Caring for a sustainable future

"A sustainable future is only conceivable if care work is brought into focus and no longer marginalised. Acting sustainably does not primarily mean inventing something new or mastering technical challenges. It means above all to care more, to repair a destroyed environment, to heal damage to nature and health and to protect those affected by environmental changes.

Care work, caring, looking after and caring for other people and communities, continues to be carried out by women on a daily basis. Without them, no society would function. Care work must not only be strengthened but expanded from caring for people to caring for nature and the future. The war of aggression in Ukraine, which is against international law, is another act of destruction that immensely increases this task of caring for the future and in the present not only destroys human lives and infrastructures, but makes it downright life-threatening for people in Ukraine to care for others, to provide for others and to care for others.

Without constant care work, war would destroy much more. Without tireless care work, a war-torn country cannot be rebuilt. My thoughts today are especially with the women who cannot flee because they care for the old and the sick; with the women who suddenly became single parents because of the flight; with the women who continue to try to maintain a daily routine despite fear and constant danger to their lives; with the women who defend the right to democratic self-determination on behalf of all of us."