Hello to 2014!
It's been a while since I have entered a new blog. Since last December, I took a long journey to Antarctica and came back full of experiences, memories and remarkable images that I will share with you in the coming months. Coming home and not being greeted by my cat Georgie who died in October last year made me miss him so much again. But I filled this void by following through with a plan to foster cats in need: I am currently giving a home to Cat Mama Lillian and her 7 kittens, that came to me when the kittens were 7 days old and as of today - Day 14 of the Kittens life - the little family is thriving and bringing me lots of joy!
But I want to start my 2014 blogging with a remarkable book that I just finished:
Book: However long the night, by Aimee Molloy
I just finished reading the most remarkable book about bringing change to cultural traditions that don’t serve the people any more. “However long the night” is an extraordinary story of one woman’s determination to create a movement towards change and better the future for millions of girls and women in rural Africa .
I have always believed that education is the way out of poverty and that educating women helps the family tremendously. But this book showed me that implementing basic human rights: the right to have a voice, the right to be heard, the right to participate in decision making in the family and the community, freedom from violence and discrimination, and the right over your body, present a corner stone upon which all other education can rest.
The journey of Molly Melching to Senegal in West Africa and her remarkable determination to change the tradition of female genital cutting and to bring about changes to a hundreds of years old tradition is a journey of courage, perseverance and ultimate triumph.
If issues of women's rights in the developing world interest you at all, this book will give you insights of extraordinary events and it is a must reading!!
I want to end with a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt,
written on the tenth Anniversary of the Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948):
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world... Such as the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."
I hope your year 2014 started well and will be an exciting year!
Til next time,
Meggi
Meggi
