The Commonwealth theme for 2011 is ‘Women as Agents of Change’.<\/p>\n
Commonwealth Day is celebrated on the second Monday in March, a day when every school in the Commonwealth is open, and a day on which we hope soon that every child in the Commonwealth, across continents and oceans, will have the opportunity to be in school.<\/p>\n
Most schoolchildren know their fractions, and a simple one is this: one-half of the world’s population may be made up of women and girls; yet women and girls bear two-thirds of the world’s problems.<\/p>\n
Two-thirds of those out of school worldwide are girls; and two-thirds of those who are illiterate, or out of work, or living with HIV\/AIDS, are women.<\/p>\n
Girls should have the chance to grow up and become healthy, educated women who can make a positive difference to their own lives and to the lives of others.<\/p>\n
Women are the barometers of society: they are an indication of its internal pressure levels, and their fortunes can be the clearest forecasts of good or bad things to come.<\/p>\n
Where women prosper, societies prosper; and where women suffer, so too do the societies in which they live.<\/p>\n
By investing in women and girls, we have seen that we can accelerate social, economic and political progress.<\/p>\n
The evidence is clear.<\/p>\n
The Commonwealth has given practical help to women in entrepreneurship; it has supported the role of women in peace-keeping, and in local and national politics; and it has argued the case for empowering women \u2013 from putting young girls through school, to ensuring that women have access to trained midwives.<\/p>\n
We have pioneered amongst our member governments a gender consideration to every aspect of national life, and hence a need for policies and funds to match.<\/p>\n
Women are the people who can bring about real and lasting transformation at every level in society.<\/p>\n
Unlocking this limitless but locked potential is the first challenge before the human community. It can open the doors of opportunity for all in the Commonwealth and the wider world.<\/p>\n
Note:\u00a0 The Head of the Commonwealth is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and the current Chair-in-Office of the Commonwealth is the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago HE Kamla Persad-Bissessar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Women are the barometers of society: they are an indication of its internal pressure levels, and their fortunes can be the clearest forecasts of good or bad things to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[100,120],"class_list":["post-6958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-caribbean-2","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}