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Celebrating International Women's Day

On March 8, 2006, the world celebrated International Women's Day. For our sisters in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, it was an opportunity to come together to commemorate the successes of the past year, and to share strategies and re-energize for the year to come. MADRE is pleased to share highlights from two of our sister organizations' International Women's Day festivities.

In Nicaragua:

The Wangki Tangni Women's Center, a long-time MADRE sister organization, hosted a gathering of 250 women in Waspam, on the North Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. The women came to Wangki Tangni from 160 different communities along the Coco River, to share a day of festivities and celebration, and to send a radio broadcast out to all the communities across the region.

Together, they delivered a radio message to celebrate local women and raise awareness about Wangki Tangni, as a vital community resource where women come to learn how to take leadership roles in their families and communities, and where they can turn to others for support and empowerment as they face crises, such as hunger or violence, in their daily lives. Through dynamic community activities, more women become connected to and invested in Wangki Tangni and the various MADRE-supported initiatives—small-scale sustainable agriculture training, an income-generating sewing collective, and reproductive health education, to name a few—that support women in taking control of their own lives and transforming the lives of their communities.

In Kenya:

The Umoja Uaso Women's Group, part of the Indigenous Information Network, a MADRE sister organization in Kenya, participated in a two-day exchange with 1,000 other Indigenous women from across East Africa. The participants, representing 10 Indigenous women's groups in the region, came to learn from the ongoing successes of the Umoja Uaso Women's Group, that works to combat violence against Indigenous women and raises awareness of women's rights and other human rights issues locally, regionally, and internationally.

The women participated in two days of activities, including lectures and peer exchanges, centered around two of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): promoting gender equality and combating the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.

All were inspired by the success of Umoja, a community that has declared itself a "Violence against Women Free Zone." One participant noted that, "�we have seen light in the tunnel, a success story in which a group of women have fought against all odds and decided they have to be heard at all cost."

Support from MADRE members makes these and other events possible, providing resources for the activities and transportation so that women can gather together.

Read more about what MADRE and both these groups are doing to end violence against Indigenous women.