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Disaster relief for displaced young mothers and babies - Our Associate SOFEDEC provides help

Anuarite Siirewabo Muyuwa, Coordinator of the SOFEDEC organisation in the South-East of DR Congo sends an urgent appeal for help.
She had planned a regular activity of the “Water and Pads” project at Nyiragongo. School in the city of Goma on 5 November 2022.

But as A. Siirewabo describes it, one day before this a huge horrific event had occurred. 

“The clashes between the M23 and the FARDC soldiers are extremely brutal and terrible.

The population of Rutshuru territory had to flee on 4^th November, and now they have found refuge in schools and churches in the Nyiragongo territory. 

So no school! It is all very difficult. But we don’t give up! We go and provide aid to children in terms of food, ensure protection, raise awareness against gender-based violence, and against sexual exploitation.

For the displaced children we organize emergency activities, and we try to prevent malnutrition.

At the moment I am in desperate need of donations for the feeding of these kids.

Now at the end of November the situation still has not improved. I am giving help in one out of 62 sites, and our team cannot succeed everywhere

I call on you for a fundraising campaign among the women of IAW. I urgently need to find food. We don’t even have porridge for the small children and nursing mothers. 

Thank you for your donation.”

Please help our Associate Member SOFEDEC in DR Congo and donate.

Go to “I’d like to donate to a specific project” in the right column and select “DR Congo project” (indicated by an arrow on the picture ).

Help SOFEDEC fill the cups with nourishing soup.

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A summary of the project
Background and justification of the project:
We all know that worldwide, hundreds of thousands of women die from complications during pregnancy or childbirth each year – that’s one woman dying every 90 seconds – and millions more are left with life-altering disabilities. In some countries, one in seven women dies in pregnancy or childbirth. 

These women aren’t dying because the health community doesn’t know how to prevent their deaths; they are dying because the world is failing to help when they are poor.

Saturday, March 12, 2016 was a sad day in Cameroon: a pregnant woman called Monique Koumate  was left to die on the steps of a reference hospital in Cameroon because she had no money to pay for treatment as relatives tried  in vain to deliver twins alive. It is just UNBELIEVABLE to imagine a pregnant woman and her twins abandoned to die because she couldn’t afford payment?

This a sad story which break down people all over the world as the video and images of the late pregnant woman and one of her helpless sister opening her womb when she died with a razor blade to try to rescue the babies while some hospital staff, including nurses stood by, watching the young lady and other relatives weep in agony as she carried out the ‘operation’. Both babies were removed alive but died shortly. It was too late… We lost 3 innocent lives because of poverty and carelessness.

Our organization has been working on maternal health and reproductive rights in Cameroon since 2010.  Reproductive rights, women’s empowerment and gender equality are amongst topics that guide us for priority actions of our work.

After the sad story of late Monique, we immediately had the idea of putting in place a mechanism through this project to help between July 2016-July 2017, 50 disadvantaged, vulnerable and poor pregnant women/young girls.

We also believe that pregnancy and childbirth shouldn’t be a game of chance. We would like through this innovative project bring free medical care for the first year to 50 poor pregnant women/young girls

Who can help? EVERYBODY can get involved and together, we’ll start a journey that will enable us to contribute reducing maternal mortality in Cameroon.

Methodology

• Evaluation of needs of each pregnant woman with the collaboration of local communities, health centre, civil society organizations (that’s is already done)
• Identify 50 poor/disadvantages/vulnerable/disabled pregnant women in the 10 regions of Cameroon that is 5 women per region. (that’s already done)
• Multiform Assistance to the 50 identified pregnant women until they give birth

Beneficiaries
 50 women to be saved and babies for the first year of this project… Is it enough? The answer is NO. But let’s start somewhere and look forward to save more lives when there are giving lives.

Expected amount to implement to project:
An evaluation made with the collaboration of the medical corps shows that each pregnant woman from the 3^rd month of pregnancy till she gives birth, needs around 500 euros (with an expectation of a normal surgery for any person… Just in case)
For the 50 pregnant women, we need 25 000 euros
We will raise funds gradually and help those pregnant women as we are getting the money at our disposal because we deeply know that it will not be easy to raise 25 000 euros one time. So, we will start with, 1, 2 or 3 women or more according to what we will be able to raise from now till July 2016 and will move on gradually.

