How did you celebrate International Women’s Day this year?
Earlier this month saw the annual return of International Women’s Day – a day dedicated not just to celebrating “the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women” but also to promoting the need for accelerated change if women are to enjoy gender parity by 2030. At Jeevika Trust we believe that women’s empowerment and equality is vital – not only for women, but for the development and progress of humankind. Our projects prove that, when women are empowered, the results are dramatic.
We are very lucky to have a Board of Trustees who live and breathe the values we hold dear at Jeevika Trust. Read on to find out how one of our Trustees, Julie Hutton, has shown her support for International Women’s Day…
“On 8th March 2017 International Women’s Day once again took place, and like so many around the world I spent the day celebrating our successes and the challenges women have overcome, whilst planning the future and sharing our dreams.
My day started early at 6am with a Pilates class, rewarded with my ‘usual’ soya hot chocolate and apricot pastry. In India, girls will have started at that time in order to walk barefoot along dusty tracks to collect dirty water from some distance away. I will not be forced to miss work today because it is my period, unlike many girls in India who will miss their lessons because they don’t have access to toilets or sanitary protection. And unlike those girls in India, I will not be dropping out of school completely in a few month’s time because there comes a point where you have missed so many lessons it is near impossible to catch up on the work missed.
So my promise this International Women’s Day is that I will forgo (or more realistically at least match!) my soya hot chocolates and pastries and instead give that amount to Jeevika Trust, in the hope that one more girl may continue her education for another month or two and hopefully, make some of her dreams come true.”
Julie Hutton, Trustee of Jeevika Trust