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Global Washington members address development issues for women and girls around the world

Today is International Women’s Day. We join our colleagues in the development field in celebrating the achievements of women, and recognizing the important work being done by development and human rights organizations to empower women worldwide. Research has shown that investing in women and girls is one of the most important components of community development. As women are educated and empowered, they are better able to be change-makers in their families and communities.

Global Washington’s mission is to help our  members work collectively to build a more equitable and prosperous world. We would like to recognize some of the important work being done for women and girls by organizations, companies, foundations, and academic institutions that are based in the state of Washingon.

Please consider supporting the missions of these fantastic organizations! 

PATH:  Path focuses on health equity for women, among the world’s most vulnerable—and influential—populations.

The basic protection of vaccines for women and children around the world.

Path’s work helps women take charge of their own protection

http://www.path.org/woman-initiated-protection.php 

PATH has formed a new product development partnership to advance the Woman’s Condom and expand affordable protection options for women. Under a new four-year, €5.1 million award from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PATH is coordinating with the Shanghai Dahua Medical Apparatus Company (Dahua), CONRAD, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) on a project called Protection Options for Women (POW).

http://www.path.org/news/an110214-womans-condom.php

World Vision: Recognizing women as critical partners in development, World vision’s trained staff actively and sensitively works to equip and encourage women around the world.

http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/about/press-development-girls?Open&pos=lft_txt_Women-and-Girls

GAPPS: Works on the premise that “Women are at the economic heart of the developing world. And to do all this work, they need to be healthy.” 

2015 Global Action Agenda ( GAA ) on Preterm Birth & Stillbirth, was created by GAPPS at their international conference a year ago. The primary goal of this GAA is to forge a collaborative effort toward achieving common goals to prevent preterm birth and stillbirth, and to improve related maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes. 

http://www.gapps.org/global_action_agenda/

Grameen Foundation: Supports local microfinance institutions and help poor women gain access to information and capital that enables them to create micro businesses and improve their lives.

Highline Community College: Women’s Programs at Highline Community College is proud to be celebrating over 30 years of service. Over the years they have developed many successful partnerships with community agencies to benefit the students of Highline including: co-location of community partners in Women’s Programs including cross-referrals, shared services, and life skills training programs.

http://www.highline.edu/stuserv/womensprograms/index.html

Landesa: Land ownership and secure access to land transforms women and girls from victims to change makers. The Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights initiatives do this on a large scale, making women and girls powerful and effective tools in the fight against global poverty.

Their Current Initiatives:

In India: The Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights partners with state governments and local NGOs to help poor women in four states (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha and West Bengal).

In China: With the help of partners, the Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights is advising on a nationwide survey to learn how current land laws are affecting women’s land rights. This survey, across five provinces, is the first of its kind in China and will give us a better picture of female farmers’ needs and the challenges they face.

In Uganda: They are working in partnership with two local NGOs to help women and girls displaced by more than 20 years of civil war, design a program that provides the women with secure land rights.

Secure land rights will help improve the food security, health, and income of these marginalized women and girls, helping them to become self-reliant and reducing their vulnerability to contracting and spreading HIV/AIDS. In this innovative program, the displaced women are playing an active role in designing a solution to their own predicament.

Landesa has Global Fellowship Program for women: They encourage lawyers and other professionals from around the world to pursue a career in women’s land rights and provide training.

Landesa has E-Library on Women’s Property Rights: They are building a database of formal laws related to women’s land rights from every country in the world. The database will also include research on customary law related to women’s land rights. This helps legal practitioners and women’s advocates create more effective and suitable programming.

http://www.landesa.org/women-and-land/current-projects/

Oiko Credit: Oikocredit places a special empahsis on empowering women in teh developing world. Microfinance provides an unprecedented opportunity for women to take control of their own destinies. One of their important projects is Saadhana – women empowerment at the grassroots. Microfinance institution Saddhana operates through women’s centers in deprived districts of Andhra Pradesh.

http://www.oikocredit.org/socialperformance/en/project-examples/saadhana-women-empowerment-at-the-grassroots

http://www.oikocredit.org/en/who-we-are/empowering-women

Rwanda Girls Initiative: Aims to provide a high quality secondary school education for girls in Rwanda, supporting the ‘whole girl’ through a boarding school environment. 