Thank you very much for you support

Get in touch with us:
CEFAP-LADIES CIRCLE
PO BOX 35165
Yaounde-Cameroon
Office : +237 242 04 81 83
Mobile : +237 697 06 98 72
Email :cefap97@yahoo.fr
Website : http://cefapladiescircle.free.fr

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AIWC (All India Women’s Conference) was formed by prominent women who were deeply involved in India’s freedom struggle. With the combined efforts of these pioneering women, and their successors across the last 87 years, the organization has been able to influence lawmakers and society to enact multiple laws for the benefit of women.
The most important amongst them are:

1. Sarda Act 1929
2. Maternity benefit law 1961

The first law was for abolition of child marriage which was the biggest roadblock for a girl’s education and the second provided a congenial environment for working women.

To highlight the organizations’ deep roots I’ve highlighted a case study of AIWC’s work with rural women. This is especially important for a country like India where the majority of the population still lives in rural areas India (~69% per 2011 Census).

Village Adoption – A Case Study

In 2006 AIWC adopted a village in Haryana, a neighbouring state to the capital city – New Delhi. The village was chosen was because it had a woman as the Head of the Panchayat (A Village council traditionally of 5 elders in the village). In an effort to bring women to take up leadership roles the Government of India had allocated a certain percentage of seats for them in the Panchayat. But unfortunately though led by a woman the Panchayat was dominated by men. Additionally, caste was also a predominant issue with the upper caste discriminating against the lower caste.

AIWC set up educational classes for women in the village as most of them were illiterate and combined it with skill training. There was one class held for both castes which broke the caste barrier. Women from both the castes would have to sit together and attend classes. Combined with counselling and advocacy programs the women had a change in outlook over time and even encouraged their daughters to study.

The skill programs got gradually converted into economic activity and the marketing of produced goods was assisted by AIWC. Women were encouraged to form Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and this provided them with a common platform. The next step was a big leap for them – the SHGs took agricultural land on lease from the civic authorities for farming.  This was a significant as most of them were daily wage earners on farms. Confident of this success, at present, some members have leased the land on an individual basis.

With their new-found economic empowerment the women started getting involved in civic matters of the village. Some of the key projects they worked on are a Solar Energy project to supplement the dismal electricity supply for their village and building toilets which was seen as a social and infrastructure problem in the village. Overall, the quality of life of each household improved significantly over time. Lastly, AIWC helped by setting up computer training schools (run by villagers themselves) hence helping with job opportunities for the youth.

Over a period of 9 years this group of women have become a part of AIWC by forming a branch and a success story for AIWC and their village.

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Many young people from this area leave their surroundings, thinking they will find better conditions in the capital city. This group of workers, who we call “travailleurs au noir ” (workers on the black) or ” travailleurs de la rue 40″  (workers of 40th Street), a  well-off neighbourhood, is made up of girls and boys aged 12 to 25.  They spend their days fighting for survival and against attacks on their fundamental rights.

Rural domestic workers encounter lots of problems, one of which is  linked to reproductive health. As most of them are either not educated or have been out of school for a long time, they are exposed to all sorts of sorrows. They are victims of rapes at work, often resulting in unwanted, often unrecognized pregnancies.

Lodged in very small, ill-adapted places, they often live too many in the same room. This mingling is often the cause of unprotected sexual relationships with harmful consequences, such as early unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmissible illnesses (STI).

Girl domestic workers make their way to their place of work on foot and earn derisory wages varying from12OOO to 20000 FCFA ( about three times less than the SMIG – the legal minimum wage). Cooking, washing and washing up, they work six days out of seven from morning to night  or sleep six days out of seven at their boss’s house. Some work several months without being paid.  They can be fired without any social rights because they are recruited in an  informal manner and are  not declared.  It really is exploitation of woman by woman/man.

More shocking still is the case of the girls, who  are hired as domestic workers, get pregnant by their boss’s son,  the boss himself  or the boss’s relatives and are fired afterwards. Who will be the father of the child they will give birth to?

Those unmarried mothers, who are unable to return immediately to their village, get shelter with others in very difficult conditions, yet benefit from their solidarity.

Sometimes the situation makes them commit suicide, or illegal abortions, which may cause  sterility.

Not daring then to go back to their villages, those unmarried mothers continue to work sharing their time between the domestic  and the maternal work.

In spite of the calls made by associations, trade unions and a few local newspapers together with the awareness raising campaigns in favour of the ratification of convention 189, this situation is perpetuated and things are becoming worse and worse.

Girls are leaving their villages in the hope of having better life conditions and of returning home with some wealth, but unfortunately it is  the other way round for many of them.

Here is the problem:  how can we  put an end to this domestic work dilemma of rural girls coming from the provinces  and specially  from the provinces of the South of Tchad.

Here  is a real problem of violation of rights which affects everybody, especially when we think of the children born in such conditions and whose fathers fail  to acknowledge  their obligations.

Two questions can be raised:

How can we help these rural girl domestic workers, victims of such violence, get out of their situation?

