Islamabad - Nimdoma — a Nepali schoolgirl who reached the top of Mount Everest –- used to receive WFP meals at primary school and dream of doing extraordinary things. She made her dream come true and didn’t stop at Everest, which she conquered when she was 17 years old. Nimdoma, a wonderful example of women’s empowerment, went on to climb the highest mountain on every continent with a Nepali, all-woman, climbing team.
On International Women’s Day (March 8) this year, Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme, paid tribute to the girls and women who dream big.

“Empowering women empowers humanity. At the World Food Programme, we believe that women and girls who are empowered will lead to our ultimate goal, a world with zero hunger. Women and their work - paid and unpaid — are central to the production, preparation and provision of food, so are essential to food and nutrition security.”
While every March 8 we celebrate the many images of women, there is another picture that comes to mind, of women’s hunger and deprivation. A WFP gender assessment of one of the poorest countries in the world in 2014 found women had half the time that men had to rest in the course of a day. At 7am, when men woke up to have their breakfast, women had already worked for two hours to prepare the food, fetch water and get the children washed and they also went to bed later.
“We will only achieve a zero hunger world when women, girls, men and boys have equal opportunities, equal access to resources, and a regular voice in the decisions that shape their world. Picture the future,” he said.