“We can support each other and stand up”: Emnet’s message to all women
Meet Emnet, one of our current Risers. To celebrate International Women’s Day, she discussed with her mentor Antonia what being a women means to her, the inspirational women in her life and how having a female mentor has helped her to grow.
“This day is for celebrating women and the amazing women who do good around the world.”
Antonia: What does it mean to you to be a woman? What challenges do women around the world face?
Emnet: Women is a short word isn’t it? But when we look at the meaning behind it there are a lot of words; strong, challenge, family, culture, society, pain, tears, smile, backbone, caring and many, many more. She can be the carer for a family, she takes care of the children, she cooks for them, she works hard, she connects with her community - she has many roles.
Every time I think about this word ‘women’, in my mind it comes together and forms one woman who faces all of these roles standing tall and still does not give up.
Being a woman means facing so many challenges in life. Society often doesn’t understand us - in many countries they give us more challenges like marriage, hard labour, killing our voices and undermining our confidence about our gender.
Even sometimes nature can be challenging for a woman, but this doesn’t make us stop being successful and still we can run the world successfully.
“This is a special day because we are talking about how strong we are, and how much we are capable of. We can support each other and raise each other up.”
Antonia: What does International Women’s Day mean to you?
Emnet: For me this is a day to show the world we have so many good things about us. We come up against challenges, but we still have a smiling face. This day is for celebrating women and the amazing women who do good around the world. This doesn’t mean the other days are not for us, we celebrate women and are proud of being a woman every day. But this is a special day because we are talking about how strong we are, and how much we are capable of. We can support each other and raise each other up.
Antonia: Who are the important women in your life? Why are they important to you and what attributes would you like to learn from them?
Emnet: In my family my important person is my Aunt. She is like my father and mother in one person, plus she raises me up with belief, confidence and teaches me to face my own challenges. She is important to me because she gave me all she had to teach me how to survive and face challenges in life with confidence. My Aunt is so strong, she is humble and respectful to everyone. And I would like to learn from her, and to take these characteristics from her.
On the other hand, Mother Theresa is my role model from the world. She gave her whole life to so many children around the world. She helped them to be educated, humble, and successful in their lives. Mother Theresa was religious, thankful for what she had and she believed in sharing and caring for other people more than her life. If I had the chance to take one of her characteristics and behaviour, I would definitely take sharing and caring for people because giving time for other people is the greatest thing ever.
“My wish for this generation is to be stronger than in previous years, and stand together to show the world that we are equal to men.”
Antonia: How do you feel about having a female mentor at Breadwinners? How has this helped you progress?
Emnet: In Breadwinners we all have mentors who help us with anything. My mentor is a woman called Antonia. She is so great, always smiling and has the desire to help me with anything. Having a mentor who is a woman makes my relationship better and simple with her because I can express my feelings, my challenges, my plans for the future and many more things. This makes me feel able to tell her anything that I feel as a woman with comfort. My wish for this generation is to be stronger than in previous years, and stand together to show the world that we are equal to men. Maybe even better sometimes - and we always do it with a smiling face!
Thank you Emnet and Antonia for writing this piece together.