#BreakTheBias
Sona Traore-Sesay, Executive Director of LEAD Monrovia Football Academy
LEAD Edu, LEAD Monrovia Football Academy, and LEAD Morocco celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, championing ‘gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow’ and calling for climate action for women, by women.
Women's rights are human rights. Women are a fundamental source of transformative change for gender equality: they are leaders and changemakers. Supporting and empowering women and adolescent girls will create the leaders of tomorrow, promising - as the UN envisioned - 'a more equitable and prosperous future'.
March 8 is International Women’s Day. It’s a day when we all celebrate the importance of the women’s rights movement, and bring attention to crucial issues such as gender and reproductive rights, as well as violence and abuse against women.
Sadly, women still face challenges and atrocities on a daily basis – from access to education and healthcare, access to jobs, female genital mutilation (FGM), domestic violence, being sold as child brides, and having higher rates of human trafficking.
Liberia is no stranger to some of these challenges. My country has one of the highest incidences of sexual violence against women in the world, and 36% of women aged 20–24 years old were married or in a union before age 18. However, Liberia also knows about championing women as leaders – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was the first democratically elected Female African Head of State in 2006.
My organization, LEAD Monrovia Football Academy (LEAD MFA), understands these realities, and on this important day, we join the global community in standing against gender-based violence – and in supporting and fighting for female education, healthcare, and opportunity.
This year’s International Women’s Day focuses on gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow. We now understand the link between gender, social equity, and climate change and know that the effects of climate change disproportionately affect women.
That’s why I and the entire LEAD MFA team are striking the IWD #BreakTheBias pose and calling for climate action for women, by women, both in Liberia and around the world.
LEAD MFA is a leadership institution that empowers girls to become women and leaders through education, sport, and leadership lessons. We know that education improves outcomes - not just in leadership but also in economic opportunity and health. As the BBC first reported, LEAD MFA was the first sport academy in Africa founded on the principle of 50:50 gender equity.
International Women’s Day stands as a guiding beacon to fight inequalities against women and to highlight what would happen when they are solved. Educating women and men alike helps reduce the number of child marriages, decreases disease, and helps strengthen economies by enabling girls to access higher paying jobs.
Ultimately by empowering women in Liberia we can bridge higher unemployment rates, reduce discrimination against property inheritance, eradicate physical and/or sexual abuse, and bring socio-economic opportunities. Only by doing these things can we successfully build a sustainable tomorrow.
Will you help #BreakTheBias? Cross your arms to show solidarity!