Outreach

Time to Strengthen Connections

As the financial crisis consumes our daily discussions, thinking, and worries, there is a need for perspective to help us in our understanding and dealing with the crisis. At the World Economic Forum in January, many were talking about how this is a time to assess one's values, what is important and not important in life, and how one can live; their values derived not from their financial reality but from their moral and ethical commitment to what is important. In that same week, I heard the story of an American sponsor to a Rwandan women who lost her job recently but decided, that of all the cuts in her budget, she will not cut her sponsorship commitment to a woman whose need for her $30 a month is so great and the impact of that money goes such a long way. This is a story of living one's ideological commitment despite financial hardship.

Only a week later upon my arrival back to the US, I met a friend and a supporter of Women for Women International whom I had the privilege of visiting Rwanda. I stood by her as she witnessed stories of women who had gone through near death experiences through the genocide only to come out of it alive, healthy, and, yes, with some wounds as well. I particularly remember talking with one woman in Rwanda who explained how she has been hiding in a ditch for a few days where there was also a snake. She feared the militia's machetes more than the possibility of the snake's bite. The story became even more unbelievable when that very snake ended up saving this woman's life after a dog tried to attack her while hiding in the ditch.

Months had passed since I had last seen this friend. She told me that after returning to the US and sharing with her family the experience in Rwanda and watching the movie Hotel Rwanda, her husband was laid off from his job and they suffered great financial loss. Before I could say anything, she said, “Had I not met the women in Rwanda, had I not heard their stories, what they had been through and how they survived and how they are rebuilding their lives, my family and I would have dealt with our crisis in a much different way. But now, I think that we still have it OK and have handled our news with a different spirit and in a way that I never thought I would. I am OK, my family is OK and I wanted to thank you for the perspective my experience with Women for Women International has brought into my life.

I was left speechless and very touched with my friend's remarks. I remembered my mother who used to say, “Life is like a rollercoaster. One day you are up, and one day you are down. You just have to hang in there and it can still be a joyful ride.” My mother passed away 10 years ago now and like many other women, men, and children who have lived and survived wars in their lives, she lived days where her life had been up and she had everything, and days where her life has been down and she had nothing. She survived all of them and as she was reflecting upon her life in her last days, I recall her remembering the beauty of life more than anything else, her regret at all the times she was upset with life expressed through her tears. “Most of these tears were not worth it. Life is so beautiful at the end of the day”, she used to tell me in the last months of her life.

As I do every single morning before I read the news, I read a Rumi poem. I couldn't have read a better poem than The Guest House:

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
Some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
Who violently sweep your house
Empty of its furniture,
Still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be cleaning you out
For some new delight.

The dark though, the shame, the malice,
Meet them at the door laughing
And invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
Because each has been sent
As a guide from beyond.

This time, like no other time, is a day and a time in history where we need to reassess what is truly important to us as individuals, as a society, as members of a country, as citizens of the world. And as we each do that, allow me to echo the words of my colleagues in our offices in Congo, Sudan, Afghanistan, among others, about the harsh reality our sisters are witnessing there from food shortage, to financial shortage, to the fighting and the wars that continue to dominate their daily life. “Please remember that whatever you are facing from this financial crisis, we are having triple the impact in our reality. Please do not forget our wars, do not forget our food crisis, and do not forget that little can go a long way in our countries,” Christine Karumba, the director of our Democratic Republic of Congo office said to us. As you face the challenges in your lives, please remember that your support of your sisters in other countries can change their lives for the better, and, more importantly, it can literally lead to the building of stability in their families and in their countries. This is the time to remember what is most important for us. This is the time to remember our connectivity to each other. And this is the time where women's voices need to be heard louder than ever before

See Zainal Salbi's memoir
Read more about Zainab Salbi

Deputy Governor of Lake State, Awan Guol Riak, and Women for Women International Sudan Country Director, Karak Mayik, walk with other guests to the ribbon cutting ceremony of the CIFI program. About 3000 guests attended the ceremony.

Women's Agribusiness Fights Hunger and Poverty in Sudan

Food is the fi rst priority in Sudan,” said Sudan Country Director Karak Mayik. After years of war, the infrastructure in Sudan is in need of rebuilding. Among the greatest of Sudan's needs are the tools to grow food to feed its people. Currently, most of the food available in Southern Sudan results from hand-outs from aid organizations. Recognizing the desperate need for women to feed themselves and their families, Women for Women International–Sudan recently launched its ambitious Commercial Integrated Farming Initiative (CIFI).

The program, which teaches women how to farm organically, will train and enable 3,000 women over a period of three years to grow and market a variety of crops on community land that was formerly unused. The process gives women resources to pay for shelter, medicine and school fees for children. But maybe more importantly it gives women tools to empower themselves and move from reliance on hand-outs to self-sufficiency.

