Radio Miraya
2661: International Women's Day: Oluwaseun Okediran, Gender Equality and Inclusion Advisor for Save the Children
- (speaks in foreign language) And yes, as we continue this morning, of course, with the Miraya break for sure, the big conversation begins every morning. Last week, as we all remember on March 8th, the world commemorated International Women's Day, which is celebrated annually to reorganize, or to recognize and appreciate achievements of women all around the world. Now this day, also serves as a platform to discuss challenges and struggles women are still facing. Well, Save the Children in South Sudan is supporting women through various programs. And to learn more about the activities, we are glad to be joined here in the studio by Olu Wacheon, Olu Wacheon, who is a gender equality and inclusion advisor who saved the children so we can have a conversation and look at what they do. Olu Wacheon, good morning, and it's good to have you on the Miraya break for sure. - Hi, good morning, and it's a pleasure to be here. - Yes, I was wondering if I pronounced your name correctly. - Yes, you did. - Oh, thank you. I'm happy that I did. Well, as I mentioned, last week South Sudan joined the world in commemorating the International Women's Day. Now, what are some of the saved children activities in regular news of the day? - All right, thank you so much. And it's actually International Women's Month. - Yeah, absolutely. - Let it be international women's year. - Yeah, we would love that, wouldn't we? Okay, so thank you, so Save the Children. We have an array of events. We kick started the event on the Friday with the round table, which pulled together stakeholders from different spheres of the world. So we had women leading ladies from private sector, from the civil society organizations, from the UN agencies, and from politics and government. And most especially, which was my exciting part, was we're able to bring in our women farmers, who are some of the rights holders that we've supported to empower them. And so they were able to come to Dubai, meet with these different women from different walks, have conversations, and lastly, make concerted commitment to ensuring that women are empowered from the women in Walgak to Dubai, to wherever they are to ensure that they're able to understand the policies and laws that are set in place for them, and what it means to be a woman in South Sudan. - And with your program's activities, are you as Save the Children implementing to empower these women in South Sudan? - All right, thank you. We have an array of programs. So we believe that right from childhood, children should be empowered. That's why we have our ECW program. Education cannot wait. Which one is that ECW's in full, please? - Education cannot wait. - Okay, education cannot wait. - And it ensures that girls have quality education, looking at access to quality education, and limiting any barriers, starting from that. And then we have empowerment initiatives for women. So women who want to go into agricultural, who want to go into petitrating, who also want to go into tailoring, or any vocational skill that they desire to, we have programs that support them. We also have cash assistance programs, that gives some funding to families to ensure that they're food insecure. So we're looking at the entire, it's a full cycle program for us, right from a girl child to an adult woman, who is a mother or so. So those are including our health programs, they look at the maternal health for women and nutrition. So it's a full holistic initiative. - Great, and how does safe the children collaborate with local communities and authorities to drive this sustainable change for women's rights in South Sudan? - Yeah, so localization and sustainability is at the heart of all our programs. So we ensure that right from conception of the idea, we collaborate with the local communities. So looking at the leaders, the community leaders, religious leaders, the women, the children, we have a motto that says, "Nothing for us without us." So if we are initiating a women's program, we do involve the women in discussing, and in the full cycle when we need to review or evaluate the program, it's a concerted effort to ensure the local communities are involved. - Now, if I hear safe the children, of course the first thing that comes to my mind is the children. - Yes, how important is saving and empowering the women, helping as well in saving the children? - That's a very great question, because we often get teased that we're saving children what happens to the parents, but we know you cannot have children without parents, especially mothers. So right from when a mother is a girl, like I mentioned with our education program, Wenstra, she's nurtured through the right nutrition program, health, ensuring there's access to quality and to natural care services, when she becomes pregnant, and ensuring that we support in the upkeep of the family throughout the whole gestation period, up until the child is given back to, and then the cycle continues. So women are very integral for our programming, because we know that they're the heart of the nation. You train a girl, you train a nation, you help empower a woman, you empower the entire nation. So women are the forefront of our initiatives. So, like I said, with our quality health programming, nutrition, food security, livelihood programs, and including our washing machines, if we ensure that women are the forefront of this program. - And where do you carry all these programs, particularly? - Across South Sudan. So we have programs in Wargag, a cool forest. We have in Torit, we have in Ball. So we have specific programs in locations across South Sudan. - Great. - You did mention clearly is the women's month. - Yeah. - And I wanted it to be like the women's year. (laughs) Just, you know, what other programs are in the pipeline as we conclude this month, what is safe the children doing and going to continue to do? - Okay, so to celebrate women, we're going to ensure that we're spreading the word across in line with the theme for this year. We're going to be ensuring that women are included across all activities. We also want to amplify the voices of women who are often marginalized, who don't have a chance to speak. So looking at women living with disabilities and hard-to-reach areas. So through our social media campaign, investing her, we're going to really be amplifying the voices of this powerful women. Even internally, we have exciting events for our staff in-house, but also to really spotlight the initiatives we have and also acknowledging the joint efforts of our partners in the UN and our donors. So please stay tuned. - Of course, we'll be looking forward to that. Now, as we celebrate women, of course, in this month, we also take this month to acknowledge some of the challenges and struggles that women are facing on daily basis. Now, as someone working closely with women in South Sudan here, what do you see in some of the biggest challenges that South Sudan women are facing that needed really attention? - Yeah, South Sudan women are unfortunately plagued with various inequalities, one of which is access to education. A lot of young women and girls are restricted from getting quality education. Child marriage is also a prevalent issue and poor maternal health care. Just a very small amount of South Sudan women have access to quality skilled birth attendants when they are pregnant or when they're about to give birth. And this increases the chances of dying. So if a young girl can make it to a fifth birthday here, it's a good thing. But we want to make sure that we try and reduce this inequalities and address any of the cultural social barriers that affect or that pronounce this inequalities. - All right. - Oluwaz Seon, thank you so much for coming to me right. Do you just what would be your final remarks and message out there? - I want to say happy International Women's Month to all the powerful amazing South Sudanese women and not forgetting the men who are allies who always support us. Thank you very much. - You do appreciate that with us. - Finally, somebody mentioned men, man, this man. Thank you so much. - Thank you. - Thank you. - We do appreciate your time.