Dakar – “Migration is increasingly affecting women. Even though mothers sometimes finance their children’s migration journeys, they often hold back unvoiced feelings, especially when the journeys lead to tragedies. Thus, giving them a voice is in some ways relieving them and making them aware of the role they should play to change the situation,” says Codou Loume, a community radio journalist in Dakar who will cover the first artistic women itinerant parade in Dakar on International Women’s Day.

This parade is the final result of a series of workshops organized with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Senegal, which enabled forty Senegalese women artists to brainstorm on messages around migration issues.

Through multiple activities, which also included debates with returned migrants, workshops, public events and the production of a series of radio programmes, women from different generations and social backgrounds gathered to brainstorm on artistic messages.

To mark this special day, Senegalese mothers, sisters, and daughters, who are part of the traditional dance troupe from the fishermen community “Gouye Sor”, the slam group “Slam au Féminin”, and the dance troupe Fatou Cissé will present “Ci la nu bokk”, (“We are part of it”, in Wolof), a participative show on irregular migration.

“The parade will not only be festive, it will also be a moment of intensity carried by the voices of women artists determined to lend a note of distinction to this Day. These different generations of women show great courage and dedication with respect to their cultural commitment,” says Fatou Cissé, the choreographer who supervised the performance.

The contents produced during the preparatory workshops will be broadcast on the associative and community radios across the country as well as the public and independent broadcasters.

These activities are implemented by IOM under the “Aware Migrants” project funded by the Italian Government, which conducts awareness-raising campaigns on safe and informed migration.

For more information, please contact Alioune NDIAYE at IOM Senegal, Tel: +221 77 366 64 29, Email: alndiaye@iom.int and Mohamadou BÂ, Tel: +221 77 587 88 16, Email: moba@iom.int