Women and Children
Last updated January 6th 2019
And now that the election in the UK is over we need to keep in mind some of the detail that has been aired and promises must now be kept. Things are getting worse.
Jimmy Carter Says the World's Biggest Problem Is Its Treatment of Women and Girls
It’s not the first time the 93-year-old has spoken out against gender inequality.
Former president Jimmy Carter has changed his mind about the world’s greatest problem, he told graduates during his commencement speech at Liberty University on Saturday. More here
Calls for help with education costs to SVP increase for the third year in a row
- Analysis of calls to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVP) this summer show a 4% increase in requests for help from families struggling with the cost of education.
- Last week, SVP took approximately 250 to 300 calls per day from worried parents.
SDGs And Child Marriage
- ON: AUGUST 19, 2019
- IN: CHILD SLAVERY, FORCED AND SERVILE MARRIAGES, HUMAN RIGHTS, INTERNATIONAL, NEWS
- BY: ACRATH (We have signed up to (ACRATH)
Child Marriage is a global problem with 21% of young women being married before they are 18 years old (UNICEF). Unless this practice is ended 8 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will not be realised. More here
Making Children Smile a wonderful uplifting video here showing how performers are making an uplifting difference in Refugee Camps
'I was bought for 50,000 rupees': India's trafficked brides – in pictures Here
“Investing in a just society” - Pre Budget Submission 2020
In June the Society of St Vincent de Paul launched its Pre Budget Submission 2020, with the theme of “Investing in a just society”. SVP is emphasizing the need to make the fight against poverty a priority in Budget 2020, highlighting the need to invest in public services and income supports over tax cuts to move us in the right direction. 25,000 children were lifted out of consistent poverty between 2016 and 2017, largely due to improvements in income supports and falling unemployment, demonstrating that with the right policy decisions, progress can be made. However, more needs to be done. Read latest blog:https://www.svp.ie/investpbs
This amazing village in India plants 111 trees every time a girl is born
A tradition that celebrates girls and benefits the community and planet. More here
August
The SDGs will not be achieved unless we address the gender divide by eliminating the conditions that facilitate such lasting and persistent inequality.
While women’s rights are under attack around the globe, world leaders are meeting in Biarritz, France in what could be a game-changing summit for women and girls in the poorest countries and worldwide.
That's why we're delivering a giant postcard to the EU leaders attending, asking them to make real progress and turn the tide on gender inequality. Add your name now! Add your Name Here
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Commit $170 Million to Empower Women
If women could fully and equally participate in the economy, global GDP could increase by 26%.
Something’s gotta give.
“We’ll never reach our goals if we don’t also address the systematic way that women and girls are undervalued,” Melinda Gates said in op-ed for Quartz published on Monday.
That’s why the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged to invest $170 million to advance women’s economic empowerment over the next four years. More here
The Unimaginable Reality of American Concentration Camps:
From the New Yorker June 25th
Like many arguments, the fight over the term “concentration camp” is mostly an argument about something entirely different. It is not about terminology. Almost refreshingly, it is not an argument about facts. This argument is about imagination, and it may be a deeper, more important conversation than it seems. More here
Citizens' Assembly set to examine gender equality
The Government is to establish a new Citizens' Assembly to examine and make recommendations on the issue of gender equality, the Taoiseach has said. More here
June 17th 2019
Case study: Ensuring access to justice for women and girls with disabilities in Zimbabwe
‘They don’t treat us like other people, [… but] I know that I am like any other child’– Ashley Ncube,* aged 16, who is deaf
Ashley Ncube, who is a survivor of violence, already faced challenges and discrimination as a deaf young woman growing up in Zimbabwe. There are no schools for deaf children in the rural community where she comes from, so she stays with family in town to attend a school with classes for deaf students. “Girls and women with disabilities are not involved in many community activities. Deaf children play alone, people also don’t like us. […] Most of the people in my community don’t know sign language so it’s hard for me to communicate with other people,” said Ashley about her experience in the community. More here
June 4th
The most dangerous place for a woman is... the home. 87,000 women were killed around the world in 2017 — more than half died at the hands of intimate partners or family members.
Stand up to violence against women and girls today and every day. #HearMeToo
Girls in Bangladesh learn to talk their way out of forced marriage
A project in Bangladesh’s Narsingdi district is one of several making inroads on women’s rights, despite a wider conservative backlash that has proved deadly More here
Ruhama, Ireland's only dedicated non-governmental organisation supporting women affected by prostitution and sex trafficking, has said it provided support to 313 women last year.
