For more than a decade, women and girls of all backgrounds and ages have been coming together to support and celebrate one another at the AFRICaide and 4W Women and Well-being Initiative’s annual International Women’s Day. Emilie Songolo, the founder of AFRICaide, launched the International Women’s Day Conference in 2014 to analyze and address gender disparity locally and globally.
“I remember when I first thought of this event, and it has since gone beyond what I thought it was going to be, thanks to this amazing group of women every year who start planning the event in the fall and really make sure that it meets women where they are in the current time,” Songolo tells Madison365. “We are always making sure that we are not forgetting history, because that history fuels us. There are so many positive stories of women by women.”
The 2026 International Women’s Day will take place on Saturday, March 7, 1-5 p.m. at the Gordon Dining and Event Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The event is an annual festival for women that “takes time to acknowledge the achievements that women have made from our local Madison area to the global sphere, including the State of Wisconsin and the United States at large.”
“We are looking to attract younger students to this event and we hope that by hosting it on campus at Gordon Dining and Event Center, it will help a great deal,” Songolo says.
This year’s theme is “Courageously Weaving our Stories: A Tapestry of Resilience.” The keynote speaker for the event will be Dr. Corinda Rainey-Moore, a Madison community leader and mental health professional and advocate who is currently the community engagement manager with Unity Point Health-Meriter.
“We never get someone from outside of the area for our keynote speaker because we have such engaged and committed people right here in Madison,” Songolo says. “Corinda [Rainey-Moore] has such a way about her of bringing community together and building community. She is the epitome of everything that we want to do this year. Our own thing is ‘Courageously Weaving our Stories: A Tapestry of Resilience.’ We want to emphasize that there is strength in numbers. Unfortunately, we see that many women whose stories haven’t been heard for many reasons, especially those who are afraid. We have a lot of immigrants, and actually even Americans, who are afraid to speak out.
“So we have to talk about resilience and how we can stand up for one another so that the community remains strong and becomes stronger,” Songolo adds. “It’s hard for one person, but together we get stronger, and resilience is there. Women can improve their lives and get to their desired place in life.”
AFRICaide is a grassroots non-profit organization based in Madison that strives to reduce abject poverty in Africa through rural development projects. 4W Women and Well-being Initiative is a leading voice in education, applied research, and impactful engagement to promote global well-being and full participation of women in society. This will be the 12th year that those two organizations will partner to host International Women’s Day. It’s an opportunity, Songolo says, to “celebrate women in our communities and across the globe.”
A group photo from a previous year’s AFRICaide and 4W International Women’s Day
(Photo by Hedi Lamarr Photography)
Some of the program highlights of International Women’s Day will include the global marketplace, where local women vendors will display and sell their products. There will also be an expert panel on creating spaces for women to tell their stories and a Memory Cloth Circle activity with Beatriz L. Botero and Lisa Binkley
“One of my research interests is cloth textiles. Textiles are such a good metaphor for building community, and I always use the weaving of people and textiles when I speak,” Songolo says. “Sometimes when I’m giving a presentation, I just have one side of cloth, and then I talk around that.
“We are looking forward to hearing from Beatriz Botero, a woman who works at the UW-Madison Gender Studies Department, whose research and work are on cloth. She has worked with women in Latin America, and in different parts of the country, including Africa,” Songolo adds. “We always try to have an interactive activity [at this event] and this Memory Cloth Circle will create a beautiful memory for the day.”
(Photo by Dynae Saba)
The 2026 International Women’s Day will also feature Trailblazer Awards to honor community members doing outstanding things. Songolo says that there will also be light refreshments, music, and movement at the event.
Attendees at International Women’s Day will reflect on how they can work together to reduce gender inequality within and beyond our community and will have the opportunity to participate in discussions with those engaged in improving conditions for women locally, nationally, and internationally.
“Our goal is to bring all voices to the table and we want to make sure that it is a safe space because, as you know, when we’re trying to lift people, you have to be very cautious not to make them vulnerable,” Songolo says.
“So this is the time for us to really sit down, talk about us, share our stories and learn from one another,” she continues. “We have women in the Madison community who have been doing exactly that … supporting other women to make sure that their voices are heard.”
Entrance to International Women’s Day is free, but registration is required. Songolo encourages women to wear purple clothing to the event if they can. The day historically ends with a beautiful group photo of all the women together.
“I love to look at the pictures [photographer] Hedi [Rudd] takes at International Women’s Day year to year. It’s such a beautiful event,” Songolo says. “A lot is going on … people connecting people, meeting people, seeing people they haven’t seen in a while. To know that a small group of women is making that possible. It brings me a lot of joy.
“Overall, this is such a joyful event. I’ve talked to many women who have attended this event. We do a survey afterwards every year, and one time, one woman said, ‘I was going through a lot of hardships. I was feeling down, and I saw this event on a flier at my church. So I came to the event and I went home so happy. And now I have friends.’ I always challenge women to make at least one connection at the event that they will keep.”
For more information about the event, questions about accessibility or translation services, and other concerns, contact Emilie Songolo, AFRICaide, at [email protected] or Lori Diprete Brown, 4W, at [email protected].
