It’s International Women’s Day 2022!

IWD is “a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.”

This year’s IWD theme is #BreaktheBias in which the campaign encourages people to imagine a gender equal world, free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.

The theme this year resonates for me with respect to our own slogan “Telling a different story of Africa” and the bias inherent to how we describe the global south - Africa itself is often described as continent needing “salvation”.

When I met Esther, she didn’t need salvation, neither did the women that she was supporting with the Women in Action Development Project - her school for women and girls established during the Sierra Leone Blood Diamond civil war. She needed resources. She already knew the way forward out of this conflict and to rebuilding - education, community, love. There is a reason staff and students refer to Esther as “Auntie” and a reason why the Sierra Leonean government called up on Esther and Women in Action to be a key partner in the country’s DDR (Disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation) program in the years to follow the war.

We are Esther’s Echo, literally because this is Esther’s vision, project, mission, passion. We echo her work into the world to help channel resources to places she may not have reach. This is our way to help Break the Bias.

-Matthew

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