Let us start tomorrow’s brighter future!

Dear PulseWire Advisory Council Group members,

As-Salamu alakum or peace be upon you.

Before welcoming you and expressing my gratitude to the World Pulse founder Jensine and staff, I would like first to acknowledge the huge benefits we have received since joining this giant platform. The Voices of Our Future (VOF) was a turning point in lives of wide societies worldwide.

For the first time, the world hears voices of women, who have been long lagging behind, speaking for themselves and societies in an unprecedented way.

Though I have never the honor to meet you before, let me share something personal with you. The moment I read the email last month, telling of my selection as a member to be the first World Pulse Community Board Member, I was happy and floored! Two contradicting emotions, that shouldn’t come together but they did! The primary school where I spent my loveliest days is threatened to be replaced by a shopping mall!

At the moment I supposed to rejoice my success, Girls’ education is being, at this moment, fought in my homeland where more than a thousand girls may be deprived access to self empowerment and development. I know better than anybody what does depriving a girl from education mean.

Not only that, knowing justifications given for changing from education to shopping commodity, you will definitely be astonished.

Under a pretext that the school premises has become outdated and no longer fit for use, some influential greedy officials in my town, decided to demolish the old primary school girls, where I studied and are creating a modern shopping center on its premises. Simply like that, without offering and an alternative choice for more than a thousand students or transfer them to other schools.

That happens at a time when women are not engaged in decision making. Males, intended or not, always underestimate what bright future these girls could eventually mean or bring to Sudan’s development and progress.

Depriving women of education, means depriving a nation to access knowledge and map their future, thus leaving the door ajar to high rates of maternity and child, lack of access to adequate health care, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), polygamy, intersect marriage, displacement, war, deprived training and skills and shouldering the responsibility to gain their living, etc.

I believe dear sisters we have much in common. The majority of us may be third world citizens and well aware of a woman’s worth in such societies and the terms of being a woman: suffering silently is the norm.

Complaining - we should not. So let us destroy this idol. It is a must. We have already started, but lets be more effective

I believe that we will be very successful once the word impossible can’t find its way into our minds or consciousness. So we must make the pledge and renew our commitment to join our goals and NETWORK our efforts, locally, regionally and globally.

Let me convey my conviction to you Sisters; IMPOSSIBLE is a word, so don’t let it be a wall!

Look at me! I am a journalist, and again find myself in the wrong place! I live in a country where I’m not supposed to report about a country where it is too risky to report. And those journalists wish every day to live and enjoy seeing tomorrow’s sunrise. But I decided to be heard and here I am blogging with you and for women in my country.

As one hand does not clap alone, let us first put our two hands on the hands of the founder of this giant platform; Jensine and her team who have networked women worldwide. I believe that going back to our respective homelands and network of women on the levels of small clusters up to big areas will help a lot in bring their voices forward and put them on the front of the stage.

In the moment writing this journal, I am quite confident that seeds of great ideas that address the problems of the present and future have been brewing for a long time and are waiting for harvest.

Please let me know your aspiration and expectations.

Your valuable comments will be highly appreciated.

Love,
Halima