International Women’s Day

About International Women’s Day

The global celebration known as International Women’s Day honors women’s social, economic, cultural, and political accomplishments. The day serves as a reminder to speed up gender parity. Worldwide, there is much activity as people gather to honor women’s achievements or march for gender equality.

International Women’s Day (IWD), which is observed every year on 8 March, is one of the most important days of the year to:

• Celebrate women’s achievements.
• Promote women’s rights, and push for rapid gender parity.
• Generate money for causes that support women.

Refugees Women in Numbers

Today, around the world, people are on the move. They leave their home nations to seek better economic opportunities, fleeing conflict and destruction, or escape poverty. Worldwide, women comprise about half of the 244 million migrants and the 19.6 million refugees.

In 2015 over one million women and men sought asylum in Western Europe. They transited from Turkey to Greece and traveled through the Western Balkans to reach destination countries further north.

Refugee and migrant women and girls face specific challenges and protection risks in transit, including family separation, psychosocial stress, and trauma, health complications, particularly for pregnant women, physical harm and injury, and threats of exploitation and gender-based violence. Women also often serve as the primary caretakers for children and elderly family members, further deepening their need for protection and support.

Support Refugees Women

The way you support a woman is a way you build a healthy society. All refugee women worldwide need support. There are many ways to help women.

Education for Refugees Women

Access to education is a fundamental human right. It is essential to acquiring knowledge and “the full development of the human personality,” as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states. More than that, education makes us more resilient and independent individuals. Yet for millions of women and girls among the world’s ever-growing refugee population, education remains an aspiration, not a reality.

Employment for Refugees Women

All refugees need to make finding and keeping a job a priority for the financial health of their families and themselves.

• There are challenges and solutions to employment for all adults in a family.
• Employment of refugee women may change family dynamics and influence the cultural adjustment process for the whole family.

Digital Skills for Refugees Women

Many schools and organizations help women by empowering them with technology.

These organizations help women through free coding and digital courses, offer access to a network of women working in technology, and make contacts that have led to a job.

Economic Empowerment and Self-reliance

Most refugees sincerely want to provide for themselves and their families—to work, use their skills, and make their own decisions about their finances, lives, and futures. The humanitarian programs provide refugee women and youth access to cash assistance opportunities and help them safely earn a living. This, in turn, increases refugees’ self-reliance and resilience.

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