Scotland’s Makar releases ‘A Woman’s A Woman’ – a special reworking of Burns’ most famous poem for International Women’s Day in support of the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Appeals in Ukraine and Afghanistan.
Scotland’s Makar (National Poet for Scotland), Kathleen Jamie, working with the Disasters Emergency Committee, has released a woman-centred version of Robert Burns’ most famous work in order to highlight the particular challenges that women and children face during times of conflict and disaster.
This special new version of the work was originally recorded for International Women’s Day today, 8th March, to highlight the ongoing plight of millions of women and their families still facing an enormous hunger crisis in Afghanistan.
However, given the huge challenges facing women and children fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, the video has been released to support both the DEC’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal but also its ongoing Afghanistan Crisis Appeal which is still receiving money to help millions of families caught up in the hunger crisis.
The Makar Kathleen Jamie says:
“Having heard about the huge hunger crisis in Afghanistan I was keen to help raise the profile of the DEC’s work, in particular the challenges that women face there. With so many women and children now affected in the Ukraine crisis as they flee the violence, I hope this video will now encourage people to do what they can to help.”
The Chair of the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal in Scotland, Marie Hayes, of the British Red Cross Scotland, says
“We know how special this work is to the people of Scotland and Scots around the world, so we are hugely grateful that Kathleen has created and recorded this modern version of Burns’ most famous work to help raise the profile of women’s challenges in humanitarian crises, not only in Ukraine and Afghanistan, but in many other places around the world, many of them away from media attention.”
Women and girls are consistently disproportionately affected by conflict. The current conflict in Ukraine and resulting displacement is tearing families apart, leaving women alone and vulnerable or responsible for young children in a bid to find safety. Women are having to make tremendously difficult decisions: many feel the only alternative is to uproot children from their schools and homes and take them across borders while male family members stay behind to be conscripted. They may have to leave behind elderly parents who cannot, or do not want to leave. Of the 1.7 million people who have fled Ukraine, most are women, who may have walked for hours to cross the borders.
For those still in Ukraine, life is threatening. Women have been giving birth in underground metro stations as health facilities become inaccessible or too damaged to function. An estimated 80,000 women will give birth in the next three months in Ukraine.
In Afghanistan, DEC member agencies are prioritising nutrition support for young child