By Binta Jaiteh
Elizabeth Batchilly, governance and research support unit at MRC has expressed that women lack employment to make certain decisions that will contribute to the socio economic development of the country.
She was speaking at the recently International Women’s Day walk out organised by the MRC Gambia held in Bakau.
“There are personal and collective fights, as women we face a lot of challenges and unfairness in the world. Women manage a lot of works taking care of the children, meanwhile, as a unit and individual are to support each other,” she said.
She went on that women should have equal opportunities and “having equal opportunities doesn’t mean we are taking over but more to work in partnership to achieve the goals. We are in this together and together we can make a difference. So, it is really important to be aware of the controls in your lives and careers, we can’t take decisions for ourselves to make a difference in our society.”
This is because, she noted, women tend to forget themselves in anything they are doing and that today the focus is on women.
According to her “I realized that what I took as granted is not for granted to other women, women depend a lot on men to make decisions. Notwithstanding, it is not bad to share ideas but we lack the empowerment to make certain decisions like having the power to determine the number of children and maintenance of our bodies. The norms and values including the religion, beliefs of our cultures are all forces on us.
So, she said women need to make provisions of what comes naturally to women in terms of having children.
Margaret Foster, CEO of Phenomenal Gym reminded the women the importance of the day saying International Women’s Day is a day where women are celebrated to empower women and teach them the importance of staying healthy not just to have fun but for overall health. It is recommended for the average adult to partake in physical exercise at least three times a week for an hour.
According to her, the exercise that they perform works on the respiratory system and is important in the breathing system and anytime you do physical activity the sweats that remove is crucial. Women do a lot of activities at home so we don’t create or have time to do physical training that can create fatigue.
Umberto D’Alessandro, Unit Director of MRCG at LSHT thanked the organizers of this event, noting that it fits in their policy or approach to give equal opportunities to value everybody regardless of sex and gender.