Last Day of CSW!
Yesterday was a bittersweet day. It was our last day
here at CSW and we ended with a Broadway show.
The events that I attended yesterday were very
insightful and allowed me to learn more about several different issues ranging in
maternity health to Islam and its relation to women’s rights.
The event I’m going to focus on for this blog is the “Strategic
Leadership for Women and Girls’ Health: The Beyond Zero Campaign in Kenya. The first lady of Kenya was the keynote
speaker and she outlined the campaign she created called Beyond Zero. There are
three goals of the campaign and they are the following:
1. Improve Maternal Health
2. Reduce
Child Mortality
3. Combat
HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other Diseases
The goals of this campaign are such significant issues
and for the first lady to be proactive and become successful in accomplishing
these goals is a great feat especially when countries all over the world have
similar issues but fail to even plan campaigns.
Another issue that motivated the creation of Beyond Zero
is the problem of women in rural areas giving birth in their homes which
increases complications and risks. There
are mobile units going around these areas that perform deliveries. One of the
panelists said something very important. She said “No woman should die while
giving birth.”
The other panelists had several statistics that showed
the true positive effects of Kenya’s efforts:
26% of Kenya’s Parliament is comprised of women.
30% of Kenya’s cabinet is comprised of women.
One moment during the session was very great to
witness. A young Kenyan girl, who is only 15 years old, raised her hand to make
a comment at the end. She was confident and poised. She stated that first and
foremost, education is a priority for girls and women. She then proceeded to
bring a bracelet symbolizing the fight for education and equality to the first
lady of Kenya and put it on her arm. This moment illustrated the capability and
significance of the youth. We need to listen to the younger generations because
they have a lot to offer!
CSW has been an eye-opening experience and I am so
thankful that I was able to be a part of it. I learned that there are so many
amazing advocates out there and we need to find a way to take all of the issues
we talked about and really IMPLEMENT them. Every session I attended had
problems with implementation.
See you all back in NC!
Dina Shehata
Congratulations to Kenya for having education as a priority for women and girls. I hope that is true for all. And good for Kenya for having an unusually large amount of women's political leadership. It is impressive. But, as long as women are 50% or so of the population, our leadership positions should match that percentage, or get close to it!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the Fellowship, and especially the time in NY. It's great you were able to take advantage of the opportunity. Sounds like you made good session choices. Welcome back to NC--yes we need to get working on implementing those solutions.