Launching its 2018 annual report on Tuesday, it said it assisted women of 40 nationalities - including 122 victims of trafficking from 29 countries. More here
May 14th
'There is nowhere for them to go' - Domestic violence refuges having to turn away more woman and kids than they're accommodating
More than half (52pc) of women and children who turn to women’s refuges to give them safe haven from a violent partner are being told they are full, she told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs this afternoon. More here
March 30th
The Turn off the Red Light group
.........told politicians that, more importantly, the strategy would prevent the targeting, grooming and coercion of young girls and children to meet the demands of pimps and buyers. It points out that one in 12 men in Ireland buy sex and the average buyer of sex is male, well-educated, with a middle to high income and in a relationship at the time. More here
Index Below Click any link to be brought to that section of this page. All 10 days of the CSW63 are reported on here. There is something for everyone. Equally you can just keep scrolling down to read all.
Each day there will be some round up of those presenting, speaking or attending at the CSW63, in text, video, photo and infographic from March 11 - 22
Overheard at CSW, UN’s largest annual gathering on women’s rights
Date: Friday, March 22, 2019
More than 5,200 women and men representing civil society, along with at least 1,850 delegates from governments attended this year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the UN’s largest gathering on women’s rights issues. This is the UN roundup of the events of the CSW63 in the UN in the voices of those who attended. Read more
Day 10 at the CSW63 March 22st
Scroll down for a short report on each of the days of the CSW63 and for Sr. Elsa's week 1 report.
UN Commission on the Status of Women delivers road-map on ensuring women’s social protection, mobility, safety, and access to economic opportunities
Reaffirms access to social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure for women and girls as key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
[New York, 22 March]—After two weeks of intense dialogue, the 63rd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) concluded today in New York with a strong commitment by UN Member States to safeguard and improve women’s and girls’ access to social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure, ensuring that their design and delivery is transformed to prevent discrimination and create a ‘level playing field’ for women and girls.
The Executive Director of UN Women, which serves as the CSW Secretariat, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said: “This annual gathering has never been bigger nor more significant for the women and girls of the world. The Commission’s recommendations pave the way for governments to engage and invest differently; involving women in policy dialogue, and targeting initiatives that go to the heart of the largest barriers to the empowerment and voice of women and girls.”
The outcome of the two-week meeting, known as the Agreed Conclusions, adopted by Member States, puts forth concrete measures to bolster the voice, agency and leadership of women and girls as beneficiaries and users of social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure.
Key recommendations from the Agreed Conclusions include the following:
- Invest in social protection, public services and sustainable infrastructure to support the productivity of women’s work, including in the informal economy;
- Ensure that progress in women’s access to social protection, public services and sustainable infrastructure is not undermined by budget cuts and austerity measures, and levels of protection previously achieved are not reversed;
- Build on multilateral commitments to gender equality, including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), to strengthen access to social protection, public services and infrastructure for all women and girls;
- Recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care and domestic work by ensuring access to social protection for unpaid caregivers of all ages, including coverage for health care and pensions;
- Scale up investment in quality public care services that are affordable and gender-responsive;
- Identify and remove barriers to women’s and girls’ access to public services, such as physical distance, lack of information and decision-making power, stigma and discrimination;
- Guarantee the availability of safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation, including for menstrual hygiene, in homes, schools, refugee camps and other public places;
- Ensure that transport policies and planning are sustainable, accessible, affordable, safe and gender-responsive, taking into account the different needs of women and men, and adapted to be used by persons with disabilities and older persons;
- Promote the full and equal participation and leadership of women and women’s organizations in policy dialogues and decision-making relating to social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure;
- Strongly condemn the impunity and lack of accountability rooted in historical and structural inequality that accompanies pervasive violence against women.
Universal access to an old-age pension, quality health-care services and safe and affordable public transport can enhance women’s income security and independence, shape whether a small entrepreneur will get her products to market on time, and at what cost; or whether an adolescent girl can get safely to her school and has access to a toilet. This can determine whether girls go to school at all, what markets a woman farmer can access, and how much time she has left in a day to pursue other paid work or leisure.
As the single largest forum on gender equality and women’s rights for UN Member States, civil society organizations and other international actors, this year’s CSW saw a record number of attendances. Participants included more than 5,000 representatives from civil society organizations around the world, nearly 2,000 Member State delegates and 86 ministers.
Social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure are integral to achieving the implementation of the landmark 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders.
