Dear Friends – please join WOMANKIND Worldwide in celebrating International Women’s Day on 8 March.
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This year the theme is ‘Ending Impunity for Violence against Women’. WOMANKIND is launching its new report, Tackling Violence against Women: a worldwide approach. You can read about the struggles and successful strategies of our international partners.
Click here to read the report.We are also celebrating. After years of lobbying, Ghana is about to enact a comprehensive law on domestic violence. Every year thousands of women, children and, sometimes, men suffer all forms of domestic violence, including physical and psychological abuse. But victims rarely get adequate redress because of gaps in Ghana's criminal code, which treated such cases as family affairs. WOMANKIND will be working with our partners to ensure this new law is implemented consistently and thoroughly throughout Ghana. This will make Ghana one of the few African countries with a comprehensive law on domestic violence and, hopefully, a model for other African countries to follow.
International Women’s Day is about ordinary women as makers of history: women around the world who challenge the status quo in their struggle to reduce violence against women — and for women to play a full and active role in their communities. Women like Najia from Afghanistan who chose to remain throughout the Taliban regime. Now she is working towards the reconstruction of her shattered country and fighting for all Afghan women to live free of violence with the chance to learn to read and write and contribute to their communities.
To help us celebrate, some of our partners have sent us International Women’s Day messages.
While we come together to celebrate successes we are also aware of the challenges ahead. You can read more about eight specific WOMANKIND successes — achieved through working with many women’s organisations across the world — and clear challenges. Click here to read the stories.
The successes are dedicated to all our partners. They show that if you give women a chance to come together, to think together, and to act together, you can unleash an energy for change that will take your breath away.
Enjoy the day.
Warm regards
Sue Turrell
Executive Director
WOMANKIND Worldwide
Find out how you can help WOMANKIND meet these international challenges by clicking here.