INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day has become a day of celebration in some quarters, but for most women around the world there is still much to mobilise against to win the changes we need. 

Over 80 women from the All African Women’s Group gathered recently at the Crossroads Women’s Centre to discuss the burning issues they want highlighted at the speak out event today in front of the High Court in the Strand, London.

As for most of us, what was on the tip of their tongues was “the children.” 

Anna spoke about her three daughters left behind in Uganda whom she hasn’t seen for eight years.

She fled to Britain after her husband, who was politically active, was killed and she was accused of being a rebel collaborator. 

She was arrested in front of her children, imprisoned, raped and beaten so severely she miscarried. Her sister helped her escape to Britain. 

She couldn’t even say goodbye to her children as any contact would have put them at risk. It took seven years for her to win the right to stay here and now she is fighting for her children to be allowed to join her. 

Her daughters have suffered without their mother. One of them was sent, at age 14, to a boarding school where she had to clean and cook for her keep. 

“The older boys shout at me and one of them crossed over to the girls’ wing and tried to force himself on me. 

“He was stronger than me but I shouted so much another girl came and that time I was saved. But all this time no family ever came to see me. 

“I cry in the night wondering where my mum is and why doesn’t she come and take me away from this suffering. 

“Whenever I am mistreated I think of my mother. I want to spend the night with my mum and the day with her. I have missed her my whole life.” 

Others had similar stories. Freda is sick with worry about the son she had to leave behind. She fled from a violent husband who tried to kill her and now her son, who bravely stood up to the family and helped his sister escape a forced marriage, is living underground in fear of his life. 

Holding back tears, she said he was “alone and scared and he often cries on the phone. As a mother I don’t remember any night when I sleep without crying.”

Their fury at how they are treated spilled over. 

“We have survived massacres that everyone knows took place but when we get here we are not believed and are called liars and bogus.”  

“They sell arms to our governments which are then used to kill us and take whatever we have. Before the colonial time, people from different origins or areas lived together. In order to control us, we were set against each other. This has continued to the present day. The result is genocide and hunger. And women, who care for children and the whole community, suffer most.” 

A Windrush descendant from Jamaica spoke about having her home taken from her and being forced to rely on men who took advantage of her desperation to exploit her. 

Women who had been detained in Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre and had seen other women’s children taken into care denounced the organisations which support a 28-day limit on detention: “Detention is a prison sentence without a crime. Close all detention centres down. Not even one day in detention.” 

The hostile environment, destitution and the relentless efforts of this government to deport regardless of the dangers women especially would face in their home country are on everyone’s lips. 

The campaign against the Home Office policy of “voluntary return” which is being used to prevent women claiming asylum and the ways in which charities and NGOs are collaborating with it, will be raised at the event.

“The cuts must stop before more children, not only ours, die of hunger and get sick, or before they are taken by social services with the excuse that we are too poor to look after them. 

“We are all worried about the children killed on the street but if the breakfast clubs and after school clubs are closed, and mothers can’t give care and protection of course our children will come to harm. Mothers and children should be a priority in this world and we are not. We are fighting to change this.”  

Our campaigning is beginning to be felt. Amnesty International and others have called a day of action on March 15 to demand, among other things, the reinstatement of legal aid for family reunion cases. We’ll announce this in front of the High Court today and every day after. 

The Nanas Against Fracking and women from Extinction Rebellion, which are campaigning to make governments treat climate change as the emergency it is, will be speaking out with the rest of us. 

Everyone is delighted at that, especially those who were farmers at home and have faced drought and floods. Join us too.

Defending our children & our world, speak out and protest takes place today from noon-2pm at the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL.