International Women’s Day: Love A woman , Save The Environment!!

The Writer

Women’s Day is celebrated globally on 8th March every year in honour of women and their remarkable contribution to our society.

This day, is worth reminding us of the notable work of our women and our mothers.

The Global Theme is “#BeBoldForChange”
Action Aid’s theme: “#TaxJustice for Women’s Rights Global Days of Action”

Ghana’s Theme: “Ghana is beautiful, I love Ghana, it’s a peaceful country so investors can come and invest”.

Shalom Word Foundation's theme for the celebration is “Love a woman? Save the Environment!

The greatest abuse any of kind is, to destroy the environment.

Anytime the environment is destroyed, the adverse effects are directly on women.

Climate change, deforestation, and desertification are leading to declining water supplies, that means women, and in some cases young girls, might need to spend more time finding water — time that could otherwise be spent on education or earning an income.

Detrimental effects of climate change can be felt in the short-term through natural hazards, such as landslides, floods and hurricanes; and in the long-term, through more gradual degradation of the environment.

The adverse effects of these events are already felt in many areas, including in relation to, inter alia, agriculture and food security; biodiversity and ecosystems; water resources; human health; human settlements and migration patterns; and energy, transport and industry.

In many of these contexts, women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men—primarily as they constitute the majority of the world’s poor and are more dependent for their livelihood on natural resources that are threatened by climate change.

Today, 80% of women are farmers, just to protect the home with food, yet the men are running around destroying the environment.

Anytime the climate changes the basic effects goes to the woman first. 90% of rural women are traders mostly seen in the sun with their wares.

If the men will continue the cutting down of trees, then they are intentionally increasing the hardship of women. If all the rivers dry up how will women get water to irrigate their farms. If the sun is becoming warmer and hotter, how will women manage their business under the hot sun.

Today, the basic thing anyone can do is to protect the environment.

"Love a woman, save the environment"
"If you want women to live longer, stop burning the bush.

Frustration from the world against women
Since decades, women had struggled and are still fighting to express their right to speech, to vote, to equality, to education, to income and most importantly, to freedom. Women are symbol of Hope for the nation, work, and family but unfortunately, across the world, women had to fight for their independence and protection of rights.

From childhood, women always like to have their first child as girls in order to help them take care of their younger ones. You could find a girl as young as four years old taking care of her younger siblings, but with boys you cannot trust your little children with them. From childhood, women have been custodians of important things.

A woman could keep all the family safe and sound by providing food for them. Women are just naturally caretakers, caregivers, nurtures and transformers. But over the years, women have been subjected to discrimination and marginalization.

When a woman dresses poorly they tag her as archaic and outmoded, when she dresses fancifully then she becomes a sex object. The world is gradually positioning women on a stage where they cannot do anything by themselves, while dictating when they should get married, when they should afford their own houses etc.

The world wants women to please them rather than women living their own lives and achieving their own success.

Hence women who have risen above these frustrations must be celebrated, in order to urge and empower other women to avoid intimidation.

Some families do not make women their family heads. Some company cannot tolerate women bosses, some churches will not allow women to preach yet, the battle is still on, and women are still fighting for recognition and acceptance.

Even though society refuses to accept them, they won't give up either.

In homes and marriages, some husbands have decided to increase the frustrations of their wives by using their fellow women against them. Bringing other women home to compete with her, comparing them to other women, making them feel useless and less important.

It looks like, the women are set as ruling presidents whiles the husbands become opposition party leaders, criticizing everything the woman does, just to make her frustrated. Making a woman feel less important signifies, an unworthy man.

In the corporate world, women are still subjected to minor positions, it’s only a few companies who are raising the standards of women, even most of them do not do this with 100% trust in them.

Today, women must rise above such frustrations and stand up for what they stand for.

On this note, I use this opportunity to celebrate my mother and woman of substance. Happy birthday mummy.

May you continue to be celebrated