AIDS operations manager, Chikondi Chanasi
By Collings Kalivute, MANA
As the world prepares to celebrate the International Women’s Day on March 8, Ntcheu-based NGO, Alimoyo Interaction Development and Support (AIDS) has put in place measures of keeping girls busy, amongst which is the introduction of a women’s football team and tournament.
The strategy — using women’s football as a medium of communication— is to attract many girls together in the campaign against gender based violence (GBV).
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At the launch of an initiative on Monday aimed at protecting girls from GBV and empowering them to achieve their goals, AIDS operations manager, Chikondi Chanasi said the Alimoyo women’s football team will be used to attract girls in different communities in order to reach out to their huge numbers.
“We do not want to leave anybody behind,” Chanasi said. “We have observed that despite different intervention by different organizations targeting girls in Ntcheu, there is nothing being done on the ground to keep them busy so that we can restrain them from immoral behaviors.
“That is why we thought of intervening to help in protecting our girls.”
Chanasi said they had noted with concern that girls had become more vulnerable to GBV that has negatively affected them.
He said it was worrisome that defilement cases were rampant in the district and that more girls had ventured into immoral behaviors like prostitution and drug and substance abuse hence the initiative to bail them out.
One of the girls in the district, Janet Kachipapa commended the organisation for the initiative, saying it would help many girls to identify their talent.
Apart from girls, AIDS is supporting resource poor people, women with husbands in prison, prisoners as well as women and children.
International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8 March around the world — a focal point in the movement for women’s rights.
According Wikipedia, after the Socialist Party of America organized a Women’s Day in New York City on February 28, 1909, German delegates Clara Zetkin, Kate Duncker, Paula Thiede and others proposed at the 1910 International Socialist Woman’s Conference that ‘a special Women’s Day’ be organized annually.
Falls on March 8
After women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia in 1917, March 8 became a national holiday there — then predominantly celebrated by the Socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted by the feminist movement in about 1967.
The United Nations began celebrating the day in 1977. Its commemoration today ranges from being a public holiday in some countries to being largely ignored elsewhere.
“In some places, it is a day of protest; in others, it is a day that celebrates womanhood.”
The 2021 UN theme for International Women’s Day is ‘Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world’ highlighting the impact that girls and women worldwide had as health care workers, caregivers, innovators and community organizers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Wikipedia, African countries that celebrate the day as an official holiday include Angola; Burkina Faso; Guinea-Bissau; Madagascar (for women only); Uganda; Eritrea and Zambia.
Outside Africa are Afghanistan; Armenia; Azerbaijan; Belarus; Cambodia; China (for women only); Cuba; Georgia;, Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Laos; Moldova; Mongolia; Nepal; Russia; Tajikistan, Turkmenistan; Ukraine; Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
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In most countries, the day is not a public holiday, but is widely observed nonetheless and it is customary for men to give the women in their lives — friends, mothers, wives, girlfriends, daughters, colleagues — flowers and small gifts (although to many this seems cloyingly old-fashioned and rather to miss the point), says Wikipedia.
In some countries (such as Bulgaria and Romania) it is also observed as an equivalent of Mother’s Day, where children also give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express
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