Women’s Rights are Human Rights

The Jian Ghomeshi scandal pulled the issue of violence against women in Canada out from behind closed doors and into the public spotlight. It reminded us that in many places around the world, including Canada, human rights are still not recognized, respected or guaranteed. This Human Rights Day we thought it relevant to present some of the obstacles women around the world and in Canada continue to face.



Women sharing their campaign posters following training for women
electoral candidates.
Photo: Abantu/Ghana

• Globally, about one in three women will be beaten or raped during her lifetime.

• Violence causes more death and disability worldwide amongst women aged 15-44 than war, cancer, malaria and traffic accidents combined.

• Women account for nearly two thirds of the world’s 780 million people who cannot read.

• Marital rape is not a prosecutable offence in at least 53 States.  

• On average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.

 • Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.

• The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives estimates that sexual assault and partner violence costs Canadians $9 billion annually when all costs are considered. 

• More than 3300 women in Canada and their children sleep in shelters to escape abuse on any given night.



Skills training in Senegal. Photo: Héloïse Courribet-Chouinard

Crossroads works with our partners in eight countries to improve the ability of women and girls to speak out against violence, to seek access to justice, and to gain skills to support their livelihoods. But we’re also collaborating with an alliance of more than 100 women’s organizations from across Canada to raise awareness about women’s rights by calling for a leader’s debate in the lead up to the 2015 federal election (a debate that hasn’t occurred on this stage for 30 years now!). Up for Debate calls on all political parties to participate in a federal leaders’ debate and make meaningful commitments to change women’s lives for the better in Canada and abroad by ending violence against women, ending women’s economic inequality, and supporting women’s leadership and organizations.  Add your voice to the debate and help make women’s rights everybody’s business.

Celebrating the dedication of volunteers

Maureen Littlejohn with some of the SWAGAA team
 

Over the years almost 10,000 Crossroads volunteers have dedicated their time and shared their expertise to make a real impact in our world.

Crossroads alumna Maureen Littlejohn has devoted several years of her life to volunteering, including working as a communications officer with our partner the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA). We hope that you'll take a few minutes today to read about why Maureen volunteers and to reflect on the importance of international volunteering.

Thank you, we couldn't do it without you!

Following the path of international volunteer work

Lucie and Tharcisse during their mandate in Senegal

It’s been three years now that we have been following the path of international volunteer work. On May 18 of this year, on a beautiful Ontario spring day, we left Sudbury for Senegal. We were travelling to Kaolack, a city located 189 kilometres from the Senegalese capital of Dakar, where we were warmly greeted by members from the Association pour la Promotion de la Femme Sénégalaise (APROFES).

International volunteer work is like an addiction; the more you do it, the more you want to keep doing it. For us, the thing that has kept us motivated to stay involved over the past few years is the simple fact that we’ve seen how we can make a difference, however small, in our host country.

Whenever we set out as volunteers we have specific missions and responsibilities to complete our mandates. For our current roles as Operationalization and Strategic Planning Advisor and Human Resources Management Advisor respectively, these include building awareness about women’s rights, increasing the social, political, and economic roles of women, improving women’s access to healthcare services, promoting economic independence for women, and reducing violence towards women.

Though challenging at times, the experience is always exciting and drives us to put our organizational skills, creativity, and theoretical knowledge to the test. Learning about a new culture is always enriching, in part because we are meeting people and living in a country where we are always learning something new.

An adventure like this brings so much positivity, and we would recommend it to anyone. We encourage everyone who can to hit the road and set off in the same direction – heading towards a better world that is free of poverty. Welcome to the wonderful world of international volunteering.

Lucie Mailloux and Tharcisse Kabeya

Lucie Mailloux and Tharcisse Kabeya are currently in Senegal completing their third mandate as Crossroaders with the Association pour la promotion de la femme sénégalaise (APROFES). From 2012 to 2014, they were working with the Groupe de réflexion et d’action, Femme, Démocratie et Développement (GF2D) in Togo.  

Growing bonds in Senegal

Québec Sans Frontières (QSF)Crossroaders based in Gapakh, Senegal this summer wrote this post when they returned to the village after a short break.


