Involving Village Communities In Lower Himalayas
| |
PROJECT NEEDS AND BENEFICIARIES
Poor rural communities in the rural Himalayas face shrinking water resources, forest degradation, lack of appropriate agricultural technologies, poor market linkages, and drudgery of women. Women’s status is miserable due to heavy workload and poor returns from agriculture. Project beneficiaries are marginal farmers, women, and rural artisans. The project empowers village communities to alleviate poverty by including them in project planning and decision-making. Labor contributions from farmers are required.
ACTIVITIES
* Involve community in project planning, implementation, & evaluation
* Build capacity for village institutions & farmers
* Demonstrate and promote low-cost rural technology
* Ensure demand for interventions by requiring farmer labor contribution
POTENTIAL LONG TERM IMPACT
* Women’s empowerment
* Increased farmer income
* Better nutrition and health from vegetables
* Reduced degradation of natural resources
* Strong communities and institutions
* Demonstrated a project model to scale up for Uttaranchal state.
PROJECT MESSAGE
This project lets us devote more time to family, earning income, and participating in community decision-making. It also forced government staff to provide better rural development schemes.
Read full details HERE
Global Giving home website HERE
|
ARGENTINIAN AIDS ACTIVIST NOMINATED FOR NOBEL PRIZE
[MEXICO CITY, Mexico, May 11, 2007 (IPS/GIN)]
Patricia Pérez, an HIV-positive activist from Argentina, has devoted her life to fighting the multifaceted discrimination that leads most Latin American women with AIDS to hide their status. Pérez, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1986, has been nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for her activism on behalf of women living with the AIDS virus.
Taking no time to rest on her laurels, she took part in a meeting of 25 leaders and HIV-positive women activists from several countries held in Mexico May 8-11. The participants discussed possible strategies for the 17th International AIDS Conference, which is scheduled to be held in Mexico in August 2008. As the regional representative of the non-governmental International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Latin America, she has raised her voice, along with other activists, to warn about the increasing feminization of the AIDS pandemic.
The number of HIV-positive women is rising sharply. According to the United Nations Population Fund, three years ago there were seven or eight men with HIV/AIDS in Latin America for every woman with the virus. But today the ratio is three to one.
Above all, Pérez and her colleagues advocate the right of women living with HIV/AIDS to speak out freely and without fear. "I never thought that 20 years after being diagnosed with HIV, I would be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. But this is a recognition of the work of all of us," Pérez said to a mainly female audience in Mexico.
The August 2008 AIDS conference, convened by the International AIDS Society, is being sponsored by the U.N. Population Fund, the U.N. Development Fund for Women and the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS. Teresa Rodríguez, head of the U.N. Development Fund for Women for Mexico, Central America, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, congratulated the women for their commitment to the struggle and for their willingness to take a leading role in the conference preparations. Rodríguez had a special word of welcome for Pérez, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by several women's organizations and by the Honduran government.
The International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Latin America is part of a network of some 8,000 women in 57 countries. Regional coordinator Pérez stressed that next year's AIDS conference in Mexico must address deeper issues beyond scientific and medical presentations on the HIV virus or the latest treatments.
The conference must also deal with the social and cultural conditions in which the global epidemic is occurring, as well as the situation of women living with the virus, she said.
"As women living with HIV, we know what we need, so we should be sitting down at the tables where governments are taking the decisions," Pérez said.
Hilda Esquivel, leader of the HIV-positive women's organization Mexicanas Positivas Frente a la Vida, agreed. "Invisibility, silence and indifference will only end when women living with HIV raise our voices and make ourselves heard," she said."We used to cover our faces, but not any more. We are telling others that we have rights, just like everybody else."
The activists said the vast majority of HIV-positive women in Latin America suffer from stigma and discrimination. Many women are fired from their jobs and have to cope simultaneously with their family, procure medicines for their treatment and support their children.
About 25,000 researchers, health workers, members of civil society, authorities and HIV-positive people are expected to attend the 17th International AIDS Conference next year. The conference is held every two years. The last was hosted by Canada in August 2006. Rodríguez from the U.N. Development Fund for Women's regional office said the conference in Mexico will be an excellent opportunity for Latin America to join forces and resources to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, through preventive measures, education and treatment of those affected by the disease.
According to the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS, about 2 million people aged 15 to 49 are living with HIV/AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the Caribbean, 49 percent of patients are women. In other Latin American countries, women make up 36 percent of the reported cases.
|
FOOTBALL AND HEALTH INSTRUCTION TO EMPOWER GIRLS IN KILIFI, KENYA
PROJECT NEEDS AND BENEFICIARIES
Teenage pregnancies and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS are the main health problems faced by girls and young women in Kilifi. They have very poor access to reproductive health information and services.
