“Women’s rights are
human rights” – a basic demand for all women recognised by the Secretary General
of the United Nations, Ban Ki- moon.

"So what does this mean in practise? It means that all
women have the right to live a life free from violence. Whilst this is what
everyone might aspire to, how do we as Soroptimists, make it a reality? The only realistic way is through
education. Women, need to know their rights and the protections available to them. When empowered with that knowledge women can assert those rights in the face of a world filled with increasing violence against women. This is not only about
domestic violence but  violence inspired by social traditions, such as forced marriage,
female genital mutilation, condemning widows to poverty, the trafficking of women and girls and everyday verbal abuse.

"Education is absolutely
key to eradicating violence committed against women and girls. Knowing where to go for help; knowing the law that protects
your land rights; knowing that something is simply WRONG and then how to deal
with it. Knowledge is power, protection and defense. Unless women have this knowledge they will always have the potential
to become victims.

It is important to not only educate women and girls, but also to educate men and boys. It is vital that men and boys understand what it means to commit violence against women, and the role that they can play in creating a world free from violence. Education is the way to help to change social practices, systematic gender inequalities, and
the only way to ensure that women’s rights truly are human rights." SI Programme Director Hilary Ratcliffe,  

 

Video: Netty Musanhu,

The Director of women’s rights organization Musasa

#Musasa is an organization in Zimbabwe that tackles gender-based violence. It sits on Zimbabwe’s Anti-Domestic Violence Council, set up under the Domestic Violence Act, which advises government bodies on how to implement laws to protect women effectively. It also works directly with women survivors of sexual violence by providing temporary shelter and counselling, and operates a 24-hour hotline for women. Source Womankind Worldwide. 

Video: UN Women Executive Director talks to Vietnamese School Children about Gender Violence

#

“Voices against Violence” is a co-educational curriculum developed by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and UN Women, with inputs from young people. Designed for various age groups ranging from 5 to 25 years, it provides young people with tools and expertise to understand the root causes of violence in their communities, to educate and involve their peers and communities to prevent such violence, and to learn about where to access support if violence is experienced.   

NGO Forum on Beijing+20, Geneva 

During the NGO Forum on Beijing+20 in Geneva, Soroptimists
were given the opportunity to provide a grassroots perspective on the 12
Critical Areas of Concern of the Beijing Platform for Action. An area of
significant concern for Soroptimists is the education and training of women.

SI UN Representatives Wilfrida Hendrickx and Sabine Kinzer,
co-convened the interactive roundtable on ‘the Education and Training of Women’
with representatives of Soka Gakkai International. The Soroptimist delegation
turned out in force to support Sabine and Wilfrida, and to give their
contributions.

 

Photo: The Soroptimist International Delegation at the NGO Forum on
Beijing+20 in Geneva, led by International President Ann Garvie (front,
second from right). Read the full story here.

Project Focus

SI Grenada, Caribbean Network, Raising Awareness of
Gender-Based Violence among Young Females and Male in a rural community in
Grenada

In the fight towards the reduction of gender-based violence
in Grenada, Soroptmist International club of Grenada during the period
2012-2013 collaborated with the Grenada National Organisation of Women (GNOW)
co-implementing partners with the Ministry of social Development (MOSD) to roll
out a project entitled – ‘State Response to End Violence Against Women:
Legislative and Policy Reform Implementation Programme,’ funded by United
Nation Thrust Fund to end violence against women.

The rationale for SI Grenada collaborating on this project
with GNOW/MOSD is rooted in the struggle to decrease the high incidences of GBV
on this tiny island in the Caribbean. Grenada’s population at last census
(2011) was recorded at 103,000, gender-based violence statistic recorded at the
Central Statistical Office indicated that 2010 – 2013 reported domestic
violence cases were 336, 364 and 462 respectively, thus globally maintaining
the highest incidences of GBV in the world. Additionally, the project site in
the parish of St. David was chosen because of this parish recording the highest
incidences of gender-based violence in Grenada, approximately ten (10) reported
cases per week (2012-2013). Further the 15 – 24 years group according to the
Office experiences the highest rates of domestic violence in Grenada accounting
for almost 25% of all cases in 2010 (Central Statistical Office of Grenada 2010
Report).

In Grenada, half of both boys and girls had experience sex
by the age of 15 years although the legal age of sexual consent is 16 years.
Sexual coercion begins at an early age for Caribbean children, a report from
the World Health Organization indicated in 2002, that in several Caribbean
countries, the first sexual experience of young girls is often forced; studies
have shown that this was the case for 42.8% of girls below age 12. Thus early
exposure and negative experience set the stage for repeated patterns of
violence and abuse, powerlessness and dependency in too many cases. It can be
argued therefore that this situation increases the vulnerabilities of the
cohort to more transactional sex, sex work, substance abuse, homelessness,
multi-partners and as a result, HIV.

The VictimSpeak Out exhibition attempted to bring to the
foreground the atrocities of GBV in Grenada of both adults and children in
pictorial graphic displays. SI Grenada through its affiliation with other
service clubs such as the Girl Guides Association, grassroots organisations
such as Uprising and one of the state run local primary schools, was able to
organize for these groups to visit the exhibition in the rural village of
Vincennes in the parish of St. David the project site. Over the period 2012 –
July 2013, one hundred and twenty (120) children between the ages of 5 years –
16 years visited the exhibition. Of that number 75% of the participants were
girls between the ages of 5- 16 and 25% were boys in the same age group. The
exhibition also had informational educational sessions which used age
appropriate informational education communication (IEC) materials to impart
knowledge about gender-based violence in particular sexual violence. These
included the “Protective Behaviour” series titled – “We all have the right to
feel safe all of the time”, and books about sexual abuse “Please Tell – A
child’s story about sexual abuse”, “Something Terrible Happened to Me” and
“Some Parts are not for Sharing.” The sessions attended by the children and
teenagers concluded with the Blue Teddy Campaign: an advocacy and communication
initiative to protect children against sexual abuse/incest and HIV.