The second part of our placement started with the laughs and hollers of children running to meet us to welcome us home. We were greeted just as warmly by the rest of our families. Seeing their expressive smiles made us feel like they were just as glad to have us back as we were to be there. There’s no question about it; the bonds we’ve formed with our host families get stronger every day. The same applies to our host villages and the women at the community market garden.


Women working in Gapakh. Photo courtesy of Vanessa Mongeon.
 

The reality for the majority of Senegalese women in rural areas like our villages involves numerous children to care for in addition to all of the cooking and cleaning responsibilities – often without electricity, which makes even the simplest tasks more complicated. For our organic gardening project, it made sense to create a work schedule that could accommodate this reality. The women split up into different work groups so they can work on different days of the week. Once this system was in place the women approached their jobs with renewed motivation, working to the rhythms of their singing and dancing.  

Thanks to everyone's hard work we are beginning to see results. We're starting to see tomatoes, eggplant, watermelon, okra, and peppers begin to sprout. After some observation, we noticed that the plants grow better in shaded areas. To create more shaded areas, the women, along with our local partner the Association pour la promotion de la femme sénégalaise (APROFES), decided to go ahead with planting fruit trees. With this solution in place, our project is even more likely to succeed. The market garden is still just getting started, but already, little by little, we're seeing it grow into its potential. With only a few nights remaining in Senegal, we continue to find inspiration all around us including in the beautiful stars at night and with our unforgettable host families.  

Thank you to the QSF volunteers in the village of Gapakh for contributing this post: Jacinthe Fortier, Jeanne Gleeton, Vanessa Mongeon, Isabelle Paluck-Leblanc and Julie Trudel. Don't miss your opportunity to become a QSF volunteer, apply by September 5th!

With all eyes on the World Cup, can we score more than just goals?

Beer suds and team chants aside, the World Cup is a rare opportunity to unite diverse populations across borders; if only international development could garner the same attention. Brazilians successfully turned the lens on the situation in their own country in the lead up to the Cup by leading strikes and protests, drawing attention to the vast inequalities that exist in that country. But once the games began all eyes were on the field and any media coverage was quickly diverted.

The World Cup is one of those rare events that elicit such passion and devotion globally. It’s a reminder of our common humanity and the desire to be something greater than ourselves. This is also applicable to international development, which receives so little love and enthusiasm from the general public. How do we harness this World Cup energy to create a world that is concerned with the well-being of others? To shift the focus from soccer goals to international development wins? Tell us what you think!

Beyond the hashtag: No quick fixes for the lack of equality in women’s rights

Twitter and other social media forums have been blowing up these past few weeks with support for the kidnapped girls in Nigeria and speaking out against the misogyny behind the recent murders in Santa Barbara, California. While the #BringBackOurGirls and #YesAllWomen campaigns are encouraging dialogue, they’re the product of a much larger issue at hand; the continuing global struggle for women’s rights and equality.

Boko Haram probably didn’t expect to garner global media attention or encourage the massive outpouring of support on social media when they kidnapped almost 300 girls. With little action taken against them despite more than 500 deadly attacks in their repertoire over the past five years, including the abduction of a group of Christian girls last year who were forced into marriage and converted to Islam , April’s mass kidnapping was hardly out of character for the terrorist group. In fact, some groups are blaming the Nigerian government’s inaction regarding previous attacks as the impetus for this tragedy in Chibok.

Photo: Facebook/Bring Back Our Girls

The Nigerian government’s worrisome lack of response is testament to the little value Nigerian society places on its women and girls. However, the mass protests led by Nigerian women and the tidal wave of support on social media are confirmation that despite many obstacles, women’s voices in this country are starting to be heard. It is largely due to the numerous protests the women led, which grew in size and scope, that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration finally decided to accept the previously ignored international assistance offered to Nigeria to find the kidnapped girls. The influence of these women’s voices shows the potential for women to be more closely engaged in counter-terrorism efforts in Nigeria, and it is a reminder of the incredible importance of women’s civic participation and the ability to speak up and speak out.

Digging Deeper for Change



Christine Campbell, Acting Executive Director

Recently the Canadian media reported that one in three Canadians is abused as a child. The statistic should shock us, but for those working to advance the rights of women and girls it’s all too familiar. The fact that globally one in three women will be beaten or raped in her lifetime is only one of the many difficult realities that women face.

