Today is Mothers’ Day in Malawi, a public holiday. Mothers Day in Malawi is not just a day for cards and flowers but is a national holiday aligned with World Rural Women’s Day.
Rural women comprise more than 25% of the total world population yet suffer disproportionately from poverty. While extreme poverty has declined globally, the world’s 1 billion people who continue to live in unacceptable conditions of poverty are heavily concentrated in rural areas. Poverty rates in rural areas across most regions are higher than those in urban areas. Women farmers may be as productive and enterprising as their male counterparts but are less able to access land, credit, agricultural inputs, markets and high-value agrifood chains and obtain lower prices for their crops.
Malawi’s economy is heavily based in agriculture, with a largely rural population so the disparity faced by rural women is keenly felt in this sub-Saharan African nation. This makes the joining of World Rural Women’s Day and Mother’s Day in Malawi an important and appropriate way of highlighting the issues that rural women face while still taking time to celebrate and honor the role of mothers in society.
Today is the birthday, in 1947, of American musician and songwriter Bob Weir, best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. The group released more than 140 albums during their career, the majority of them recorded live in concert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48eW3VL-95g
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