International Women's Day 2021

In a recent interview with Melinda Gates about her book Moment to Lift, Brené Brown asked Melinda to tell her about the world we live in right now for women and girls globally and to describe the world she would love to see.
 
In honor of International Women’s Day today, I decided to interview our partners Veronica Lemuya in Kenya and Saroja Thota in India to ask them these same questions. 

Veronica’s answers are below along with pictures from their International Women’s Day celebration today with women and girls in the village.
 
Tell me about the world you see now for women and girls in your communities.

• There are inequalities in leadership. Though the Kenyan constitution supports women’s nominations, the society is still biased when electing and nominating women in leadership. Women are not appreciated as valuable contributors to a better future.
• Early marriage is still promoted among girls.  Many in the Turkana culture still view girls as objects to be married off for wealth.
• Illiteracy is still high among girls.  Due to cultural beliefs that do not value education for girls, there are girls in the village who have never had the opportunity to go to school, and they are looking after their parent’s animals.

 
Describe the world you'd like to see.

• I look forward to seeing an economically empowered, resilient girl child who can effectively support her family’s future.
• I’d like to see women of faith stand up to protect, advocate and pray for their families. Women are the foundation of resilient and strong families. Spouses should support each other,  empower each other economically, and be willing to pursue each other’s dreams without gender bias.
• I’d like to see professional women take their rightful place in the frontlines to support the government and the church in fighting early marriages and abuse of the fundamental rights among young girls.
• I want to see women in the lower cadre to be able to rise up to know their rights and strengthen their capacity to protect and advocate for their rights and the rights of their children.

 
What are your hopes and dreams? 

• I want to empower young women and children with important information to be good agents for social change.
• I hope to develop mentoring programs that will reform the thinking around women as partners in development as opposed to only being seen as housewives.
• I hope to support education for women and children in our society as a socioeconomic equalizer. 

Saroja’s answers are below along with pictures of her with some of the women in the sewing program and some of the girls in our sponsorship program. 
 
Tell me about the world you see now for women and girls in your communities.
Our society is a male-dominated society; moreover, women are not given priority in the home and are not treated as equals to men. In my experience of life, in my professional world and in my ministry in working with women, women are never able to share their opinions boldly or freely.  They have to follow the instructions given by their parents or by their husband.  Even today, women in our community do not have financial freedom, and in a marriage, everything depends on the views and opinion of the husband. Even though India is an independent country, women in our community still do not have independence.
 
Describe the world you'd like to see.

• I would like to see every girl and woman being able to have independent views for her future.
• I’d like for every girl to have sufficient education to earn for  their livelihood.
• I would like to see freedom of speech in regard to women being able to share their opinions in our community.  

 
What are your hopes and dreams? 
I want to help empower more women in India so that we can bring all these above points into reality by educating women as well as men in the proper way.  Through the sewing program we have established for women, we are working on giving women skills and empowering them to have financial independence. See this site for photos of what the women have created.  I feel fortunate to work with them and teach them important skills to overcome so many problems. 

On behalf of all the girls in our program, thank you for your continued support!