Rwanda Girls Initiative has been awarded a grant of $15,000 from the Seattle International Foundation Global Program.  This grant will support our investment in training and developing Rwandan teachers and administrators for the Gashora Girls Academy.

http://www.rwandagirlsinitiative.org/article/article_detail/44

Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA): Immigrant women, e-skills and employability in Europe 

http://tascha.uw.edu/2011/02/another-immigrant-women-video/

Bridges to Understanding: Uses digital technology and the art of storytelling to empower and unite youth worldwide, enhance cross-cultural understanding and build global citizenship.

One of their successful stories is “ Dowry is a Girl’s life.”

http://www.bridges2understanding.org/project_videos/VimeoGallery_public/BridgesIndia_Dowry.html

Crooked Trails : Works with Friends of Maiti Nepal on behalf of Nepali girls and young women who have been trafficked into sexual slavery in Indian brothels. (ANURADHA KOIRALA of Maiti Nepal won the 2010 CNN HEROES AWARD )

http://crookedtrails.com/partners.php

FUSEIQ: They use technology to connect people and bring communities together. Their aim is “A better web, a better world.”

Since 2007 FUSEIQ has been working on the project with Girls Scouts of Western Washington to create a new site to represent the new entity Girls Scouts of Western Washington (GSWW).

The new site serves as a key information resource as well as an effective marketing tool. The Content Management System has improved the organizations efficiency and use of their resources. This has allowed GWWL to focus on their mission to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.

Fuse continues to work with GSWW and will soon be creating a custom shopping cart system that will allow users to purchase “goods” for the Girl Scouts, as well as making direct donations.

http://www.fuseiq.com/our-work/girl-scouts-western-washington

Global Team for Local Initiatives: Runs grind-learn-earn project for women of Hamar tribe in remote southwest Ethiopia.One of the staples of a Hamar woman’s day is grinding grain – pulverizing maize between two stones. It is physically demanding work, done in temperatures over 100 degrees, and it takes three to four hours to grind enough grain to feed her family for the day.

Last winter, the Ethiopian government gave the neighboring communities of Wassemu and Dore a diesel powered grinding mill. There was only one problem: the women did not know how to use the mill properly and, within the first 24 hours, it broke.

Enter GTLI – and the Wassemu women’s coop. For over a year the women’s coop had been eager to start a business. Unable to grow enough food, they yearned for a way to buy it. But isolated from the modern world, they lacked both skills and market opportunities.Suddenly, the broken grinding mill presented an opportunity.

 With a grant from Bainbridge Island (WA) Rotary and Rotary District 5020, GTLI repaired the mill – and taught the Wassemu women’s coop how to run it as a business.

 Today, the coop charges 7¢ to grind, in a just few minutes, what used to take three to four hours. With the money they earn, they employ four people – two women and two men – and buy spare parts and diesel to keep the mill going. These are the first jobs in the Hamar community; the community’s first sustainable business.

The new, “extra” hours give the women time to learn reading, writing, math and recordkeeping – skills that will enable them to start other small businesses

Now the neighboring Hamar communities all want their own “grind – learn – earn” opportunity.

http://gtli.us/stories-from-the-field-1/small-project-big-results

Heal Africa:  HEAL Africa’s hospital and community development work address the root causes of illness and poverty for the people of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Some of the Heal Africa Programs for women are : a) Heal Rape Survivors

b) Stand up together

c) Gender justice that supports empowerment

d) Safe motherhood and Micro-insurance- motherhood prenatal care

http://www.healafrica.org/

Mercy Corps: One of the important projects of Mercy Corps for women is Empower Women In India Through Literacy.

They teach hundreds of Indian women to read and write, boosting their self-esteem and empowering them to open bank accounts, start small businesses and participate fully in their households and communities. So far they have met their $50,000 goal for this project — but every additional dollar we raise will help even more women learn to read and write!

http://www.mercycorps.org/projects/indialiteracy

New Course: They are currently working with partners in five countries to bring resources that empower women, and conserve critical ecosystems. Botswana, Tanzania, Republic of Congo, Democratic republic of Congo,Madagascar.

http://www.anewcourse.org/Our_Work/Current_Projects.aspx

Pre Vent :  Their  mission is promoting and supporting maternal, neonatal and child  global health programs through partnerships for education, prevention and innovation.

Pre- Vent has technical partnership with Merlin to promote the training and retention of local women as healthcare workers in rural areas of Africa.

http://www.pre-vent.org/partnersandprograms.html

Pre-vent in partnership with HAPCSO promotes education and preventive measures to reduce the rate of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS at the community health level and their satellite offices.

http://www.pre-vent.org/partnersandprograms.html

Pre-Vent works towards improving maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH) through innovative programs of education and prevention to achieve the following Millennium Development Goals:

MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women.

