Inspiring Girls Futures!

Today March 8, 2012, is marked all over the world as International women's day (IWD). A day set aside for the world to celebrate women, their economic, political, and social achievements, and to inspire girls, women all over the world.
  

In  1869 British MP John Stuart Mill was the first person in Parliament to call for women's right to vote. On 19 September 1893 New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the right to vote. Women in other countries did not enjoy this equality and campaigned for justice for many years.

This day is an important event on our annual calendar. In some countries, like Russia, it is a national holiday and men give flowers to their wives, daughters, and women in their lives. It is said that the woman is even more pampered on this day than on her birthday
 

Women are the foundation of every home, the building blocks of society. So it is very important to treat this day as a very special one if you educate or empower a woman, you empower the world.
The  United Nations has aptly chosen the theme for the 2012 Women's day as  "“Empower Rural Women – End Hunger and Poverty”.
 

Some countries have made more progress than others, in empowering women and providing equal opportunities, however many countries in Africa and Asia are lagging behind.
 Where girl education and her needs are still on the back burner and practices that are harmful to the well-being of the girl child are rampant. 

Practices like  early marriages and pregnancy, female circumcision, which is really  genital mutilation, the various taboos or practices which prevent women from controlling their own
fertility;  traditional birth practices; son preference and its implications for the status
of the girl child; female infanticide;  and dowry price.
Despite the challenges that abound on these continents, girls and women are tackling the challenges and hoping the governments will always be on their side.

So enjoy this day sisters and make your voices heard, as we continue to march forward and demand what is rightly  ours: equal Opportunities