International Women's Day

Today, 8th March, is International Women's Day. It's a public holiday in Uganda but as today is a Sunday then offices are closed anyway. Unlike some other countries Uganda doesn't declare the Monday as a public holiday if the normal date falls on a weekend. 

I found a website for International Women's Day www.internationalwomensday.com and a logo.

(They ask that if you include the logo in a blog you put the link to the website behind the logo, but I'm afraid I'm not that clever so the link and logo are separate!)

The website gives some interesting information about the origins of International Women's Day and details about events to celebrate the day around the world. There are 27 countries where the day is a public holiday, although in some of them it is a holiday for women only, which seems strange. 

There has been an International Women's Day since the days of the Suffragette movement campaigning for the right for women to vote. Women's rights have come a long way since then and there are women MPs and leaders all around the world. Uganda has a seat for a women MP for each district in parliament and currently has a higher percentage of women MPs than the UK. 

But daily life as a women can still be very hard, particularly in rural Uganda. The organisation I work with has a national programme to try and reduce gender based violence through awareness raising and education. But there is a long way to go, in the West Nile region domestic violence is not yet even seen as a problem by local women, it is so common and just accepted as 'normal'. 

Maternal and infant deaths in childbirth are still far to high, despite the millennium goal. Mothers have to walk huge distances to the local health centres to deliver their babies, with the result that many of them choose to manage at home without the help of a trained midwife. Looking through the International Women's day website I found a link to an article in the Guardian today about maternal health care in Uganda.   http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/mar/08/international-womens-day-fight-better-maternal-health-care-uganda

But small steps are being taken and there is an awareness of International Women's Day. We went out to the supermarket this morning in the Lugogo Mall and the (male) security guard on the entrance greeted us cheerfully and said to Glen 'You know today is women's day in Uganda, you cook for your wife!' 

The theme for 2015 is 'Make it Happen' We should celebrate the achievements of women while calling for greater equality.