Support Women, Support the World

                          

International Women's Day (8th March) has been celebrating the achievements of women for over 100 years. This year, Oxfam strengthened its efforts to amplify the voices of women small scale farmers and producers, so that their rights to equality and self-empowerment are realized. 

Here is  Minnesota Oxfam Action Corps  celebrated this important day with two great events. We started the party on March 6 with Project Food Security and Interdisciplinary Perspectives in International Development, two student groups from the University of Minnesota, by hosting an exciting panel discussion. We had 3 tremendous women speak who shared their stories and experiences.Together the speakers wove ideas that gave a broad overview of the current status of women farmers, highlighted personal experiences related to the struggles of women farmers in Africa, and empowered everyone in the audience to take action in their own lives. 

                                               Thank you so much to our panelists:

Nancy Johnson, applied economist

Harriet Oyera, community activist on issues of food and environmental justice

Emily Torgrimson with Eat for Equity

March 8 brought the official date of International Women's Day,and Oxfam Action Corps Minnesota joined other action corps in a day of chocolate!  What better way to honor women than to raise awareness about women cocoa farmers. 

Volunteers from the Action Corps spent the day near the University of Minnesota, talking to people about the new Behind the Brands Campaign and the need to call on chocolate companies to treat women cocoa farmers with fairness and justice.  It was fun to hand out candy bars-after all, who doesn't like chocolate.  The great music we had also made for a fun atmosphere.  There was a real message to the day though, and that is that as consumers we need to use our voice.  A huge thanks to all the volunteers who came out and supported our action! 

More than 60,000 people have signed the petition calling on Mars, Incorporated, Mondelēz International, and Nestlé to respect women cocoa farmers!

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