How can we keep rural girls in their surroundings, instead of seeing them expose themselves in the town of  N’Djamena?

The association of “Femmes Juristes du Tchad”,   which is dedicated to the protection of women and girls and is involved in many awareness raising programmes on violence against women, wants to reflect on this question and would like the International Alliance of Women to integrate this subject in  their programme and help them establish  a project, which they would like to present on the subject

This text briefly describes the situation suffered by these people.  This subject will be the object of a serious debate in due time.

Rakia KABA DIAKITE (21 October 2015)
TCHAD

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Poverty has affected the lives of millions but the most suffering section of society is the women and children. Because of constraints and discrimination, women have to bear the maximum brunt of poverty.  They cannot afford basic needs like food, clothes, house, education and health-care. Even whatever they can afford is of poor quality. Poverty for them is insecurity, powerlessness and susceptibility to violence and often living without access to clean water and sanitation.

Governments of countries are trying to prove that they are more concerned in framing the women friendly policies and programs to improve their quality of life while the prevailing status of women presents a grim picture. Sources reveal that there has not been any change in their quality of life as is quite evident from their unequal and poor status in the society.
Gender economist, E. Boserup explains that women were not always in disadvantageous position. How they reached the position inferior to that of men has been a long process. During the different stages of economic development, their status deteriorated.
Economic development may have resulted in economic growth but has not resulted in human development, especially since half of the population i. e women seem to have been bypassed in this process. Thus, being poor means that they are resource less, unhealthy, exploited and more vulnerable to sexual harassment.

According to the 2014 edition of the world bank    report, the global target for reducing poverty by half was achieved five years ahead of schedule and the number of poor people – those living on less than $1.25 a day — had halved to 18 percent in 2010 from 36 percent of the population in 1990. Even if the current rate of the progress is to be maintained, around 1 billion people will still live in extreme poverty by 2015.In some developing countries, we continue to see a wide gap between the rich and the poor and between those who can and who cannot access opportunities .Other challenges such as inequality, non effective governance, economic shocks, food insecurity and climate change threaten to undermine the progress made.

According to United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal programme ,270 million or 21.9% people out of 1.2 billion of Indians lived below poverty line of $1.25 in 2011-2012.   According to Tendulkar Poverty Line ,during  the year 2011-12, India had 270 million persons below poverty line as compared to 407 million in 2004-05.These figures indicate that  there is a reduction of 137 million persons over the seven year period.

As per the UNDP report 2014, India ranks 135 in Human Development Index. The number of poor is now estimated at 250 million, of which 200 million reside in rural India. The report states that none of the BRICS countries have made place in the high human development category and India remains at the bottom with lowest HDI value among them. “India is the lowest performing country among the BRICS nations in all categories of the HDI with the exception of life expectancy, which is lower in South Africa as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” the report says. “Everyone should have the right to education, health care and other basic services. Putting this principle of universalism into practice will require dedicated attention and resources, particularly for the poor and other vulnerable groups,” says the report. “Strong universal social protection not only improves individual resilience, it can also bolster the resilience of the economy as a whole. The Human Development Report lays great stress on global agreements and pacts and how these can   contribute to build a universal system. National initiatives for universal provision of services are more easily enacted when global commitments are in place and global support is available. Global agreements are essential because they can instigate action and commitment and generate financial and other support.

CHALLENGES FACED–

There are several challenges facing India today vis via women’s economic development but some of the big red flags are-
Inadequate economic opportunities is one of the biggest causes of female poverty which is one of the big challenges to the progress of women. In India poverty is multi dimensional social problem.  Causes of poverty are many like-unemployment and underemployment, lack of property rights, dependence on agriculture, high population growth rate, caste system, corruption and above all holding of financial resources in the hands of males. Most of the women are not direct earners. They do not have a direct standing in the credit market, either formal or informal, as they do not own any assets in their name. There were no property rights in family property till 2005. The custom of dowry as a substitute to inheritance gave them the role of 2^nd class members of the family and society. There is no budget for spending on their education. Lack of skills, heavy physical work of different types, long hours of work with limited payment, lack of guarantee of minimum wages, lack of job security and social security, lack of minimum facilities at the work place, lack of income after retirement are some of the factors of the informal sector which contribute to women’s weakness. Also female-headed households are likely to suffer more than male-headed households as they have less access to government development programs, welfare schemes, resources and communal assets. 