The Agreed Conclusions will be made available shortly at http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw63-2019
Day 9 at the CSW63 March 21st
At a PinoyWise training in Sinagpore, women migrant domestic workers learn family and income management strategies, discuss reintegration and planning and investment in business and entrepreneurship. Photo: UN Women/Staton Winter
Migrant workers lacking work benefits learn how to save in the Philippines
Estrella Mai Dizon-Anonuevo was heart-broken the first time a migrant woman domestic worker shared her story. The woman described returning to the Philippines with no savings, and an emotional distance coming between herself and her children and husband who had stayed behind as she had worked abroad for years, taking care of other people’s households.
“It breaks your heart, for a mother to spend the best years of her life out of the country, away from her family and then realizing that after 20 years of sacrifice, you made the wrong decision,” says Dizon-Anonuevo, Executive Director of Atikha Overseas Workers and Communities Initiative, a grantee of UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality. “If we don't help them make productive use of the remittances, [most of them] will come home with regrets.”
Every year, about 172,000 Filipino women leave the country as migrant workers, seeking higher income to provide for their families. Research has shown that women migrant workers are more likely than men to send money home to families, possibly as an extension of women’s traditional caregiving role in the household.
One of the main challenges that Atikha discovered when researching the experience of migrant domestic workers was the lack of savings. Women migrant workers find themselves sending more and more money to their families, leaving them with barely anything to save for their future. Since these workers rarely have access to social protection schemes such as pension, benefits and health insurance, without some savings and financial planning, after years—even decades—of hard work, they return home to bleak and insecure futures.
To fill this social protection gap, Atikha created PinoyWise, a financial education programme to work with women migrant domestic workers and their families to teach them goal setting, budgeting and saving strategies. By working with both migrant women and their families, Atikha is increasing the likelihood that families will reach their financial goals.
“We thought goal setting would be very easy, 30 minutes and we’d be done. But it is not that easy for the women,” says Dizon-Anonuevo. “For some it’s a wake-up call. They realize they’ve been working with no goal for years, they don’t know what to write [aim for].”
Once they have decided on their goal, whether it is sending children to school, or money to start a business upon their return, Atikha works with all members of the family so that they too recognize their role in budgeting and reaching the goals.
“At first it was difficult to discuss financial matters with my husband…It hurts his ego to discuss money matters,” says Mary Ann Pascual, a 35-year-old migrant domestic worker who has spent eight years working in Singapore.
After working in Singapore for four years, Pascual visited her family in Iloilo Province, Philippines, and was shocked to find her husband hadn’t saved any money from the remittance she had sent. He told her he needed it all to buy food. After that visit, Pascual met a PinoyWISE leader and was invited to attend trainings.
At a PinoyWise training in Sinagpore, women migrant domestic workers learn family and income management strategies, discuss reintegration and planning and investment in business and entrepreneurship. Photo: UN Women/Staton Winter
“What I learned from the training is how to value the money that I earned and how to teach the family to learn how to save,” says Pascual. “I learned in the training that we should involve our family and share our real situation and communicate our feelings so that they appreciate the hard work and value the money that we send to them.”
Since her training, Pascual and her family have saved enough to invest in a convenience store and a three-wheeler cycle [a common mode of transportation], which will help increase her family’s income even more. Pascual is planning to return to the Philippines for good in 2019.
Pascual, like many Filipino migrant domestic workers, has long hours and very few days off, which makes it hard to attend training sessions. To reach more women like Pascual, Atikha created PinoyWise iTV, a web TV series. In weekly episodes members of the PinoyWise community and experts discuss the challenges and opportunities of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong and Singapore. The 30-minute livestreams share the most up-to-date information and best practices for saving, investing and entrepreneurship, and also touch on other critical issues for migrant women, such as family bonding. Migrant workers can tune in to the online shows from any location, which saves them time and has increased their attendance rates.
“It is critical to recognize the specific vulnerabilities to which women migrant domestic workers are exposed and the need to provide them with better social protection schemes,” says Nancy Khweiss, Manager of UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality. “What makes Atikha’s initiative so powerful is that not only women are empowered to protect themselves against poverty in the old age, but their family members are also engaged in that process, creating an enabling environment for their successful reintegration.”
Through its various training sessions, PinoyWise has reached nearly 7,000 people to date. Of the migrant domestic workers reached, 345 have already initiated successful saving schemes, and 50 have set up or expanded businesses in rice production, convenience stores, internet cafés and cattle farming.
Day 8 at the CSW63 March 20th 2019
Good social protection policy and well-planned infrastructure can be equalisers for women. However, the fact that 740 million women are working with little or no social protection and access to public services, tells us that there is still a giant gap in the way that the women of the world are supported. This needs investment and policy change that deliberately supplies what is currently missing for women.