MDG 4:  Reduce child mortality

MDG 5: Reduce maternal mortality.

MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other major diseases.

http://www.pre-vent.org/mission.html

 Programs under consideration: a) Training of community midwives in Obstetrical Surgery to perform essential and emergency Cesarean Sections at rural based community health facilities. This can reduce maternal and infant mortality dramatically. This program is under consideration for technical support in Sub-Saharan Africa.

b) Training of Registered Nurses to become Family Nurse Practitioners and serve their local community-based health care facilities. This program is in it’s planning stages in Guatemala and emphasizes teaching of women and young girls in topics such as sanitation, clean water, nutrition, pre-conception counseling, healthy pregnancy, and healthy newborn as well as the established curriculum for family nurse practitioners.

http://www.pre-vent.org/mission.html

Results: REF has initiated two major projects that ally with organizations in numerous countries: The ACTION Project and the Microcredit Summit Campaign.

The Microcredit Summit Campaign is working to ensure that 175 million of the world’s poorest families, especially the women of those families, are receiving credit for self-employment and other financial and business services, and that 100 million families rise above the US$1 a day threshold by 2015.

http://www.results.org/about/major_projects/

Richard’s Rwanda is a group of Seattle students who are working together to support Rwandan girls’ education. They provide financial support to low-income girls in the rural area of Nyamata to enable them to complete their primary education and 6 years of secondary school.

Their Accomplishments:

·  Raised nearly $80,000 to support girls in Rwanda to finish their primary and secondary education;

·  Awarded a $25,000 matching grant from Paul Allen Foundation;

·  Annual fund-raising events by Seattle students;

·  Expansion from original chapter at Seattle Girls’ School to six additional high school chapters;

·  Developed a partnership with a local Rwandan girls’ school FAWE (Forum African Women Educationalist Girls School) to establish their own chapter of Richard’s Rwanda IPMUHWE to provide mentoring to low-income girls in the impoverished rural area of Namata; The program has officially been incorporated as part of a community service program for the FAWE School. (See below for more details).

·  June 2010 twelve founding members of RRI (from various member Seattle high schools) traveled to Rwanda to teach English literacy to impoverished high girls in the rural district of Nyamata and strengthen collaboration with their peers at FAWE. They had such a successful experience that a cross-cultural trip is now an annual program. They will offer a trip to Rwanda every summer for the Seattle members of Richard’s Rwanda-IMPUHWE to teach English and connect in person with the girls in Nyamata.

http://www.richardsrwanda.org/?page_id=71

http://www.richardsrwanda.org/

Uplift International: Their mission is to advocate and promote health rights for vulnerable women.

Uplift International and Aim for human rights have been working with six civil society organizations (CSOs) from different parts of Indonesia for the last year on a project that helps promote women’s health rights. 

http://upliftinternational.org/2010/07/advocating-and-promoting-health-rights-for-vulnerable-women/

Washington Women’s Foundation

Engages women in the power of collective giving. Through informed and strategic grant making, their members expand women’s knowledge, invest in the life of the community and demonstrate leadership through effective philanthropy.

http://www.wawomensfoundation.org/

Women’s Enterprises International

Women’s Enterprises International is dedicated to creating opportunities that equip women in developing countries to overcome poverty and transform their lives and communities. They do this by partnering with indigenous women’s groups in development projects that provide solutions to three systemic causes of poverty; lack of access to water, lack of access to business capital and limited access to education for girls.

http://www.womensenterprises.org/

-Compiled by Anamika P. Ved, Global Washington volunteer

Development assistance for the poor in not-so-poor countries

The United Kingdom’s recent announcement to continue giving grant to “India” –rated as having one of the world’s fastest growing economies- has triggered a debate on the current model of development assistance. Over the past few years a large number of once-poor countries and major recipients of foreign aid have reached middle-income country status, which is set by the World Bank at $1,000 per person per year.

As per World Bank’s annual reclassification of countries carried out in July 2010, Senegal, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen are five more developing countries that officially lost their “poor” status and acquired middle-income country (MIC) status.

Other growing MICs include Ghana, Cameron, Angola, and Sudan. This rising trend bears testimony to the fact that the problem of global poverty has changed and is no longer confined to “poor countries.” New Institute of Development Services (IDS) research shows that there is a new “bottom billion” of the 960million poor people or 72 per cent of the world’s poor who live not in poor countries but in MICs. This is a dramatic change from just two decades ago, when 93 per cent of poor people lived in low-income countries (LICs).

