Ethiopia’s First Lady Romane Tesfaye has encouraged women to be at the heart of their families’ well-being by championing peace and reconciliation.
Mrs Tesfaye said women give life (through birth) and so they are the very people who would be the first to understand the pain caused by conflicts, hence putting them in a strategic position of being the pioneers of peace and stability in their communities.
The Ethiopian First Lady said this, yesterday, while visiting the Women to Women Opportunity Centre in Kayonza District, Eastern Province.
The centre hosts women survivors of the 1994 Genocide agaisnt Tutsi, wives of Genocide convicts, as well as those who returned to Rwanda from exile.
“Women, wherever we are, share the same values; we give life and give meaning to life. Since we give life, we need to be the first people to understand the weight of conflicts and do all we can to prevent it in our communities,” Mrs Tesfaye said.
“It doesn’t matter who we are or where we come from. We can and must come together in bringing about peace.”
Just like the mother organisation-Women for Women International-The Women for Women Centre in Kayonza supports the most marginalised women to earn and save money, improve health and well-being, influence decisions in their home and community, and connect them to networks for support.
The centre, established in June 2013 in honour of the former Minister of Gender and Family Promotion, Aloisia Inyumba, utilises skills, knowledge, and resources, for not only women but for men as well who they are able to work with in creating sustainable change for themselves, their family, and community.
To men, Mrs Tesfaye said “men and women, we must co-exist; in harmony, in love because we complement each other and all we do must reflect exactly that.”
“What we need for peaceful families, homes and communities are men who understand women’s feelings, fear and pain,” she added.
Mrs Tesfaye arrived in Kigali yesterday accompanying Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn for a three-day state visit.