Intl. Women’s Day: Our fight isn’t over.

Today, on International Women’s Day, we celebrate the power, resilience, and courage of women in South Africa and across the world. But as much as this is a day of recognition, it is also a day of reckoning and a reminder that our fight for safety, dignity, and equality is far from over.

Here in South Africa, the country I have chosen to call home, women still cannot walk freely. We live in a country where gender-based violence is a daily reality, where justice for survivors is rare, and where the very systems and people meant to protect us continue to fail us every single day.

I have spent almost a decade fighting for the women and children of this country – supporting survivors, advocating for justice, and witnessing the heartbreaking pain left in the wake of violence. Every day, I see cases where perpetrators walk free, where families are left with nothing but grief, and where one message remains clear: Women’s lives do not matter enough.

Beyond our borders, the situation for women remains dire. In Afghanistan, women have been erased from society—banned from education, denied basic rights, and treated as nothing more than property. Across the world, from Iran to Sudan, from war zones to boardrooms, women are still silenced, still oppressed, and still forced to fight for the very basics of existence. And now, with the election of a new U.S. president who has repeatedly disrespected and disregarded women – and is, in fact, a convicted sexual abuser – it feels as though the world is spiraling backward, undoing decades of progress in an instant.

It is infuriating. It is exhausting. And yet, we keep going.
Because we are women. We are fighters. We are survivors. We are leaders. And we will never be silenced.

Yet, in a world that tries to silence us every single day, it is hard not to feel lost and unheard. The fight we wage feels relentless, and we are reminded that society is still not listening with each battle. The statistics paint a harrowing picture – GBV and femicide rates have risen in recent years worldwide. The crisis is deepening, yet action remains slow and insufficient.

Women For Change was built on the belief that no woman should ever suffer alone. That no survivor should be told her story does not matter. That no system should be allowed to silence the very people it is meant to protect. And we indeed build a community, a movement that stands together – stronger than ever.

Last month, Women For Change launched a petition to the presidency, demanding that gender-based violence and femicide be declared a National Disaster. This petition is a call for urgency. It is a plea for justice. It is a demand for change.

This is South Africa’s chance to show the world that our country stands with its women and children. That South Africa refuses to be ignored any longer. That in South Africa, women’s rights are human rights.

Dear President Cyril Ramaphosa, it is time to listen. It is time to take us seriously because we will not rest until those in power act and bring about the change that is so desperately needed.

Today, I am proud to be a woman. I am proud to stand alongside every sister who refuses to be unheard, every survivor who reclaims her voice, and every fighter who demands a better South Africa and a better world. Let us never stop until women everywhere can live, walk, and exist freely – without fear, without violence, and without oppression.

We will win.

By Sabrina Walter, Founder Women For Change