Women still make up 70 per cent of the world’s poor, because for the most part they do not have control over productive and financial resources, and despite the violence often perpetrated against them, women are still rarely invited to peace talks. Yet when we invest in women we’ve seen time and again that the benefits extend beyond the personal to the well-being of women’s families as well as the broader community. The Economist declares “Forget China, India and the internet: economic growth is driven by women.” But so little funding is available to women focussed, women-led programs and organizations.

A survey of 740 women’s organizations worldwide conducted by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) in 2010 showed that these organizations received very little financial support. In fact, their median income was $20,000, which is less than the annual salary of a minimum wage worker in Canada. When we add the income of each of these 740 organizations together, the total is $106 million, a fraction of Greenpeace’s 2010 budget of $309 million. It’s not difficult to comprehend why 20 per cent of the organizations surveyed feared shutting down operations due to a financial shortfall.

And this situation is reflected in Canada too. Among Canadian international civil society organizations (CSOs) with program budgets greater than $30 million, less than 7 per cent of their overseas budget supports autonomous women’s organizations. And despite Canada’s leadership in the promotion of child and maternal health, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) have only allocated 1-2 per cent of their total program funding over the past five years to programs where gender equality was the primary goal.

Last year a group of 21 Canadian international CSOs came together following a Women’s Rights Policy Group meeting to discuss the need for a systematic understanding of Canadian support for international women’s rights and to build a foundation for increased fundraising and strengthened programming. A working group was created to oversee the research and creation of a report about the evaluation and assessment of funding made available to women’s programming and organizations which was intended to capture the attention and the imagination of the Canadian government and Canadian CSOs.

The result is Digging Deeper: Towards Greater Action on Global Rights for Women and Girls. We hope you’ll read the report and discover more about Canadian investment in international development and the challenges of funding women’s rights. The report was commissioned by Crossroads and other CSO partners working to advance women’s rights to provide a base of information that we hope will raise questions and spark debate. Ultimately we hope to spur on more research and investment to strengthen Canadian initiatives in support of global women’s rights over the next decade and to increase giving in Canada. To make an impact we need to reach as many influencers as we can, so please share this report widely with your networks and help us reach others to explain why we all need to dig a little deeper to fund women’s programming and organizations.  

Lawrence Hill learns about the challenges of being a girl in Swaziland

Crossroads honorary patron and award-winning author Lawrence Hill spent the last week in Swaziland where he met Crossroads partners and saw first-hand how the Swaziland ActionGroup Against Abuse (SWAGAA), Gone Rural boMake and the Family Life Association of Swaziland (FLAS) are making an impact.

 

This trip wasn’t Lawrence’s first with Crossroads. During the seventies and eighties, he travelled to Africa three times as a volunteer.  It was during his mandate in Mali that he met a midwife named Aminata, whose strength and perseverance made a distinct impression on him. Years later, when he needed a name for the main character in The Book of Negroes, a woman with a strong will and spirit, he knew that she should be named Aminata. A few years ago, Lawrence and Miranda Hill established the Aminata Fund, which provides vital funds to Crossroads programs supporting women and girls in Africa. 

Lawrence shared some photos and few of his first impressions from his trip. 

 “Swaziland. One of the smallest countries in the world, whose people have teeming hearts.  It's an honour to come here, as an honorary patron of Crossroads International, to support in my own small way the struggles of girls and women to live out their lives free of domestic and sexual assault, and to concentrate on the things we all long for: peace, love, close ties to family and community, the pursuit of individual dreams, work, and at least a modicum of prosperity.”

Lawrence Hill with Girls’ Empowerment Club members and Crossroads volunteer Laura Dowling.

“Here in The Kingdom of Swaziland, there are about  one million people in a tiny country encapsulated by South Africa. Among its chief exports are raw materials: pineapples and sugar. And among its most needy: girls and women, abused regularly in a country with the highest HIV / AIDS prevalence rate in the world.  I'm struck by the courage of the women of SWAGAA and of the girls they help, all committed to what every human being deserves: the right to live in peace, to follow their passions and get on with the business of building their lives.”  