After an incredibly successful test period, the program was officially launched in November 2008. On a clear day, about 3,000 people gathered in Rumbek, South Sudan, to celebrate the incredible strides women are making through CIFI. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the Deputy Governor of Lake State, Awan Guol Riak, donated a vehicle to the organization to help the women bring their crops to markets in town.

“Our biggest challenge right now is not growing crops but getting them to our customers in town,” says Country Director Mayik. “The overall lack of infrastructure in the area is an obstacle to delivering fresh produce and guaranteeing quality for our customers.”

The Sudan state ministries for finance and agriculture pledged to drill three new boreholes on the farming land. Boreholes are wells that allow the women to irrigate the land instead of carrying tubs of water for miles. The government also pledged a motorcycle to the Women for Women International country office. The commissioner of Rumbek will also provide three cooperative shops where produce can be sold.

Currently, 880 women are being trained in land use, irrigation, crop types, farming techniques, and marketing of their products. The women are learning from a farming specialist how to plant and harvest a variety of trial crops that cover about 37 acres. Eventually, the program will include 3,000 women who will run a cooperative agribusiness on over 148 acres of farmland.

The trials have shown that a variety of vegetables, including green peppers, egg plants, kale, tomatoes, and cowpeas are doing extremely well. The women will also grow maize, short-term sorghum, beans, ground nuts, and fl owers. Through CIFI, women are introduced to modern irrigation systems, organic integrated agriculture and a commercial approach to farming that includes market-oriented food production.

“We women used to depend on our husbands in providing funds,” says Deborah Yar Wau, a 53-year-old mother of 11 and program participant in Rumbek. Like her colleagues, she relied on the money her husband made by selling animals he bred or surplus from their small subsistance plot. “But through this project we have become self reliant, and at the same time, we contribute to the well-being of our families.”

“CIFI is a cooperative income-generation model that will not only increase local food production and bring down food prices, it will also decrease the demand for outside assistance by empowering women,” says Karen Sherman, Women for Women International Executive Director of Global Programs. “This initiative will put women in charge of the food chain and positively affect their families and communities.”

Currently, 60 to 80 percent of food in developing countries is produced by women who have limited ownership of land and market access. Studies show that women tend to invest their income in the well-being of their families, including education and healthcare.

Read more about WFWI's efforts in Sudan

Country Directors Come to the U.S.

In February the Women for Women Country Directors came to the United States for three weeks. During that time, they attended trainings, updated each other and the staff on the situation in each country and shared the hope and inspiration that comes with working with women survivors of war.

Rwandan Women Celebrated at London Art Exhibit

Celebrating the 98th annual International Women's Day, Women for Women International hosted a unique art exhibition in London on March 5th to honor the strength and resilience of women survivors of war.

Accompanied by photographic contributions from world-renowned photographer Lana Šlezi´c and Women for Women International employee Amy Russell, philanthropist and donor Elizabeth Jordan displayed a stunning series of visual artworks inspired by her trip to Rwanda in September 2008. Meeting women survivors of the Rwandan genocide and participants in the Women for Women programs, Elizabeth strove to capture images that highlighted “the dignity and perseverance of the people of Rwanda.” Speaking at the launch of the exhibition, Elizabeth said she was pleased that the next generation were present at the event and engaged in the plight of women survivors of war. She said, “We have with us members of the next generation — from 6 years old to the late teens. It is to them that I call out and it is for them that I know we must strive to continue to change the wrongs in the world — to put an end to the wrongs that is so often — too often — committed against women.” Judithe Registre, Director of Policy for Women for Women International-UK stressed the importance of International Women's Day in “helping to show the world the kind of work and the kind of impact the work we do can have upon women, their families and their countries…Elizabeth Jordan herself is an example of how one story can touch the heart and slowly lead to great changes — of how one woman can make a change to the lives of those she has never seen.”

The event included a fashion show featuring tie-dyed silk kaftans and bow-ties designed by Avis Charles and a selling some of the many products created by program participants. The exhibition sought to raise awareness of the work of Women for Women while also paying tribute to the true heroines of confl ict: the women who are struggling to rebuild their lives, their families and their nations. Supported by former President Bill Clinton and attended by over 300 guests, the evening successfully celebrated the millions of women who have emerged from the suffering of war, torture, and rape stronger and hungry for change. Women for Women International–UK wishes to thank Elizabeth Jordan for her inspiring efforts to raise awareness of the plights and strengths of women situated in some of the world's most war-ravaged nations; Lana Šlezi´c for her benevolent contribution of images taken from her latest exhibition, “Forsaken”; the Albion Gallery for kindly providing space for the event; and all our guests who gave so generously on the night.

