Celebrating Women's Day

Nyirenda said that the move to form an organization of women was only triggered two years ago when they observed the annual International Women's Day on March 8.

In 2009, women volunteers across the commercial city of Blantyre celebrated women's strength and dignity by striving to improve in a small way women's access to crucial services, helping them speak out about political decisions that affected them, said Nyirenda.

 "Township women have the potential to propel their households and communities forward, to lift them out of poverty and to make decisions that can have a lasting impact on their families and communities," said Amina Phiri, Senior Technical Adviser on Gender and Poverty Targeting at PM. "When investments reach women, transformations begin to occur."

In Malawi just like many other developing countries, women fulfill many different roles: they are farmers, caretakers of children and the elderly, wage laborers and small-scale entrepreneurs. They often spend long hours fetching water and collecting firewood. But too often they are held back by lack of education, unequal property rights and limited control over resources.

"To tap women's potential, we need to first understand their challenges and their needs, and then direct our investments accordingly because when they overcome traditional barriers, the gains are huge," said Phiri. Investing in women is not just about achieving the third Millennium Development Goal, which is to promote gender equality and empower women, but "unless the world starts equating economic growth of countries with gender equality, we will continue witnessing many crises in years to come," she said.

According to her, women and men are never born enemies, but equal partners. And women's advancement not only brings integrity and happiness to women but also a better life to all.

"And under this year's [International Women's Day] theme 'Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women,' we surely hope that this day will be celebrated by all," said Phiri.