Male migration from rural to urban areas is also a big problem. Men migrate to other cities leaving behind women and children, making them further vulnerable since they solely depend on men economically.
Providing the inhabitants  with need based skill training at local level, equipping them with the latest techniques, helping them to access the marketing links, setting up of  small enterprises ,will help to stop migration of the labour force in search of jobs. It will create an infrastructure within the community that will be conducive to women’s economic empowerment. In a country like India, where the gender divide and the inequality between men and women is so wide, providing the skills and the opportunity for women at local level to be economically self sufficient is a must for social and political empowerment.  Even though there is a vast development in agriculture technology, it is yet to reach all the villages.
Women entrepreneurship program, access to credit and ensuring their participation in value chains is critical. Provision to centers of higher learning, vocational and skill based training, technical education will help in increasing economic participation and also reduce occupational segregation.

Lack of infrastructure in rural areas increases women’s contribution to unpaid housework. Even today women spend up to six hours, just to fetch drinking water from the ponds, rivers etc. In making the development process inclusive, the challenge is to formulate policies and programs to bridge regional, social and economic disparities in an effective and sustainable manner.

Although the Government’s schemes and programs are quite promising, yet concerted efforts are required to ensure inclusion and empowerment of women in all the schemes and policies formulated so far. The schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), Self Help Groups and many others have opened employment opportunities to women but with low remuneration, minimal benefits and uncertain contracts. The recent announced 2015 budget cuts in the health, education and social sector spending are a further detriment to the development and empowerment of women especially in the rural areas.

In addtion challenges in the form of traditional and cultural practices, socio-economic conditions remain and lack of awareness, inadequate implementation of various policy measures and mechanism  continue.

 Bottom up programs and legislations have further hampered the possibilities of grassroots women’s needs being addressed by development interventions. Any development program that ignores the life chances of half the population cannot address the problems of poverty and crisis of sustainability. 

Inadequate social security net system has not proven effective. At present, whatever the pension amount is given by the government is too little even to survive and it covers only a very small segment of women from  the lowest income group. The rate of pension varies from state to state.

As per UNDP Report 2014   “Universal access is vital to protect people from vulnerability”. I think this is the area where we can work together and put our views strongly for universal access, keeping in mind our national interests and initiatives. Our efforts to create a better society should be based on promoting peace through participatory good governance ,creating  accountability and grievance mechanisms at local, national and international levels.

AIWC’s Initiatives-

Education and empowerment of women have been at the core of All India Women’s Conference’s agenda since its inception in 1927.  AIWC has been striving incessantly to promote literacy and skill training to empower women, for the last 86 years, through our wide network of 500 branches spread all over the country.  Over 1.5 lakh voluntary members work with selfless dedication for the cause of women in various fields.  AIWC’s programs in education, health and eradication of poverty are aimed at helping 50% of our population i.e. women. Empowerment of women is an essential ingredient in protecting women’s right and has to be looked at from a holistic perspective. Proper education, economic self sufficiency, self confidence and courage are needed on the part of the women with a matching response from men based on mutual respect.  HE for SHE , A UN program, where men are a support system to their women, and gender equality becomes a primary goal in all areas of social and economic development.

AIWC has initiated programs like socio-economic, skill centered literacy, health awareness, legal awareness, environment friendly income generating activities, leadership training programs particularly for women Panchayat members, adoption of villages ,rural/urban community resource centres which have brought quite encouraging results. To quote a few—our  projects on solar drying of food products for income generation, sanitary napkin making unit , spice grinding units, dairy farming, provisional stores, medicinal herbs units  etc have been very successful and given economic independence to women in their local area. The results are visible as the living standard has improved and women have emerged as empowered women who are making decisions for their lives. Around 50,000 women and girls have benefited from these programs. Since 1995,we have introduced new ventures like renewable energy, environment friendly alternate vocations for women bidi  workers(rolling of tobacco leaves),Herbal gardening for  women as income generation activity etc. 

The following suggestions would go a long way in bringing women out of the morass of poverty:

1. GIVING WOMEN EQUAL ACCESS TO LAND AND OTHER ASSETS

Due to son preference culture and second class family member status of women throughout world, they do not enjoy entitlement rights of land and other family property .They are always treated as a liability by their parents. Therefore, it becomes mandatory to change the traditional tactics of making women landless and resource less individuals by giving them equal access to assets and resources at par with men so that they can gain control over family as well as community resources, increase their bargaining power and enjoy equal say in decision making.

2.     MAKING VISIBLE THE CARE ECONOMY

It is imperative to measure the output from the Care economy  in terms of time  and in terms of money so that women’s work will gain economic recognition and monetary edge by including it in national accounting system. Although, some recent legislations have supported this view that women’s household work as well as child care should be measured in monetary terms and husbands should be asked to pay for their wives services but yet it also waits for enforcement.