This year the CSW63 focuses on issues at the heart of what matters in the daily lives of women and girls. By setting new global standards to achieve gender equality, we are working to empower all women and girls to realise their full potential. "We want an ambitious agreement on social protection, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure,” said Geraldine Byrne Nason, Chair of the Bureau for the 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, and Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ireland to the UN. “In focusing on core challenges like affordable childcare, healthcare, education, maternity protection, pensions and safe transport, the CSW can have a transformative impact on the realities faced by women and girls around the world.... more here
US officials in New York are attempting to water down language and remove the word “gender” from documents being negotiated at the UN, in what is being seen as a threat to international agreements on women’s rights. More here
A safe city for women and girls in El Alto, Bolivia more here
Women are rising up and demanding their rights more than ever.
Day 7 March 19th 2019
What social protections exist for women in work or indeed out of work? One of the considerations at the CSW is to explore the social protection floors for women in different places in the world.
Social protection to domestic workers in Guatemala
A grantee of UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality is pushing for better income, health insurance, safer working conditions; and helping exploited domestic workers take their cases to the courts. More here
“I have a brain, just like any boy. I can think, I can create, I can be whatever I want to be just like a boy. There should be equality between us. My dream is to be an astronomer. I would be the first woman from Syria to go to the moon.” Bodoor, 17, a refugee in Jordan. #CSW63 See Below
As the 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women enters its second week, one of the themes is how gender equality is not only a matter of human rights, it’s also crucial to achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with their central pledge to leave no one behind.
Gender equality is a goal in its own right (SDG5), but cuts across all 17 SDGs and is reflected in 45 targets and 54 gender-specific indicators. Gender equality’s pivotal role means that investments in gender equality can be a powerful spur to achieving all of the SDGs.More here
And on the left
NEW REPORT: ‘IN VIOLENCE WE FORGET WHO WE WERE’
Looking at the critical intersection between GBV (Gender Based Violence) and the priority theme of ‘social protection, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls’. More here
Day 6 March 18th 2019
Women are rising up and demanding their rights more than ever. Join UN Women in advocating for their present and future during this #CSW63.
Women and girls often face discriminatory barriers, gender gaps and biases. Stand for gender equality with UN Women at #CSW63. http://unwo.men/vE9p30nW7o3
Five innovations that have advanced women’s rights
HIPPO ROLLER
Access to clean water is a human necessity. You need it to drink, clean, cook, bathe and more. Yet, today2.1 billion people — around 30 per cent of the world’s population — lack access to safe, readily available water at home. Unfortunately, for the millions of women and girls at the heart of the water crisis, especially in rural areas, the burden of fetching water falls disproportionately on them. This means an increased risk of violence in often treacherously long journeys to fetch water, and time taken away from other activities, such as income-generating work and school or even leisure and play — all of which prevents women and girls from living a full life. In an attempt to ease the strain and time involved to get water in tough rural conditions, two South Africans in the early 1990s invented the Aqua Roller, now commonly known as the Hippo Roller. A portable barrel-shaped drum container that rolls on the ground, the Hippo Roller can carry up to five times more water than a single bucket. To date, the invention has changed the lives of half a million people across more than 20 countries. While not a permanent solution to the water crisis, it along with other innovative solutions, such as the personal water filter LifeStraw, are noteworthy endeavors improving the lives of women and girls in rural communities.
Have a look at the other four here
New law in Albania will provide low-cost housing for domestic violence survivors
“Why doesn’t she leave?” is a frustratingly common question asked of women in abusive relationships. The question is often followed with disbelief—if it was really so bad, wouldn’t she have left?
Ask Silva Kaca* why she didn’t leave, for years, and she will tell you about one of the biggest roadblocks that many women in Albania, and elsewhere in the world face, as they try to leave an abusive partner—housing.
Kaca was married for 22 years and had two daughters with her abusive partner.You can read the rest of this story here
JCoR bringing visibility to Indigenous women and their issues at CSW 63 with IPA intern Nicole Insuasti
Irish Ambassador to the UN Geraldine Nason Byrne hosts St. Patrick's Day Party at the UN CSW63
Sr. Elsa Muttathu PBVM at the UN pictured below offers this Week 1 round up of the CSW63 at the UN.
CSW63 report-week1.pdfDay 5 March 15th at the CSW63
Day 5 March 15th at the CSW63
A CSW event on "Unleashing Women Power co-organised and moderated by IPA and Sr Elsa
On the panel were Edwin M John from neigbourhood community Network,Helen Saldaha from VIVAT international and Thomas Pallithanam from Salesian Misisons .
Youth activists call for safer streets in Maputo
Jareeyah*,13, from Maputo. Photo: UN Women/Mariana Mellado
At 6 a.m. every morning, 13-year-old Jareeyah* from Maputo sets out for a 10-minute walk from home to her high school. The trek isn’t long, but it always makes her uneasy.
