On Sunday, March 7 at 1:00pm there will be a peace rally held in Fairfield on the Hwy 1 Bridge (just north of MUM campus on Hwy1). This is a celebration in honor of the resilience of millions of women survivors of war around the world. The organization, Women for Women International (WFWI), has created a global campaign called Join me on the Bridge. This campaign is scheduled to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of International Women’s Day and the 10th anniversary of the UN Millennium Development Goals. We will meet at 1:00pm to celebrate women with song and drumming, write our messages of peace and hope on a large banner that will be sent to the international organization (along with photos and video footage of the gathering), and to sign petitions for peace, which will be sent by WFWI to various governments around the world to encourage them to provide women greater access to education, job training, credit, property rights and support.

On International Women’s Day, WFWI is bringing thousands of women from Rwanda and the Congo together on a bridge that sits between their two countries to demand an end to war and to demonstrate that women can build the bridges to peace and economic sustainability. In solidarity, both women and men will gather together on bridges throughout the world in a global movement to create peace, inspire strength and give hope.

Women for Women International is a nonprofit humanitarian organization that works in war torn areas of the world (Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda, DRC, and Sudan). Through a sponsorship program, women survivors of war are able to take back their lives and become productive citizens. First, their basic needs of food, shelter, health care are met and then they begin a year long training program called “Renewing Women’s Life Skills”. Here they gain technical and vocational training, learn about their rights as women, and regain their self esteem. Throughout this year they are encouraged to correspond with their sponsor through letters and sometimes pictures. Once they graduate from the program, these women have new tools to return home with and to help provide for their families and gain a standing in the community, which they otherwise did not have. Through this organization, women are able to change their lives and the lives of their families and rebuild communities that have been completely destroyed by war.

We look forward to you joining us to celebrate and support Women world wide in an effort to build the bridges to a brighter future – You can also stop by and see us at this Friday’s Art Walk (in front Walker Group).