Today’s Awesome Sauce ingredients are peace and justice flavored in honor of International Women’s Day. Before moving to Mexico, I didn’t fully understand what this day was all about. What I’ve learned after four years of marches, performances, and vigils is that, while different groups, countries, and cultures celebrate this day in diverse ways, the overarching theme is centered around creating a new world for women. We don’t want flowers or congratulations. We want justice, equality, and peace for our sisters. (And we want it now!)

Want to mix s’more awesome into your sauce today? I encourage you to join me in lifting up women around the world and celebrating their heartwork. Start by reading and sharing Faith Odhiambo’s article, Why I Gave My Gift to the Shift, the first in our four-part series on Girls Shift Africa, an organization dedicated to uplifting, inspiring, and empowering girls and young women in Mombasa, Kenya. (Then, consider giving your gift to the shift by joining us in Kenya this summer for Awesome Girls Shift Africa 2013, a 10-day confidence building workshop with the girls of Tudor Primary School.)

For a heartier sauce, read about what awesomepreneur activists Doris Difarnecio, Martha Figueroa, Grace Remington, and Lydia Reich are doing to end femicide in Mexico in my article Can Art Stop Murder? Ni Una Más in Chiapas, Mexico Is Trying on Bitch Media.

Or, create your very own recipe for justice with inspiration from this roundup of International Women’s Day events around the world:

• The Centro Hemisférico will hold an urban poetry intervention Ésta que soy to honor the lives of women in Mexico, past and present
• Afghanistan is holding the country’s first ever women’s film festival
• Activists in Delhi marched to demand an end to impunity for rape in India
• In Johanneseburg, South Africa drummers by the hundreds beat out a message to stop violence against women
• President Barack Obama reauthorized an expanded Violence Against Women Act in the USA

Though the Awesome Sauce recipe at the top directs you to “lift up someone else’s heartwork,” the truth is that equality for women is all of our heartwork. A world that is just and peaceful for women is just and peaceful for all human beings. Can’t get more awesome than that.

Happy International Women’s Day!

To get Awesome Sauce delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our monthly newsletter.

activism, awesome sauce, Awesomepreneurs In Africa 2013, feminism, girls shift africa, giving back