Celebrating International Women's Day
Monday, March 15, 2010(Mali Health Organizing Project)
By
Djibril Traore, member of the MHOP Community
Health Action Group and Community Health
Worker.
On Monday, March 8th, the members of the Community Health Action Group (CHAG), along with the support of MHOP, organized a ceremony to coincide with International Women's Day. It is a special day for women in Mali and across Africa. On March 8th Malian women will wear a special fabric that has been printed to commemorate the occasion. They often organize conferences or ceremonies to take place that day too.
March 8th is a day
when women across the world fought with
courage, honor, and dignity
to obtain a universal declaration through which
the rights of women
would be recognized the same as those of men.
One must remember that
women did not always have access to the same
jobs as men, and they were
pushed aside from certain responsibilities. But
after this declaration,
which recognizes liberty and gender legality
between men and women,
passed, rights and responsibilities were
recognized equally.
This is thus how women were
liberated from male neocolonialism. The proof
is that in certain countries
across the world, we see women presidents who
have a job that allows
them to lead a state or even a nation, or other
women who currently
have important posts in government
administration. Another example is
that we deemed it necessary to organize this
ceremony with MHOP to explain
what March 8th
means.
We also used the occasion to
explain our project (Sigida Keneyali), its
objectives, and its programs,
including microfinance, radio, women's
education, and Action for Health.
We also organized a questionnaire for the
public. The questions were
about March 8th and the project. Our
theme was "The role
of women in the maintenance and improvement of
their children's health."
After giving the audience some background, we
asked the questions. We
had gifts on hand for those who were able to
answer questions correctly.
The gifts were soap and small bottles of
bleach, since we were talking
about sanitation. A huge crowd came. The CHAG
members assured that the
event was lively, and also took care of asking
questions. Everyone was
happy with how things went.
We would like to thank MHOP
for their financial and moral support. We would
love to do this again,
if it is in the project's capacity.
Djibril TRAORE, CHAG member and Community Health Worker