Lawrence with girls from the Ngomane Primary School

”I visited the Ngomane Primary School in Swaziland today, and was greeted by a classroom full of about 80 girls singing their welcome at the top of their lungs. These girls were between the ages of about 6 and 13. Seeing their faces, hearing about their hopes, and watching the dreams on their faces was all the more striking, knowing that one girl out of three is sexually abused in this country before she reaches the age of 18.  I'm sure each and every one of those children draws courage from being in a Girls’ Empowerment Club, supported by SWAGAA.”  

Lawrence leading a writing workshop with Girls’ Club members.

“First question from the media today: what about the boys? Why no empowerment clubs for them? SWAGAA does have an initiative in the works for men, but it seems that each time there is a public discussion about the needs of girls, someone deflects the conversation and turns it to boys. Boys do have needs. All humans have needs. But it remains an uphill climb to convince all people in Swaziland of the crucial need to support girls as they continue to face domestic violence and sexual assault.” (Caption: Lawrence leading a writing workshop with Girls’ Club members.)

“The girls at the Mpala Primary School sang and danced their hearts out today.”

Lawrence Hill at Gone Rural boMake

Lawrence also had a chance to meet the women at Gone Rural boMake, the not-for-profit arm of Gone Rural. With commitment to sustainable social responsibility and Fair Trade principles, Gone Rural has successfully created a business model that empowers rural women by providing them with home based income and skills training. 

International Development Week: Now this is an event that warrants the space on our calendars!

With special corporate, government and UN-designated “days” and “weeks” covering most of the year’s calendar, these occasions become easier to ignore, particularly as media interest wanes and public fatigue grows. The observation of some particularly important days and weeks have become lost in the jumble of silliness that are Carrot Cake days and National Picnic month (Feb. 3 and the month of August respectively, in case you were curious…). But for Canadians, International Development Week (Feb. 2-8) isn’t one we should allow to slip off the radar like we should with say, National Peanut Butter and Jelly day.

Crossroader Sarah Landry (right) at APROFES in Senegal.

Twenty-four years ago CIDA, now the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), reserved the first full week of February to explore how Canada and Canadians are making a difference internationally. Especially now, at a time when the future of Canada’s development plans seems uncertain, and funding is dwindling, Canadians need to speak up loud and clear in their support of the role our country and our NGOs play in making a real and lasting difference.

Without the support and interest of Canadians, our country’s contributions to international development move down the list of priorities. Did you know that last year $370 million was cut from Canada’s aid budget? You can help make International Development Week (IDW) count by:

* Signing the national petition to protect the aid budget
* Visiting the DFATD IDW pages and submitting your photos and stories of the importance and successes of international development;
* Sharing your experiences with Crossroads on Facebook and Twitter;
* Supporting Canada’s NGOs working in international development;
* Keeping friends and family informed of the importance of Canada’s contributions to international development.

Don’t let IDW get bumped from the calendars, keep this week relevant and make it front of mind for the Canadian government and the general public!

Welcoming a new year

Christine Campbell

Quit smoking;  get in shape; get out of debt; organize your life. The promise of the New Year brings hope of new successes, but it can also bring the pressure of a daunting laundry list of self-improvement standards. All too often we throw up our hands in frustration and abandon our resolutions before we make it to February. 

I think we need a different approach. To start the New Year off on the right foot, we need to spend more time celebrating our achievements and reflecting on the challenges we overcame, and putting the knowledge we acquired to use. 

Year in and year out Crossroads International keeps working on the same resolution, and we are not discouraged. We aim to reduce poverty in some of the poorest parts of the world, and support women in attaining equal rights. It's a tall order, and it will not be achieved in a single year, but it’s a resolution that we’ll never abandon. We don't expect to close the book on poverty or women's rights in 2014, but we do know that we can make important strides towards these goals. 

This year holds a lot of promise for Crossroads and our partners. This month another shipment of fair trade coffee will arrive in Canada from a cooperative supported by one of our partners in Bolivia.  In Ghana, we will double the reach of the Access to Justice project which helps women realize their human rights.  And we’ll be launching 20 more girls empowerment clubs in Swaziland. Why don’t you choose a resolution this year that will survive long after January is through?  Support us in meeting our New Year’s resolutions and we’ll guarantee that you’ll be keeping this one all year long. 

Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year, 

Christine Campbell, acting Executive Director