 reelection before she fell ill. She was also active in sensitizing her community on preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Of course, all her job titles do little to describe the person Aunt Freda was. She was always thinking about how she could serve others, both individually and as a community. During her time in Parliament, she became known as a champion for women’s empowerment, advocating for the rights of women after divorce, developmental projects that improved women’s livelihoods, and abolition of the traditional bride price. As she blazed her own trail throughout her life, she was constantly looking back to pull others forward with her.
Lesson 2: Have the audacity to see yourself in places of power.
Growing up, I saw Aunt Ruth Mwandha-Luboobi as a powerful, bold businesswoman. She graduated from Makerere University with a Master’s in Human Rights, worked for The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), and ultimately took a position with the United States Peace Corps in Uganda as the Chief Safety and Security Officer. This role carried heavy responsibility, as she worked to ensure the safety and wellbeing of American volunteers in Uganda, acting as a bridge in communicating between host communities and volunteers. It also gave her a chance to connect with communities across the country to understand their histories, contexts, and needs. At the time, however, I didn’t fully appreciate how a woman in this role challenged gender norms.
Then in 2016, after spending my young adult years in the United States, I decided to join the Peace Corps myself, where I supported community health workers to deliver high-quality reproductive health services in Senegal. During my time serving, I saw the Chief Safety and Security Officer position open, and for the first time in Senegal, a woman was offered the job. Watching this process unfold made me reflect on Ruth’s position in Uganda with new eyes — that she had the audacity to apply for a position that had only been held by men, that she pushed through rigid gender roles, that she worked with local authorities in communities where women weren’t often in similar positions of leadership. Aunt Ruth taught me to be bold enough to see myself in places of power.
Lesson 3: Use the skills you have to serve others.
Aunt Sarah Yiga was the type of person that should be a doctor — warm yet disciplined, someone who enfolded you in a hug. But she started medical school at a time when women were seen as “taking” a seat from a man. She and her female classmates felt an added pressure to prove themselves, and she was a mentor to many women as they joined the profession. During Uganda’s political turbulence in the 1980s, Sarah and her husband, also a doctor, fled to South Africa. They settled in Bantustan, former territories designated for Black South Africans under apartheid, where access to high-quality health care and medical education were both limited. The need for doctors was great — but so was the personal risk. Aunt Sarah quickly learned the language and began working at health facilities and in the community.
In 2019, I visited Aunt Sarah in South Africa. She was allegedly “retired,” but as she drove me around and introduced me to people, it became clear to me that she had something going on everywhere — training medical students, volunteering at an HIV clinic, filling in for doctors at the regional hospital and other health facilities. To me, it seemed she found a way to apply her skills wherever she saw a need. We talked at length about the complementary roles of our work — me in community health and behavior change, her in clinical medicine — and how important it is to serve others in whatever you do.
My wish on this International Women’s Day is that every girl finds examples like this, teaching them to claim their seat at the table, boldly challenge gender roles, and chart their own path while bringing others along.
Carrying their lessons and legacies forward.
Thinking about my own life and career, I can see my aunts’ influence everywhere. I started my career working as a clinical assistant at Planned Parenthood, then found my way to the study of medical anthropology, focusing on reproductive health technologies. After my time in the Peace Corps, I began working for the DMPA-SC Access Collaborative, implemented by PATH and JSI, which supports governments and partners in scaling up access to a new self-injectable contraceptive — ultimately giving women more autonomy and power in their reproductive choices.
I see Aunt Ruth in my decision to join the Peace Corps, Aunt Sarah in my gravitation toward issues of health equity, and Aunt Freda in our work to advance women’s rights and empowerment.
My wish on this International Women’s Day is that every girl finds examples like this, teaching them to claim their seat at the table, boldly challenge gender roles, and chart their own path while bringing others along. My aunts may not get to see the equal future we’re all working for, but I hear their voices telling me and younger generations of women, “come on, we’re going,” as we step boldly forward together.