3. INVOLVING women in economic decision making

Economic policy making is the domain of politicians who usually happen to be mostly men. At various decision-making levels, gender imbalances can be distinguished in communities even at the earliest stage of development. Women are underrepresented in decision making in govt., business sector especially at senior levels. The irony is that women are not even involved in decisions related to their life like consent at the time of the marriage, and the decision regarding reproductive matters like how many children she should have or how to go for family planning practices? . Therefore, the demand of time is that women being the implementers of the decisions of men need to be involved in framing policies and plans of the society so that they can  be able to address their issues in a much better way.

4. CHANGING GENDER BASED DIVISION OF LABOUR

A universal trend of dividing the household work according to gender has been acting as the main obstacle in the way of women’s suppression and economic backwardness. All the household drudgery from cooking to crop cultivation, harvesting and rare and care of pet animals in homes is performed by women in Indian society as a whole. Women remain busy with performing household tasks and in addition to this perform the most sacred job of motherhood which leaves no scope for her to work in any productive activity. On the other hand, men have kept themselves away from domestic obligations and care of children which are full time jobs at home and they only participate in economic activities which get in cash income (revenue) and thus enjoy command in household as well as community affairs.  Therefore, this uneven and unequal gender based division of labour needs to be changed and men also have to come forward and share the the burden of domestic duties so that women can participate in economic activities.

5. ACCESS TO CREDIT AND FINANCE

Women face a major constraint in availing the facility of credit. Establishing their small scale enterprises to earn their own livelihood and to become self reliant turns into an unfulfilled dream due to lack of financial availability. They can’t avail loans from banks unlike their male counterparts because they don’t have assets and other property in their name that could be kept as mortgage with the bank. Therefore, it is the utmost responsibility of the government and other financial institutions to come to their rescue and facilitate women by providing them easy access to credit facilities and grant subsidies to encourage them to come forward.

6. GENDER BASE DISTORTIONS

There is discrimination against women workers in the  labour market whereby women performing the same work as their male counterparts are paid less. The minimum wages ACT 1948 is not enforced due to lack of knowledge and information. Thus, gender based price distortions lead to false economics. Economic policy makers aiming to improve overall economic efficiency need to count and measure women’s work equally with men’s so that their contribution does not remain hidden and   invisible. Policy makers should focus and work for creating job opportunities for women and only then their problems of   economic dependence, poverty and resource lesness can be addressed properly in a broader perspective.

7. GENDER BASED INSTITUTIONAL BIASES

Women’s work days are longer than men’s in general. Men monopolize the use of new technology and women have to work with traditional labour intensive techniques. Thus, change from traditional to modern methods of production in any sector tends to enhance men’s prestige at the expense of women’s by widening the gap in their levels of knowledge and training. Thus ,need of the hour is to make these institutions bias free so that women can enter the fields so far denied to them for lack of training and exposure.

8.GENDER BUDGETING

Gender budgeting will help govt and civil society to assess the extent to which gender issues are being addressed through budgetary allocations and expenditures so that women may not be only the beneficiaries of benefits of development but equal participants in the process of development.

9.  GENDER STUDIES

Gender Studies need to be promoted in academic curriculum from the initial stages of schooling so that both boys as well as girls will develop sympathy and respect for each other. There is a need to change the male psyche and sensitize men to understand the role and relevance of their opposite gender in their lives. Gender education will help in promoting gender equality and empowerment of women.

10.POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

Women need to be invited in the political domain of societies world over by giving them not only one third representation but fifty percent of their share as per the proportion of population. It is an admitted fact that unless women make their entry into top decision making bodies of the nation, they can’t reshape their destiny.

While cultural, economic and educational inequality in different states make matters more complicated change cannot be escaped, and there can be no standing still. The people of the developing countries must be given opportunity to develop and improve their way of life and make it imperative that all forms of oppression and exploitation should be systematically controlled and ended. It is without doubt in the interests of world harmony and peace that this should be so. How different would our nation be if the ruling party added the concept of economic exploitation of women and girls in their manifesto? The progress of civilization depends on the continuous search for truth and knowledge and that the remedy lies in more liberties, not their suppression, that equal opportunity available to all and all form of gender discrimination ended.

11. STRONG SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM

Provision of a robust social security system for women and girls is the need of the hour. Social services – which include universal access to health care and education, full employment and social protection are required for sustainable and resilient human development. Also there has to be a strong social security system especially for women from private and unorganized sector to provide them economic and health security after a certain age in private and unorganized sector.

I  conclude with a quote of Mahatama Gandhi “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.” If we limit our greed and share more with the underpriviledged, we can definitely contribute for creating a harmonious society.

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