Celebrating International Women's Day: Empowering and empowering women around the world

Every year on March 8, International Women's Day celebrates the contributions and achievements of women around the world, aiming to promote gender equality and gender balance in all sectors of society. Especially in some of the most impoverished and violent areas, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) defends human dignity by empowering women to help them improve their personal and family lives and gradually heal the wounds in their communities.

First, CRS's work focuses on promoting the transformation of women's roles in society, especially in Latin America and West Africa. Women in these regions often face gender inequality and social exclusion. By helping women gradually transform from traditional second-class citizen status to peacemakers, entrepreneurs and opportunity creators, CRS is committed to promoting social equity and inclusion. Even in some extremely poor and turbulent areas, CRS still believes that women have the ability to improve their own lives and the lives of their communities.

Second, in some cultural backgrounds, women are often confined to traditional roles and find it difficult to break gender bias. Take Liberia, for example, the social status of women in the country has long been lower than that of men, especially after 14 years of civil war, and the process of social recovery has been very slow. Although Liberia became the first African country to elect a female president in 2011, women's economic autonomy in the country is still very limited.

At the same time, in order to change this situation, CRS launched the Supporting Platform for Young Rural Entrepreneurs (ASPYRE) program in Liberia to help young women achieve economic independence through entrepreneurship. This one-year program will provide participants with business training and microfinance support to help them engage in small businesses including agriculture and food sales. Through these trainings, participants will not only master basic financial management skills, but also learn how to develop business plans, open savings accounts, and even present their entrepreneurial projects in competitions such as "Shark Tank" to attract investors' attention.

In addition, CRS has promoted the Youth Build program in El Salvador and Nicaragua, which provides business skills and life skills training for young people, especially young women, to help them become self-reliant and improve the situation of their families and communities. El Salvador and Nicaragua have long been plagued by civil war, drug smuggling and gang violence. Many young people face the plight of poverty and social instability, which forces some young people to risk going to Mexico or the United States to seek asylum.

Furthermore, the Youth Build program aims to provide young people with employment, education or entrepreneurship opportunities to help them build a better life in their local communities. Since the program began, more than 10,000 young people have participated, and about 70% of graduates have found jobs, returned to school, or both. It is worth noting that women account for a large proportion of the participants in this program, showing that women are playing an increasingly important role in these projects.

Finally, CRS also supports savings-based microfinance programs to help poor areas, especially women, provide savings opportunities, and provide financial services such as loans and investments to help them cope with emergency needs in daily life. These microfinance groups provide extremely important economic support to extremely poor families and help women gain more economic autonomy.

In summary, through these projects, CRS not only helps women achieve economic independence and improve their social status, but also promotes a social environment of gender equality. Globally, more and more women are beginning to play an increasingly important role in family, social and economic life. International Women's Day is not only a day to celebrate women's achievements, but also a symbol of women around the world fighting for equal rights and opportunities in all fields. Through the joint efforts of all parties, women around the world are gradually moving towards a life with greater equality, freedom and dignity.