This year’s celebration of the International Women’s Day will in no doubt be different as it happens at the time of the ‘new normal’, which the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced to the world, thus largely affecting the normal way of life and of doing things.

PROCMURA in the over 60 years of its existence realises that the Judeo-Christian and Islamic ideals of shalom and salaam respectively, has been badly disturbed by the pandemic. Upon sober reflection, it has decided to mark this year’s International Women’s Day by honouring women of faith for their exemplary role and contribution to enhancing conflict prevention, peace building when conflict does take place. The variety of roles played by these women explicitly and implicitly contributed immensely to continental, national, and communities’ cohesion in PROCMURA’s quest for peace in society, and peaceful co-existence between Christians and Muslims.

This will be a hybrid event with the physical presence of women and through a Webinar virtual participation anchored on the PROCMURA’s Women and Peace Building programme and hosted at the PROCMURA Restaurant and Conference Facility in Nairobi, Kenya.

It will bring together a cross-section of participants from all PROCMURA constituencies in Africa and its partners across Europe and North America.

In line with PROCMURA’s principle of working closely with those whose ideals and goals are in part or in whole that of PROCMURA’s, women across Africa who are involved in Peace building and conflict resolution/management from different organisations that PROCMURA works with will all play important roles in this celebration.

A Theme coined by PROCMURA for the celebration is “Challenging Conflicts: Celebrating Women’s Achievements in Religious Communities in Sub Saharan Africa”. This sub theme is in consonance with the International Women’s Day main theme of this year which is ‘I choose to challenge’.

Women and Peace Building is one of the focal areas of PROCMURA’s new Strategic Plan, 2020 – 2024. Under this programme, PROCMURA seeks to address issues of paramount concern to women and ensure that rights of women and the girl child across the religious divide is taken care of and also be in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

PROCMURA strongly believes that women, just like any member of our society, should have an opportunity to play active roles in peace building, prevention of conflicts and resolving them when they happen even as countries and communities recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. To achieve this and challenge more women to take a front seat on matters of peace building across the continent, PROCMURA has selected a number of Key women that have been instrumental in shaping issues of peace since its inception who will be recognised during the event to become PROCMURA’s Ambassadors at the grassroots.

The ambassadors will be instrumental in helping other women on the ground to shutter various barriers, whether cultural or religious, that hold women and girls back from being active in many spheres of peace building and conflict prevention in our today’s society.

The International Women’s Day was first celebrated in 1911, has been an opportunity to recognise women who have cut a niche and made history, continue to call for change, and are encouraging future generations.