At the Earth Institute’s State of the Planet meeting at Columbia University, in New York City, few years ago, UN former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the participants that the world’s women are the key to sustainable development, peace and security.
Due to various reasons but mostly attitudinal problems, most women in the world were and are still obliged to hold back themselves from performing well and outshining in various aspects of life. This is mainly associated with the old aphorism that the community have had to women and the wrong thinking that they have for themselves.
However, despite all the challenges, most women have disproved the long attached wrong perception of the society and shown what they are capable of doing if equal opportunity is given.
Amongst the areas where women played an essential role and testified their capability is environment protection and conservation
Abaynesh Mamo is amongst the women who could be an example for many people. She lives in Addis Ababa, in a place known as Weyira Sefere along with her life partner and three children.
As she uttered, her journey to environment conservation was started 12 years ago. “I have never been happier in my life since then,” she said.
Not being defeated by the challenges encountered in her day-to-day life, burden of her house chores, raising her three children, she started conserving her surrounding through planting seedlings.
Unfortunately, things were not as easy as she expected. From the beginning she faced several challenges.
As to Abaynesh, though there were times that she had difficulties associated with getting seeds, with the help and endurances of the families, they can conserve the environment as well as the society.
Concurrent to conserving the environment, she started gaining income from the sale of seedlings and supporting her economy.
Appreciating her husband’s full support at the field work as well as at the household, she noted that they are able to lead a better life.
“At first, the money we earned from selling the seeds could not buy anything more than satisfying the need of our children school materials. However, as we enhanced our efforts, everything has changed for the better. And currently, apart from supporting my economy, I can conserve the environment,” she said.
Abaynesh called on concerned bodies and stakeholders to provide support for activities that is linked with environment protection. She stressed that their efforts would have been much better than now if they could have get support from those concerned bodies. The more support is provided from concerned institutions, the better performance and income will be, she opined.
“The mental and physical health as well as the inner peace that we gained from spending hours in the green area would not be measured in terms of money,” she said joyfully.
Though a number of women such as Abaynesh seized the opportunities that come in their lives and deploy it accordingly, there are a number of women who are still struggling to change their own and as families’ lives.
Thus, it is needed not only to devise laws and policies that ensure the equal benefit of women but also the proper implementation of those laws.
Though many international agreements have intertwined the issue of women with development programs including environment conservation, the fact that the problem is still being felt tells us that we have failed to execute the policies accordingly. Therefore, the importance of giving due emphasis to the proper execution of laws as same as devising them is understandable.
As to sources indicate, in many parts of the world, women are the chief resource managers of their families. Their engagement in environment protection and conservations is crucial to climate change adaptation and mitigation because they have direct contact with natural resources and their day-to-day activities centered on using and managing the resources.
As it is repeatedly expressed, any society that fails to harness the energy and creativity of its women is at a huge disadvantage in the modern world.
The Ethiopian Herald March 07, 2020
BY BETELHEM BEDLU
