Gretchen, USA. Retired science teacher and administrator of adolescent kids 5. grade through 9. grade. 

“Have been involved with women and children as core thing in my life either serving on cultural boards or educational boards or in work at the school…I don’t think its quite the same (gender equality) now as it used to be but I think there is a huge problem for women in the world and want to be here to find out what its all about.”

“The biggest issue we face today is that we (women) maybe forgetting how important it is to politicise to be able to move the big powers to our causes. I think that the head of planned parenthood this morning said it so well when she said we can do this we can do that we can do the other but if we don’t politicise it and get it changed in the world of politics its not going to happen and a perfect example is the US election cycle right now, its very politicised and whether or not there is going to be a real change, I think there isn’t its going to be a lot of noise, its not going to happen for women.”

“The best advice I have received is be yourself and work for others because you gain power by working with others, yourself is not the important thing its how you use what you have with other people.”

Praise Emenike, Nigeria. Works with Family Health International FHI 360, Strengthening and integrating the delivery of HIV/AIDS services in communities in Rivers state. 

“What we do is we go out to the community and we conduct mobile antiretroviral therapy services to the people in the community…we mobilise the community and we do these services and test them for HIV…first of all everyone that is positive should know their status and then they should be linked to care they should be given antiretroviral therapy and then they should be sustained in that care so we can achieve viral suppression. That is what I basically do and I like my job I like what I do in the community.”

“I like the fact that i am able to mitigate the problem i am able to mitigate the issues of prevention in my community and i am bale to reach the end beneficiaries i see the people in the community i see that they nee help and support and i am able to support them.”

What is the biggest issue women face today?

“The biggest issue today is gender based violence we have gender based inequalities everywhere. in the place where i work women would need consent from their husband to access a simple HIV test. That shouldn’t be an issue, to have access. They should be able to decide for themselves. 

And women who have unintended pregnancies they should be able to decide this is what i want to do this is how many children i want to have and sometimes they don’t have that opportunity.”

Denicia Cadena, USA. She works as a policy director at Young Women United. It is an organization that leads community organizing change work by and for young women of colour in New Mexico and the US.

“I am working on a project around access to contraception with a group of researchers from the university of new mexico and my organisation was brought on to make sure that the methodologies that they are using don’t include reproductive coercion and don’t shame young families and people who become parents as teenagers and really is inclusive of LGBTQ young people…we also work on building educational equity for teen parents we work on framing addiction as a health care issue and making sure that women who are substance using pregnant can get access to prenatal careened treatment and that their not incarcerated for their substance use.”

“I think most of what Ive learned about change making in this world has come from my mother my sisters my grandmothers, and i think in a different connected way from my ancestors. But its really about focusing work in the community and that the people who are the most impacted are the experts of their own lives and will have the best solutions we need for our communities.”

Chidinma Akpa, Nigeria. She is a final year medical student in university of Ibadan(Nigeria) and has studied comprehensive surgical education.

“I teach comprehensive surgical education I work with some action groups on adolescents health. I go around secondary schools talking to adolescents, girls and boys and talk about their bodies, how to prevent HIV, unwanted pregnancy and just what they need to know about sex education.”

“The biggest challenge today is gender inequality. i would say most of the work women do goes unrecognized, unappreciated, unpaid for and most times they are even looked down upon. I would hope for a world where they would be appreciated more that they can be taken more seriously and be welcomed into the inner circle of influences. 

At times a woman is even the brains behind all the work being done. But somehow you find out that the appreciation is given to a man. it is repackaged and they say with the help of...and the whole thing goes to a man. Especially back home in Africa. So I want us to, in terms of intellectual progress and creativity and innovation, lets give women a chance to come and stand side by side.”

Clementina Ilukol, Uganda. She is a leader of young midwives in Uganda.

“There are many challenges for women in the community where i work. There are a lot of domestic violence there are child marriage, forced marriage. You find these young girls being denied to go to school they are supposed to care of other children in the villages at home and not knowing they are being denied their rights.”

“The best advice I have received is to take much time at school and acquiring higher levels of education and not be rushing into marriage. I am still single and I feel I should work hard as far as school issues are concerned and after that I will get married.”

