Sunday is International Women’s Day, and to celebrate women around the world, we want to introduce you to eight amazing women who are fighting for their rights!
Around the world, women have less access to land, education, income and healthcare. But despite these injustices, these women are standing up to claim their rights and fight poverty.
Here at ActionAid, we believe that women are powerful forces for change. We believe it, because that’s what we see through our work.
We work with women across the globe to identify the changes they want to see and to empower them to claim their rights.
SUSAN FROM KENYA
Photo: Kate Holt/ActionAid
Susan is a 35-year-old mother of four from West Pokot in Kenya. At the age of only 13, she was a victim of female genital mutilation. But she’s determined that her daughters won’t have to suffer the same treatment.
>> Read the rest of Susan’s story.
SWARNALAKSHMI FROM INDIA
Photo: Srikanth Kolari
When the 2004 tsunami hit Ambedkar Nagar, a coastal village in India, the 44 Dalit families living there were forced to evacuate to a tsunami shelter. Once the storm was over, their homes were bulldozed to the ground. The relocation to the tsunami shelter had turned into an excuse to permanently move this community from land they had been living on.
At 15, Swarnalakshmi was the first child in Ambedkar Nagar to complete tenth grade. She dreams of becoming a lawyer to fight for Dalit rights.
ZAHRA FROM AFGHANISTAN
Photo: Lorenzo Tugnoli/ActionAid
Zahra is a 28-year-old community facilitator for a women’s association in the village of Nawa, Afghanistan. Three times a week, she holds classes for local women, teaching them how to read and write.
Spending the past decade advocating for women’s rights in Afghanistan, Zahra has experience of running a local advocacy organisation and has led a campaign for the elimination of violence against women in South Asian countries. She now works with ActionAid Afghanistan in Herat province advocating for stronger government action on violence against women.
BENEDICTE FROM THE DRC
Photo: ActionAid
Bénédicte and her husband Alain lived through the terrible conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). They rely on crops from their garden to survive but, like many in the DRC, struggle to feed their family due to the conflict as well as the lack of availability of crops, seeds, and resources. So Bénédicte joined a group of mothers to overcome these challenges.
As part of ActionAid’s Vulnerability Reduction Project for People affected by Conflicts, Bénédicte received seeds, tools, and agricultural training. Now she grows a wider variety of vegetables to feed her family.
DOMINA FROM RWANDA
Photo: Laura Elizabeth Pohl/ActionAid
Domina’s husband and one of her sons were killed in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Domina is a member of the Abishyizehamwe cooperative in Kibilizi, a group formed to support people living with HIV & AIDS. The members, mostly women, work together to cultivate and sell crops including maize, beans, onions, green peppers, and potatoes. With ActionAid’s help they’re also growing mushrooms. They then pool together the money they earn to cover each other’s medical expenses.
LUZ FROM NICARAGUA
Photo: Rosa Blandón
Luz is a farmer from one of the 15 communities in the region Pantasma, Nicaragua, that are involved in a project to reintroduce native seeds.
KAPCHORWA WOMEN’S GROUP FROM UGANDA
Photo: ActionAid
In Uganda, women make up 80% of the rural food-producing workforce, but only 7% of them own land. ActionAid has been promoting innovative sustainable agriculture practices and supporting 13,000 women to have more secure access, control over and ownership of land.
With support from ActionAid, an irrigation scheme was built to support women farmers to expand their agricultural initiatives. They are currently planting cabbages, which are sold throughout Uganda and neighboring territories such as Kenya and Northern Sudan.
CHOUN FROM CAMBODIA
Photo: Savann Oeurm/ActionAid
Choun is a 42-year-old farmer from the village of O’Rum Cheik in Cambodia. She is member of an ActionAid-supported project in her village called the “revolving fund”, aimed at improving the livelihoods of villagers who currently have children in school. Choun says the trainings she’s received have supported her to increase her income, so that she can feed her family and keep her children in school.
Editor’s note: This blog was updated on July 6, 2017.