The campaign was first successfully launched in Trinidad and
Tobago in 2010, by the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the
University of West Indies, with support from UNICEF, as part of a wider child
protection initiative—Breaking the Silence: a multi-sectoral approach to
prevent and respond to child sexual abuse and incest. This awareness campaign
included teaching the children of reporting mechanism, the various entities assigned
to handle these types of incidences; these included the police, intuitions such
as MOSD and GNOW, Child Protection Authority (CPA) among others.

The intervention over the eight month period undertaken by
SI Grenada, addressed gender-based violence from a youth perspective and
undergirded the bottom-up approach of the club towards changing behaviour and
attitudes contributing to gender-based violence in Grenada. It was also
intended to bring to the forefront the pervasiveness of GBV in Grenada, equip
this vulnerable population with knowledge of how to recognized GBV, to break
the silence, and to be aware of the appropriate services that are available.
Although the emphasis was on empowering, enabling and educating the 5 year olds,
pre-teens and teenage girls, and whilst violence against women will affect one
in three women globally in their lifetime (World Health Organization, 2011),
boys were included in the discourse, because boys are acculturated to exercise
power over others, and one of the ways this shows itself is through sexual
violence. Therefore, while interventions to help girls are very important, work
must also be done to help males.

In terms of beneficiaries 120 children visited the
exhibition from these numbers of household this means therefore that more than
500 persons would have been impacted by this intervention. Outcomes from these
activities achieved its strategic objectives of awareness on the culture of
domestic violence and developed capacities on rights to access to protection
from actions by perpetrators; that violence against women and girls is a human
rights violation, a principle that is enshrined in the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and other
international and regional human rights instruments, which Grenada has signed
on to and ratified more that 22 years ago.

SI Grenada looks however, to broaden this intervention
paradigm to other communities throughout Grenada, continuing the partnership
with like-minded state and non-state actors in the eradication of the
pervasiveness of GBV in Grenada. This is being worked on and is included in the
workplan for 2014-2015 going forward. Knowledge sharing on the issue of GBV was
the principal input in this intervention strategy; however, funds will be
raised to continue the programme as collaboration with GNOW/MOSD will cease
after the final rollout of activities by the end of 2014.

 

Video: Live Your Dream 

Live your Dream is an online volunteer
network; a self-motivated community of people looking to support women and
girls in their quest to lead better lives. This initiative is sponsored by Soroptimist International of the Americas and looks to improve the lives of women and girls
through programs leading to social and economic empowerment.

As
a ‘Dreamer’, supporters choose their cause and
course of action based on how much time they have. SIA gives them the tools
online to take action offline in their own community. It’s free and there is no
commitment required.  Supporters can do what they want, when they want;
whether it’s hosting their own awareness campaign or working one-on-one with a
woman in need.

Live Your Dream.org offers several ways to help women and girls. Options include helping a woman who is trying to go back to school, passing out teen dating violence or sex trafficking information or learning more about issues facing women and girls, and then advocating to improve conditions. It might be as simple as joining a discussion on the Facebook page.  Involvement depends on where your passions lie, and how our opportunities fit your schedule.

The project choices offered through Live Your Dream.org are Soroptimist programs:The Live Your Dream Awards (formerly the Soroptimist Women’s Opportunity Awards program) looks to assist women who provide the primary source of financial support for their families by giving them the resources they need to improve their education, skills and employment prospects. The Teen Dating Violence Awareness Project  raises awareness about teenage dating violence and provides resources to teens and their families to prevent or end this violence.The Workplace Campaign to End Domestic Violence is an ongoing effort to raise awareness about domestic violence as a workplace concern and Stop Trafficking looks at the subject of human trafficking and sex slavery. Click here for further information.

SI Pune Metro East,One Billion Rising – Gender Sensitization

Following the Delhi rape Dec 2012, in a friendship link with SI
York Ebor, working in partnership with Dastur School in Pune, it seemed pertinent to sensitize younger
members of the community to gender issues, – biological and those culturally
imposed in society. In an ongoing project, to allow a young audience to understand types of violence,
sexual discrimination and the power play of genders.

 

SI PME members, devised
three presentations:

1. Stay safe – teaching young children to understand good
touch, bad touch and how to keep them selves safe.

2. Adolescence and growing up – for children of the age group
of 8 to 14 . To show through a presentation covering the changes that happen to boys and
girls and know that is is natural, and how to handle emotional and psychological
changes.

3. Gender sensitization and sexuality – for older children,
who are prone to accepting societal stereotypes of sex and gender. Children were
asked to question these sterotypes and understand the inequality played out.

 

SI PME hoped to see some sensitivity and understanding of why the crimes
against women happen. To urge an attitudinal change that would make the society
a safer place for everyone. Besides, culturally, gender and sex issues are not
discussed by parents and school authorities. For the first time perhaps gender,
bodily changes and sexuality would be discussed with school children. SI PME stressed on the fact
that talking of these issues is perfectly normal and acceptable and addressed students in 6
classes from grades 5 to 7.

 

This ongoing project  will continue as and when the schools allow. SI PME conducted these programmes in
HIndi, English as well as Marathi and hope to reach more young students and
have better facilities to show video films related to the topic.

 

 "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has" Margaret Mead, American anthropologist