This projects offers girls up to date information on HIV and the services that are available locally. The project will be high impact because it is led by peers who are trustworthy, knowledgeable and understanding, giving vulnerable girls a safe space in which to voice their adolescent concerns.
ACTIVITIES
1. HIV training for 40 girls: increase knowledge and understanding of HIV prevention and services.
2. Peer education sessions with groups of girl footballers: increased knowledge and confidence contribute to reduction in teenage pregnancies.
POTENTIAL LONG TERM IMPACT
The project will provide up-to-date information on reproductive health, HIV and local health services to help up to 3000 girl footballers make informed decisions on their sexual and reproductive health. Girls playing football will give a message of gender equality with boys.
PROJECT MESSAGE
"If it wasn’t for MTG (Moving the Goalposts Kilifi) I would probably be a single parent by now: it is very difficult to find a girl of my age at 20 years who is not in school who doesn’t have a baby."
Visit project’s home page: HERE
|
Access To Credit Will Help These Nepalese Women
| |
PROJECT NEEDS AND BENEFICIARIES
The Terai region of southern Nepal suffers from dowry, purdah and caste systems. These give low status to poor women and create problems such as wife-beating. Over 75% of women are illiterate. Most girls marry at age 17. Women lack access to family planning and reproductive health services. Over 30% of pregnancies are unwanted. Most women lack income to pay for health services and get into debt.
ACTIVITIES
Provide training and capital for women's savings and credit groups; increase percentage of women obtaining pre-natal healthcare and assistance at birth; provide couples with access to family planning and reproductive health services.
POTENTIAL LONG TERM IMPACT
The program first will address the urgent need for safe drinking water by helping communities set up self-financing drinking-water systems to serve more than 10,000 people, and also to provide a source of credit to low-caste women.
PROJECT MESSAGE
Each of our partners has priority themes. However, all work to empower marginalized women to meet their basic needs. All use savings and credit and health as tools to mobilize poor women.
Read full details HERE
Home website of Global Giving HERE
|
CHILD MARRIAGES NOW BANNED IN AFGHANISTAN
[KABUL, March, 2007__ IRIN]The Supreme Court of Afghanistan has approved a new marriage contract which is expected to help stop child and forced marriages in the country. The new 15-page formal marriage contract, the ‘Nikah Nama’, has been welcomed by women’s rights NGOs in a country where 60 to 80 percent of marriages are forced, according to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).
“The new marriage contract is a strong legal instrument that will end child marriages and will empower women’s legal status after marriage,” said Nibila Wafiq, a women’s rights program officer for German NGO Medica Mondiale.
In Afghanistan, the legal age for marriage is 16 for girls and 18 for boys, but human rights groups say every year thousands of Afghan girls are forced to marry at a younger age. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 57 percent of marriages in Afghanistan involve girls below the legal age of 16.
The new marriage document stipulates that if a man wants to marry, he should make sure that his would-be wife is at least 16. Marriage certificates will not be issued for underage brides.
Gender activists see the new marriage contract as a courageous reform in a society where only six years ago women were deprived of education, work and political participation. However, officials note that only one to three couples apply for formal marriage registration per day in a country of about 25 million people. This would suggest that the vast majority of Afghans are not officially registering their marriages.
To counter this, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs has launched a marriage registration awareness campaign to boost the number of legally registered couples. Officials say that one of the messages they will be trying to get across is that an Afghan man will not compromise his traditionally dominant position in the family by officially registering his marriage.
In Afghanistan, men can have up to four wives as allowed by Islamic law. Abdul Wakeel Omari, an official at Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, told IRIN that it would be possible for any Afghan man to have four marriage contracts, all valid at the same time. Under Afghan civil law, the right to divorce is the prerogative of men. However, Medica Mondiale has lobbied officials in the country’s Supreme Court to grant the right of divorce to women whose husbands marry another woman without their approval.
|
LOANS BRING INDEPENDENCE FOR MALAWI WOMEN
| |
By WILLIAM RANKIN
The Lydia Project of Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (GAIA) provides micro-loans to 60 Malawi women (the repayment rate is 100%,) and produces an HIV prevention education, counseling, and testing program among 648 youth ranging in age from 8 to 18. It delivers HIV prevention education to nearly 600 adults, and medical support to 341 patients (including intensive nutritional boosting to HIV patients.) Lydia supplies tuitions to 95 orphaned secondary school students. Forty-four young and older adults are learning tailoring skills; 4 of these are men.
But in particular I wanted to spotlight how impoverished women are strengthening themselves through micro-loan activities. You may occasionally notice the wry style of Lydia's leader in the following vignettes, slightly edited for smoothness.
IMPACT OF THE LOANS ON THE WOMEN
In assessing loan impacts, we looked at quality of life before receiving the loans and then after they finished paying back. The women's lives have improved tremendously.
