She inspires: Stories from the Asia-Pacific on International Women’s Day 2020

Essayist Anais Nin said, "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."

It is this fortitude that women like Ho Chanty and Momtaz, along with others whose stories we narrate in the following pages, embody. When not much was working in their favour, these women – with a nudge and a little help from the International Committee of the Red Cross – turned things around.

This International Women's Day, we pan the lens across the Asia-Pacific region and bring you inspirational stories from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Thailand. Provided with cash grants for their small business ventures as part of the ICRC's Economic Security initiatives, these women rewrote their stories into tales of confidence and strong legacy. Making this regional feature extra special is a story of a young ICRC engineer who says being a woman is a strength, and not a weakness! Let's read on.