Intnl. Women’s Day: WISE Joins Others In Celebration …Touches Lives As Women Smile Home With Gifts

Intnl. Women’s Day: WISE Joins Others In Celebration …Touches Lives As Women Smile Home With Gifts

Zainab Tanimu

Kaduna, North – West, Nigeria

Women Initiative For Sustainable Environment (WISE) on Tuesday joined other women across the world in celebrating the International Women’s Day.

Women from different organizations who gathered in the spirit of the celebration had a swell time as many smiled home with gifts.

According to the Founder/Director WISE, Olanike Olugboji, aside being a day set aside world wide to celebrate the achievements of women, as well as raise awareness on women related issues, it is the tradition of the organization to impact on the lives of the women through the spirit of giving.

” March 8th every year has become recognized as International Women’s Day and for us as an organization, ‘Women Initiative For Sustainable Environment’, (WISE), we have a mission of advancing the right hood and responsibilities of women in natural resource governance.

Our foundational mission is the promotion of constructive environmental ideals and practices like empowering people especially women and youth to become stewards of our natural resources. To become peace builders.

Olanike emphasized further that WISE is not just aligning with the international day’s celebration but as an organization encouraging the women to challenge themselves and become better persons.

” We are aligning with international women’s day because it is an opportunity for us to recognise and celebrate the achievements of women and also to motivate women to not just be laid back but rise up and do something about not just their personal lives, families, society but become the best that they can in different sectors.

” For example, look at where Dr. Ngozi Okonjo – Oweala is today. Any other woman can achieve that and can even become better than that.

She added that, instead of the usual rhetorics of ‘we  have been marginalized, we have been victimized, women should strive to become author of their own change.

” We cannot continue to sing the song that we have been marginalized, we have been victimized, rather, what we are sending out is women, we can become author of our own change and we are using this opportunity of 2021 Internationally Women’s Day which has the theme of, ‘Choose to Challenge’.

We are telling the women there are lots of things we are not doing right in the society.

We should challenge those things. We should challenge stereo typing, We should challenge gender base violence. We should challenge insecurity. We should challenge hunger. We should challenge poverty.

There is always a thing we can do to make a difference in the society. ” She stressed.

 The panel of discussants put in place made up of women and men further enumerated on issues germane to the development of women.

Issues such as that of need for girl child education, need for equity in leadership role, the need for women to be architect of their own success by being supportive to one another politically and otherwise and the realization of the fact that individually they are responsible for their thoughts and actions were  all brought to fore as a way of challenging women to bring about change.

The topic which was a United Nation’s (UN) topic, WOMEN In LEADERSHIP: Achieving An Equitable Future In A Challenging World which was well articulated challenged the women to turn a new leaf.

The women responding to call to ‘Choose to Challenge’ which is the 2021 International Women’s Day Celebration’s theme, made commitments to challenge vices by lending their voices rather than silence.

Earlier in her speech, Member Board Founder, Atan Care for Women, Chief Mrs. Anna Lamit Avong called on women to rise to the task and always be proactive in whatever they do.

Speaking on ‘Earning the Powers of Women through Gender Equity’, Mrs Martha Banki encouraged women to stand up for their rights.

” It is time women stand up for their rights. It is time women speak up for their rights. No woman, no nation. We earn our power through speaking out.

Mentor someone so that there will be improvement irrespective of who the woman is.

Discover yourself first before you are discovered. Exhibit your potentials. You should not be celebrated when you are away but when you are around. She said.

A challenged world  is an alert world and from challenge comes change. Women should strive for change. ”

Throughout women were called to ‘choose to challenge’ as that is the ultimate thing to do.

Goodwill messages delivered by organizations present were full of encomium for the great initiatives of WISE while pledging their continous support for the good work of the founder, Olanike Olugboji.

Pastor Joseph and others who spoke from the point of view of the men described women as vehicle of chance while urging that they face the challenge before them head long.

” Women remain a source of strength and stability to any community.

The men are physical head. The women are the spiritual head because they are always there to interceded for the men.

With good women around the men, the country will turn around. ”

” When l am talking about disability rights, l am talking about your rights as a person. Is because most times you look at disability from us that are already in it. Someone that is hypertensive is a disabled person. If you are having diabetes  you are a disabled person.

So when they say advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities, they are asking you to advocate for your rights because in your work place, you are supposed to be benefiting some things which you are not given opportunity to enjoy.

Emphasising,

It is not easy to have a child with disabilities. It is very expensive to take care of a child with disability ”. She cried out.

Risikat called for support for persons with disabilities, saying, ” the problem we have in Nigeria is that of stigmatization and discrimination. I call on everyone. Choose to challenge against persons with disabilities. ” She ended.

To add colour to the event, women took to the stage to display their talents in singing while others in keeping  in-tune with the  good old days danced to keep body and soul together.

At the end of the singing and dancing competition, presentation of gifts followed.

Many went home with various gifts including cash.

Cutting of the cake was performed by the Chief Executive Officer, Olanike  together with some of the women who stood to grace the cutting.

Empowering women has been a project of WISE. The Chief Executive Officer Olanike explained that the organization has successfully introduced the women to various forms of businesses and that many of them are financially not doing badly.

To further enhance them, a new brand of Stove was launched while calling that they use the opportunity availed them to boost their financial statues.

Women Initiative for Sustainable Environment is a  Non Profit making Organization put in place to better the lives of women.

Among the organizations who graced the event were, NCWS, World Pulse, Propcom, Nenu, Fati Gold, Envirofit, GIGLAD, EEMAN, Herald Associate and Empowerment Institute.