The Good Seed Is Still in Us

On January 31, 2009, Iraqis voted in provincial elections. We Iraqis have paid bitterly for our democracy, and we are still paying for it. The price has been particularly high for women, and the continuing failure to promote and protect women frustrates us. For example, the 25 percent quota for women members in parliament is still somewhat vague in its application, and the state minister for Women's Affairs resigned recently after her already impossibly tight budget was slashed by 80 percent.

In the weeks leading up to the election, you heard a lot of Iraqis who said “we are not going to vote this time, we got nothing from the previous one, why should we? The results have already been determined.” I was one of these voices, but when the election came, I nevertheless joined the roughly 51 percent of Iraqis who went to the polls to cast my vote. You may ask: why? The simple reply is that we feel it is our duty and our right to vote. It also sets an example for the next generation to go and vote and participate in forming our country, whatever the cost. We are not working for ourselves now, we are working for our children and their children. Our actions are setting changes in motion that we might not be able to see for some time, but even now we can feel something beginning to take shape.

The women I work with have a lot of stories about how they became widows or orphans. Some have no support at all, and they tell me how hard they struggle. But when I ask them to draw or paint anything they wish on any subject at all, not a single one of them draws anything about her suffering or sad past. Their paintings are amazing, full of colors and fl owers and people building homes and children sitting in schools. They even paint about thte elections, and these pictures are some of my favorites. When I hear their stories, I hide my tears. But I also hear them speak proudly when they look to the future and their children's future. They tell me they want to send a message to all women that we are strong and able to face our diffi culties, we are going to learn and teach our kids to be their best for their country. This is how women are re-knitting the social fabric of their communities, and building peace in Iraq from the ground up.

A year ago, public campaigns in parts of my country threatened women with violence if they dared to wear too much make-up or left the house without a veil. But on election day, there were nearly 4,000 women candidates on the ballot. Regardless of the results, we know that this is how change will slowly begin and then gather momentum. Iraq is in a healing process. We got the infection and we are seeking the cure. We hope that we will get it right and, in our way, be healthy again and able to build a better life. What has happened is over, and we want to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them.

Maybe the building process is still so slow that progress cannot yet be seen. But we are working very hard, especially on our relations with each other, because we cannot rebuild the country until we can get along. We don't want to build the country on hate or untrue feelings. Instead, we want the work we are doing now to last forever because this time we are building based not on the blood of the Iraqis but on their belief in and love for each other.

We must let the past go and think about the present and the future. I don't think that we Iraqis will accept oppression but rather will use all the tools we have to face down tyranny. We just need time to get up and stand on our feet again. What is happening now will end. When I go out to the street and see an offi cer attempting to make traffi c fl ow easier I know that although there are few such offi cers at the moment, as long as I hear people say that he is doing a great job, I know the good seed is still in us and will grow to become the rule rather than the exception. It is our duty to make sure that women are part of this. And this is why we had to go and vote. Women's issues are society's issues, and stronger women build stronger nations.

WFWI Presents: Stronger Women, Stronger Nations

2009 Afghanistan Report

The 2009 Afghanistan Report is the third installment in our Stronger Women, Stronger Nations report series. It captures the insights and recommendations of grassroots, Afghan women on issues critical to their future.

Through these reports, Women for Women International seeks to amplify the voices of socially excluded women survivors of war in the countries where we work, a mission stemming from a belief that these voices — while regularly excluded — are integral to building peaceful and stable societies.

In cooperation with UK-based Professor Nalia Kabeer and the Pathways of Women's Empowerment Programme, we surveyed 1,500 Afghan women in seven provinces on issues relating to security, the economy and their outlook for the future. We found that:

Women are aware of the discrimination they face and value knowledge of their rights.

85.7% of women said that knowing about their rights is helpful, and 51.2% said they feel they have fewer rights because of their gender. Social ills cannot be fixed without peace and security.

41.2% of women said that the biggest problem they face in daily life is the lack of important commodities, followed by insufficient employment opportunities (26.2%) and lack of social services (13.5%).

66.2% of women said that the first problem the national government should address is the security situation, followed by economic and political problems. Responses were the same at the local level where security is considered the highest priority. See the full report.

In addition, Women for Women International staff members who work closely with our Afghan program participants identifi ed violence against women as a persistent problem. Staff members identified the following as obstacles to change: “family and society attitudes, education for women, and forced marriages,” “violence against women and resolution of the current security problems” and “poverty, no security, violence against women, [and] illiteracy.”

While the challenges in Afghanistan are daunting, improved security is a necessary condition on which everything else is predicated. Sustainable improvements in security will require long-term commitments from stakeholders within the country as well as from international organizations, other governments, humanitarian agencies, NGOs and private donors. Investing in socially excluded women improves their overall outlook, awareness and optimism for the future — all vital components of a just and stable society.