International Women’s Day 2024
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Happy International Women’s Day!
March 8 is International Women's Day and we’re joining people across the globe in recognising, celebrating, praying for and standing in solidarity with women. Read on for some inspiring stories from our partners, and ways you can pray and take action to support women through the work of Tearfund's partners.
Women leading through change
The theme for International Women’s Day 2024 is
Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress.
We celebrate and thank God for the women who lead our partner organisations. In October 2023, some of these women visited Australia as part of a women’s leadership initiative Tearfund is implementing with the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Australia Awards Fellowships Program. Meet some of the women and read their reflections on leading through periods of change, and how their faith in God empowers them for the work they are doing.
Read moreWomen making a difference in their communities
We give thanks for the vital work of our partners as they seek to empower women to overcome the challenges of poverty and injustice.
Bakhtawar is a great advocate for education, especially for girls – and that has translated into a role as a mobiliser through a project that Tearfund’s partner the Diocese of Hyderabad is running in her village in remote, rural Pakistan. Mobilisers talk to people in their village about the value and importance of education, and encourage people to send their children to school.
“I learned so many things to motivate people of this village. I am happy that three of my children are studying in the school,” Bakhtawar says.
Ruby is a member of the student-led Green Club at her school in eastern Zambia. Green Club members are helping lead cross-generational approaches to build resilience to the harsh impacts of a changing climate. They’ve planted trees, including lots of fruit trees like this pawpaw, all around the school grounds. They water and care for them, and share with fellow students about the importance of caring for the land, growing a diversity of plants, and the nutritional benefits of eating what they grow.
Marama, from the Solomon Islands, runs a local women’s fellowship group in her village, teaching women skills like sewing clothes and weaving baskets using traditional materials. Tearfund’s Christian partner Ola Fou is working with communities here to help them adapt to change, and build resilience and hope.
“Ola Fou taught us how to use readily available resources in the community to create organic fertiliser, so instead of buying fertiliser from the shops, we use organic materials within our land area to put into our taro and cassava crops,” says Marama.
"The training and skills helped a lot. I was able to see a big improvement after attending the training and putting into practice what I learnt … With the improved product, I was able to sell crops at the market. The money I’ve earned is very helpful for the family … It has helped me meet my children’s school fees.”
Mary has been trained by Tearfund’s partner ACROSS in South Sudan to support other girls to stay at school. “This year we have brought back four girls who had dropped out and 20 newly enrolled girls to the school as the results of the skills and knowledge we gained from the training. We have also helped two girls from our school who were about to be married off before finishing their studies. Apart from encouraging girls to complete their schooling, we also plant trees, compose educational songs and many other games that promote learning and girls’ education.”
Take action
Giving Tearfund’s Useful Gifts to family and friends is a powerful and practical way to support the work of Tearfund’s partners around the world.
- The gift of girls’ education ($15) helps Tearfund’s partners to raise awareness of the value of girls’ education and train and support teachers, empowering girls to pursue learning with confidence. Lasting transformation happens when women are supported, connected and empowered.
- Choosing the gift of women’s empowerment ($50) will impact individual women, their families and communities through Self-Help Groups, training and income-generation activities.
- And the healthy mums and babies gift ($50) helps our partners to provide pre- and post-natal care, volunteer birth attendants and health education in places where poverty and marginalisation create enormous challenges for mothers and their babies.
Join Restorers
By joining Restorers, Tearfund’s monthly giving community, you can become part of a network of passionate Christians dedicated to renewal, transformation and the restoration of hope in hard places across the globe, supporting Tearfund’s partners in their work in areas like education, adult literacy and maternal and child health.
Become a Restorer Today