What does this changing state of global poverty mean to the donors? Should international agencies with a focus on poverty reduction recalibrate their engagement in MIC’s?

In, Poor Countries Or Poor People, Ravi Kanbur argues that the development cooperation literature identifies three arguments for continued assistance:
1) Pockets of Poverty: Assistance is called for by poverty no matter where it occurs–whether in poor countries or in non-poor countries. It is poor people who matter fundamentally, and poor countries matter only indirectly, as a leading indicator of where the poor might live. And it is of course this indicator that might be brought into question in the new global patterns of poverty.

2) Spillover Effects: Poverty in MICs may lead to cross-border negative externalities to other countries, especially LICs and the poor who live in them. There are many examples of such spillovers, including global warming and other environmental externalities, financial crises and their spillover effects, the spread of infectious diseases, and migration.

3) Knowledge Transfer: By engaging with MICs, aid agencies gain knowledge that can then be useful to reduce poverty in poorer countries, such as implementing social safety nets. These provide minimum levels of social protection or guard against economic and other shocks with cash payments, or food or other measures, given directly to the poor.

Global poverty is no longer construed as a problem afflicting only the world’s “poor countries.” This fact makes it imperative for the new and old donors to rethink their approaches and strategies. Donors should design aid policies in context of the changing concepts of global poverty and decide on the aid objectives, allocations and instruments to meet this “new geography of global poverty.”

Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz at the Brookings Institution believe that by 2015 the proportion of the world’s poor in MICs will still be 55%, which implies that many of the MICs still need aid.

However, while making aid decisions, donors should take into account the fact that MICs are diverse groups and require more detailed sub-categories. Thus we have emerging powers like India and Indonesia, where the aid is not enough compared to the size of the economies; they still have substantial pockets of poverty. Similarly countries like Pakistan and Nigeria are fragile MICs and the aid again is small compared to the size of their economies. Then there are stagnant, non -fragile MICs and also fast growing poor countries such as Ghana.

The essence of the development assistance is to realize the objective of reducing global poverty and this can be done only if donors continue to work in the MICs, because that is where most of the poor live.

Finally as Richard Miller says in his book, Globalizing Justice: The Ethics of Poverty and Power, there may be a moral obligation to give development assistance to MICs, because they are still part of global power relations (for example in trade and finance patterns) that may disadvantage them to some extent until those global relationships change.

For more information, please see
http://www.ids.ac.uk/go/idsproject/the-new-bottom-billion
http://www.ids.ac.uk/go/idspublication/poor-countries-or-poor-people-development-assistance-and-the-new-geography-of-global-poverty
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/01_global_poverty_chandy.aspx

Local students, global vision

A group of fifth graders is ready to make change—by collecting it. I was impressed by this story, reported in the Longview Daily News about fifth grade girls who approached their principal about doing something for the people of Afghanistan. The request corresponded with a local Pennies for Peace campaign, leading up to a visit to Longview by Greg Mortensen, Nobel Peace prize nominee, author of Three Cups of Tea, and founder of the Central Asia Institute (CAI), which works to promote education in Pakistan and Afghanistan. A program of CAI, Pennies for Peace provides school curriculum on cultural issues and philanthropy in conjunction with a penny drive. The Longview school that raises the most money will get to send a delegation to meet Mortensen and give him the check.

The article indicates that the girls not only understood the work that Mortensen was doing, they were also excited about the prospect of meeting him and proud of the chance to help bring education to kids, especially girls, on the other side of the world.

At Global Washington, we are thrilled to hear that young students—tomorrow’s leaders—are aware of global issues and are already enthusiastic about making their world a better place. As participants in a broad-based, statewide coalition of academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and leading businesses, Global Washington members are uniquely positioned to coordinate and build a shared strategy for international education.

Since 2008, Global Washington has convened education experts from across the state to identify avenues for collaboration around this important topic. Our education working group is currently focusing on three areas: world languages, building a global classroom in the U.S. and abroad, and pedagogy and competence building.

We are convening three task forces around each of the education focus areas. We are also planning an International Education Conference in September and developing an advocacy plan to ensure that the development of a cohesive international education system is a critical policy issue for the state of Washington.

Please contact us if you’d like to get involved in our education work and help transform Washington State students into responsible global citizens and peacemakers.

These Longview students have the right idea. What are some of yours?

Read the full article on the Longview “Pennies for Peace” drive

Pennies for Peace

Central Asia Institute

Global Washington International Education Resources