MARITAL INDEPENDENCE
Most Malawi women stay with unfaithful husbands because of their [financial dependence upon them.] Most women are illiterate and cannot find paying jobs. But the loans have enabled many to have some say in running their families. A case in point is Maggie G. from R [village.] Her husband married a second wife. When Maggie's business started thriving, the husband divorced the second wife to be just with Maggie. She is now able to tell the husband to go and buy tomatoes and run some errands. This would not be possible if the husband was the one with the financial muscles.
FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE
An example of this is Mrs. A., a widow who through her business income can pay school fees for her daughter and feed her five children. The other women in her group are married and from the time when they started their businesses they have become independent financially. They have earned respect from their husbands.
PRESTIGE TO THOSE THAT ARE SOCIALLY LOOKED DOWN
Being unmarried for Malawian women, especially in the Northern Region, puts the woman in an awkward situation. People regard her as incompatible with them. A 44 year old woman at M. centre is unmarried and placed at the edge of society. But now she earns a living from her business, which married women cannot do. If she did not do this the married women might think that the spinster gets money or material things from their husbands."
Implementing concrete strategies bringing justice more and more into balance is no small thing, especially when the low status of women in high-HIV prevalence areas can have lethal implications.
Some of the best people in Malawi and in the U.S. are the men who struggle to "get" what it means to respect women, be a brother to them. Doing this is neither easy nor obvious, nor is the job ever finished, since being privileged means having the luxury of not making changes -- unless you'd like to try becoming more fully human.
The women are the heroes, and some of us men are trying, will continue to try, to be full and equal partners. Deepest thanks to the women and men whose support helps us do the best we can at Malawi's grass roots.
[William Rankin is the President of Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (GAIA,) based in San Francisco. GAIA has been at work in Malawi since 2001 on a variety of village-level HIV/AIDS prevention and care strategies, accessing rural areas through Christian and Muslim religious groups.] More information is available at GAIA or at 415-461-7196.
|
EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN LIBERIA
| |
HISTORY OF CHURCH AID
As the New Water In Desert Assembly grew from a displaced fellowship to a local community fellowship, it became apparent that assistance in the form of relief and education should be provided to people fleeing the fighting in North Western Liberia, high school dropouts settling in and around the Brewerville City as IDPs, high school dropped-out girls and community residents based in and around the Brewerville City.
Thus the mission through its leadership in collaboration with the members of the Local Church the New Water the Desert Assembly established CAI in a bid to meet its moral obligation and educational responsibilities. It is against this background that the founders found it imperative initiatives to provide relief assistance, basic skills training and small loan to IDPs, high school dropped-out girls and community based women in and around the Brewerville City.
OBJECTIVES
* To empower women through the acquisition of small loans to enable them maintain their families during and after their displacement.
* To help undermine prostitution, teen pregnancy and idleness amongst displaced women in Brewerville City.
* To provide psychosocial counseling to beneficiaries during their training period.
* To provide community resident with awareness in HIV/AIDs and Peace Education.
*To provide small skills training to vulnerable displaced women, high school dropped- out girls, disadvantage and poor women to enable them support themselves during and after their displacement.
GOAL
The goal of Church Aid is to provide small skills training to displaced, disadvantage, poor and vulnerable women including school dropped–out girls.
PROGRAMS
Community Women Training Center-CWTC is a basic skills training center established by CAI to provide small skills training to both vulnerable displaced Women and high school dropped-out girls in the areas of soap making, tailoring, tie & dye, pastry, and cosmetology.
EMERGENCY RELIEF PROGRAM-ERP:
Distributes relief to IDPs and community resident.
MICRO ENTERPRISE PROGRAM:
Provides small loans to trainees upon their graduation and community’s resident to enable them rebuilt their lives.
PSYCHOSOCIAL COUNSELING:
Provided Psychosocial counseling to trainees of the CWTC, CAI Vocational workshop, and community resident.
CAI VOCATIONAL TRAINING WORKSHOP:
Provides vocational training in the areas of tye dye, carpentry, masonry, cosmetology, typing, pastry, soap production; micro credit, agriculture, literacy, and to ex-combatants, trainees of CWTC and students in and the Brewerville Community.
ANIMALS MULTIPLICATION PROGRAM:
Designed purposely to booster livestock production and provides livestock to farmer for a small amount and ex-combatants and community resident on a replenishment basis.
TUBER, ROOTS AND VEGETABLE PROGRAMS:
Designed as a viable alternative skill for trainees of CAI Vocational Workshop and the Community Women Training Center.
INTEGRATED PROGRAMS:
Health Education and Adult Literacy is designed purposely to provide basic health education to trainees and at the same afford those trainees who cannot read and write the opportunity to learn how to read and write.
[Church Aid Inc. Is a Non-Profit Organization Registered with the Government of Liberia]
Visit the website: CHURCH AID
|
|
|
|
