In the opening commemoration ceremony of International Women’s Day on in Aweil, participants and partners stressed that women must be empowered to make a change in the Society.

Speaking during the event, Ajak Michael Kuel, a senior government official in Aweil, urged women to take education seriously in order to open the path for women to compete equally with men in public offices.

Ajak Michael Kuel went on to say, “We are smarter than men, something we don’t know. But I believe we will take ninety percent in the government if we do our jobs. We cannot expect our president to give us 35 percent and we are sitting at home relaxing, we have go school like men. There is nothing called age for school. You can go to school when you are five years, fifty years old, even a hundred years old. So when we campaign for you, we can say yes we are Bachelor degree holders, we are graduated in the high school. Why you don’t give us this position. We have to look in our selves first. We have to know, what our weaknesses are. ”

Also in attendance, UNMISS Head of Office, Hailu Takalti, said that women are peace makers and we all must work to stop all kinds of abuses against us.

Ms. Taklti went on to state, “The role of women in bringing peace to family, to the society and the Country should not be underestimated. Women are peace makers, so we need to recognize all the suffering, the pain in the family, in women, in mothers and our children. We need to address that as quickly as we can. We need fight the stereotype against women and children. Such stereo types are means of perpetuating the negative attitudes towards women and girls in the society. Domestic violence, rap, all forms of abuses of women and girls has to stop. The solution cannot come from outside. It is you; it is all of us men and women who should fight all those biases against women and girls. ”

The event was organized by the UNMISS Human Right Division in partnership with civil society organizations in the area.