Mzuzu, March 2: President Dr Joyce Banda on Friday stressed the need for all women to seek God’s intervention in their endeavours to ensure they lead prosperous lives.

The President was speaking at St Andrews CCAP Church in the City of Mzuzu during this year’s Women’s World Day of Prayers.

Dr Banda said women who kneel down and pray to God find answers to all problems they face and are able to discharge their responsibilities without difficult.

“God favoured us women because he gave us enormous gifts such as child bearing, and as mothers, he gave us the gift of caring for people around us. Every woman should, therefore, strive to ensure that families are well taken care of, especially children,” she said.

Dr Banda said mothers should ensure that children are properly brought up with good manners. She said people who misbehaved in adulthood were products of poor upbringing in their homes.

She, therefore, asked women to seek God’s guidance in all their problems, saying it was only in Him that they could find solace.

Dr Banda also stressed the need for parents to act as role models to their young ones. She said children emulate examples set by their parents.

She advised married women to be submissive and respect their husbands and not underrate them in the name of ‘gender equality’.

Commenting on this year’s Women’s World Day of prayers theme “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” based on the Gospel of Matthew, Dr Banda advised women to desist from “pulling down” one another due to petty jealousy, but to encourage one another for them to excel in life.

“As women of virtue, we should love one another and be each other’s keeper,” she told the congregation.

Earlier, National Chairperson on Women’s World Day of Prayers, Mrs Regina Phanga hailed  the Women’s World Day of prayers functions in Malawi, saying they had not only succeeded in bringing women of different churches together, but also helped women to engage in charity work.

“Through offerings we collect during the prayers, we have donated various items to hospitals, orphans and children across the country,” she said.

Women’s World Day of prayers is a global ecumenical movement of prayer action organised and led by Christian women. The prayers are held across the world every year on the first Friday of March.

170 countries observe the day and Malawi started observing the day in 1982.