Callista urges Malawi women to be prayerful: International Women’s Day

Malawi’s former First Lady Callista Mutharika has urged women to be more prayerful and should shoulder responsibility of protecting and advancing the interest of fellow women in the country.

The former First Lady said this when she graced this year’s women’s national day of prayer at Bangwe CCAP Church in Blantyre on Friday.

She said it was very encouraging to see women from different churches coming together to pray for the nation, families and other injustices that are stifling women empowerment in the country.

“It’s very important that as women we become more prayerful more than we have ever been because the country is facing a lot of problems emanating from hunger, gender violence, poverty and oppression, so we need the God’s guidance to able to alleviate these problems.

“This day also emphasizes the need of coming together in worship while seeking heavenly solution and blessings from God. We are not all fortunate to get what need in our day to day life, so need to be very grateful to God for every blessing we receive from him,” said Mutharika.

She further observed that it was high time men and the society understood women by involving them in decision making positions.

“Men should stop abusing women; being abusive doesn’t not help at all and the nation cannot development with such vices. Men and women should unite and work together for the betterment of our country.

“There is also need for women to united and be more prayerful to ably fight against abuses and gender violence in the country,” she said.

She also urged people to make sure that all the violence against women and children are reported to police.
International women’s prayers are conducted globally on first Friday of the month of March every year and they follow the same programme and theme.

It was set aside by the United Nations to create awareness on the tremendous contributions women make to the societies and the need to respect women rights in the spheres of life.
Malawi government dedicated this year’s international women’s prayer to women and children who are victims of floods in the 15 districts of the country.

The Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, Patricia Kaliati said they have received reports of sexual abuse in some and revealed some culprits have been arrested

She said currently there are 661,000 women and girls who have been affected by floods and are in need of resources like food and clothes.