Today, March 8th is International Women's Day.

While International Women's Day may be a day of global celebration, there is no room for complacency as women still struggle on many fronts.

From the International Women's Day website:

Global Issues …

• Females in developing countries on average carry 20 litres of water per day over 6 km
• Globally women account for the majority of people aged over 60 and over 80
• Pregnant women in Africa are 180 times more likely to die than in Western Europe
• 530,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth each year
• World population hit 6,872,741,131 on 1 January 2009
• Of 1.2 billion people living in poverty worldwide, 70% are women
• 80% of the world's 27 million refugees are women
• Women own around only 1% of the world's land
• AIDS sees women's life expectancy of 43 in Uganda and Zambia
• 5 people are added to the world's population every 2 seconds
• Women are 2/3 of the 1 billion+ illiterate adults who have no access to basic education

Please hug the women and girls in your life and fully appreciate and empower them. For those who still yet need our help please see what you can do to bring change to the many who need us.

Today's beautiful photo was created by Melanie Cook.