Edidiong Michael Umoh, Nigeria. She works as a maternal child health care officer.

“I got the interest for advocating for women when i discovered i was raised as a negative.”

“I learned how important data is because if you dont know what is uptainable what are you gonna work on? if you dont know the number of women who die from depression during pregnancy if you dont know that women actually are depressed during pregnancy and what the result on the child is. If you dont know that exists, how are you going to work on it.”

“The biggest challenge for me is domestic violence and the fact that women are being marginalized im gonna say that. women are known to have a level of inferiority complex wether you like it or not…I used to be very timid as a young lady. When I was 16 i had a boyfriend and then i was timid around him and his friends they would laugh at me and talk to me and i was just trying to be that good girl i wouldn’t say anything and then i discovered that ”no” i was better than this and then you find that men do this thing and get away with it so any time i see a man trying to bring down a lady then I make sure you stop that.”

“The best advice I got was from my godmother. she’s a judge in one of the states in my country. She used to say something to me when I was living with her at my 2. year of university whatever your hands find to do, do it as your are doing it onto god and not onto man because men will never reward you. Always learn how to do whatever it is that you want to do with the mindset that you are not doing it for anybody you are doing it for yourself.”

Sadiqa Basiri Saleem, Afghanistan. Executive director of the Oruj Learning Centre. Focusing on girls and women’s education.

“If we are not investing in girls and women’s education then whatever resources are there, and I am very happy that some of the panelists touched on this, if we are not investing in their primary education as well the secondary education there is no way for women to use other resources for their benefit and to actually multiply their resources or their energy. So that’s why I think education is key to all solutions and especially and particularly in Afghanistan where education have been misunderstood and misinterpreted by the extremists such as the Taliban.” 

“Well I will say the biggest issue for me is that women is seen is an issue, women by itself is seen as an issue women is understood as a stereotype which its not. This concept this understanding should be transformed into something brilliant that both men and women are active and a productive part of a whole society. Without women this world cannot move on. So once this understanding is global, is universal we will not see women as an issue.”

“Once I had the privilege to share a stage with Hillary Clinton and she whispered in my ear ”I’m glad that you acknowledge the support of your husband and the support of your father…I think it is very important that we should be acknowledging all those people and all those factors that are contributing to transformation and men do play a key role. Today I am able to work with thousands of women provide them with primary education higher education and I’m able to do that just because of my father and later on when I married with the support of my husband so the support from these to men are crucial in my life and that’s how I am saying that because I have been treated equally with my brothers or even I would say superior to my brothers...if same opportunities are provided to women I’m sure women would not be consumers women will be producers.”

Laraib Abid, Pakistan. She is working as a Senior Manager Monitoring in International Non Governmental Organization PATRIP Foundation and GFC. Here, she also focuses how women living nearby border areas can be empowered.

She is also the founder of Mashal campaign that focuses on Women empowerment and interfaith harmony. She did a Masters in Gender Studies from University of the Punjab, Pakistan.

“If I talk about Pakistan’s context, our major institutions play a huge role in gender roles formation. The main issue over here is that still majority of the women aren’t considered equal to men. Their choice, mobility, wishes all are dependent on men. It’s normal for a man to hang out, travel and earn but for women, cooking and doing home chores are considered as an asset instead of her professional achievements. She is supposed to look after the family, cook and clean home even if she is earning. This is a grassroots/micro level problem that directly affects the overall behavior and life of the people. Until daughters and sons both aren’t treated equally we can’t come out of domestic violence, sexual assaults/ harassment, eve teasing, honor killing etc. When a daughter is asked to iron clothes of her brother, polish his shoes, cook for him and that brother doesn’t take a glass of water by himself and can take decisions of his sister’s life then how come we can achieve equality. The institutions i.e. education, marriage, politics, health, family and media all gets influenced by this.

“My mother, who is my inspiration always told me to be a good human being first. She never forced me to be an expert for home chores but supported me for my achievements on a professional level and on how I want to bring a positive change. Today, if I am able to inspire even a single person that’s because of her. 

She asked me to think and work like a human being not like any gender, so if there’ll be men or even a third gender suffering because of other genders, I will work for that too.”