On this special day, which should give us pride and joy, we feel sadness and shame instead for what harm keeps being done to women. SAHFA thinks first of all of the women and girls in Ukraine. There is no measuring their suffering, the destruction of their lives and all that is dear to them. While hands-on cruelty and oppression of women and girls remain rampant everywhere, so much of this harm is nowadays done on a massive scale with the help of equipment designed to kill and maim.
Should we let this trend run its free course? This year at the UN annual conference on the Status of women and girls, special attention will be given to women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics or STEM and how to encourage girls to seek a higher education in these fields.
We believe more professional women in STEM could propel us forward towards peaceful applications that save lives instead of destroying them. JamboMama! is such a STEM product conceived by a female social scientist and developed by IT and maternal health professionals for whom mothers’ lives and well-being matters.
JamboMama! brings rural women a first experience of a STEM product especially created for and with them. We believe learning to use it may be also the first step for young women in gaining confidence in modern technology as something they can learn to use, too, and perhaps getting actively involved in STEM topics at a higher level, should they be given the chance to pursue their education.
May this International Women’s Day of 2022 contribute to peace, safety, justice and equal chances for all, first of all for women expecting children in war zones and other conditions of extreme deprivation and fear. May STEM products bring them health and well-being instead of leading to immense suffering and death.