IWD: Catholic Caritas preaches love among women

The Caritas Nigeria of the Church and Society Department of Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) has urged women to love one another to make more positive impacts in nation’s building.

 Revd. Fr. Uchechukwu Obodoechina, Director, Caritas Nigeria, made the call yesterday in Abuja at a special mass and panel discussion marking this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) and official inauguration of the Catholic Social Teaching (CST) Certification Programme.

The event was themed, ‘Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress -Women Inclusion at Workplace in Light of the Catholic Social Teaching’.

 “I would advise women to begin to love themselves for who they are, not aspire to be men, but to be happy to be women. Because, God has a reason for making you a woman; if you are a woman, be a happy woman because women are the source of life, peace and without women, none of us can be. Let them love each other and avoid conflicts, rivalry, they should be at peace with themselves,” Obodoechina said.

 He also said that the CST launched programme would educate and empower individuals, starting with a pilot project involving 17 participants from various institutions.

 The Deputy Secretary General, CSN, Rev. Fr Michael Banjo, noted the need to promote complementarity roles between men and women and also recognising their equal dignity and natural differences.

Meanwhile, a group of Nigerian women have said they feel very sad celebrating the International Women’s Day (IWD) due to untold hardship.

The women speaking during a press conference organised by ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) to commemorate the IWD lamented the inability to send their children to school, insecurity and other avoidable socio-economic challenges ravaging the country.

A smallholder farmer in the FCT, Mrs Comfort Sunday, lamented that every day she wakes up without what to eat makes her sick apart from fears of being attacked as nowhere is secured again in Nigeria.

Another woman from Gwagwa Community in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Hajiya Zuera Salim, also lamented that the current hardship is taking a toll on her health and family.

Speaking earlier, the Deputy Country Director of AAN, Hajiya Suweba Dakwanbo Mohammed, stressed the need to address the pressing economic challenges facing the nation.