International Women's Day

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IRRI celebrated this year's International Women's Day with a series of seminars. The one I went to featured Sandra Aguinaldo of GMA-7.

 

She shared her experiences as a woman working in one of the toughest and one of the most dangerous professions in the world -- journalism. At that time, the news of a female reporter being sexually harassed in the midst of the Middle East upheavals was in the headlines.

She also shared with the audience one of her award-winning documentaries: "Nanay na si Nene", which is about poor young girls getting pregnant because they didn't receive the proper education about reproductive health. The legislation on promoting reproductive health awareness (the RH Bill) is still causing heated debates and is now a heavily discussed topic.

A thought-provoking presentation. It certainly adds a social dimension to what we are doing in efforts to alleviate poverty and to encourage women to take up careers in the sciences.

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