“Sometimes I walk with friends… I don’t feel safe in my city,” she says.
Jareeyah lives in the densely populated neighbourhood, Ka Maxakene, in the heart of Mozambique’s sprawling capital, Maputo.
In 2016, shortly after Maputo launched a Safe City and Safe Public Spaces Programme, as part of UN Women’s Safe Cities Global Initiative, a scoping study on sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women and girls in public spaces was conducted. Shockingly, it revealed that nearly 7 in 10 girls have experienced some form of violence in public spaces.
But girls like Jareeyah, a staunch feminist and human rights activist since the age of 9, are working on ways to change the situation. Through a leadership group at her school, Jareeyah organizes debates to get students to reflect on social problems including: gender inequality, sexual violence in public and private spaces, premature and forced marriage, urban insecurity, unsafe infrastructure, sanitation and safety in schools.
“We also talk about female leadership and safe spaces,” she says. “We can use our voices to advocate, raise awareness among other girls about where we can go and how we can live without violence, discrimination, or being insulted.”
Jareeyah carries a camera to snap images of insecure spaces and uses her voice, art and social media networks to advocate for infrastructure changes—and for girls to play a greater role in decision-making and designing gender-sensitive public policies.
It’s all part of the Maputo Safe City Programme, supported by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation and the City of Madrid. The first action of the programme has been focused on activities in two schools, engaging young people and community champions to change attitudes and behaviours that hinder women and girls’ safety in public spaces.
“Just because they are girls, boys would touch their private parts and they were exposed to unwanted, tedious comments by men,” explains Jareeyah’s high school teacher Adelina Stela Manuel Chambal. “But this is changing after boys become sensitized through the debates. They’ve now started respecting girls, they understand that women’s/girl’s bodies can’t be touched without their permission, and they have learned to interact more respectfully with girls”
As many as 25,000 community members are expected to be reached through awareness-raising activities in the neighbourhoods of Ka Maxakene and Kamalhanculo. Some 2,000 boys and girls are also engaged in these school-based activities.
Among them is Frenk*, a 14-year-old human rights advocate and coordinator of the male engagement programme to end sexual violence in public spaces, at a high school in Ka Maxakene.
Frenk*, 14-year-old human rights advocate . Photo: UN Women/Mariana Mellado
“Girls may get robbed, or raped. It happens often. Not a day goes by that you don’t hear about it on the TV news,” he says. “For Maputo to be a safe city we need to create more safe spaces. We talk among us guys and girls, about what we need, like more lighting in our neighbourhoods and also suggestion boxes where we can safely report violence.” In Frek’s school, a suggestion box is now in place, where students, teachers and workers can anonymously report any complaint, which is then addressed by a designated authority and the school management.
Frenk organizes thought-provoking discussions among his peers about toxic masculinities and how to transform them for positive change.
“Boys need to change the machismo culture and stop seeing themselves as powerful or violent, and regard girls as equal,” he says.
The Maputo Safe City Project Manager at UN Women Mozambique Fernanda Bernardo explains that these discussions are a starting point where girls and boys begin to question the norms and behaviours they were brought up with. “We have boy and girl leaders challenging these norms with other boys and girls, inviting them to join the reflections and be more active in disseminating positive values and masculinities,” she says.
Frenk divides up the girls and boys to separately discuss issues like gender equality, gender-based violence, social norms and power, before bringing them together to reflect on their role in creating safer communities.
“We promote debate and awareness to break the cycle of violence. We can all work to make our community more secure,” says Frenk. “I tell them we can be leaders in fighting against violence and using our voices to advocate.”
And their voices are being heard. Using a methodology called Photovoice, students have been taking pictures of the places they consider unsafe and making presentations to the community and government authorities.
Looking at urban planning and infrastructure with a gender lens matters because they impact the daily lives of women and girls—from their mobility to their access to sanitation, or how late they can stay outside and what jobs at what hour they can take.
“Because of the pictures, this issue became more visible and issues are being responded to,” explains Ms. Bernardo. She says that at Frenk’s school, students managed to get the school to change the location of the toilets because they were not private or safe for girls.
Young activists are even getting reactions to their complaints and demands from local authorities. One of the demands in Ka Maxakene was that the municipality illuminate unsafe streets and alleys. Community leaders also complained about an abandoned school to the Ministry of Education, and some staff from the Ministry visited the site, along with students to assess the situation.
Another action for the Maputo Safe City programme is focusing at the national level, as UN Women, teachers and students are advocating for a law against sexual harassment, particularly in schools.
Maputo is among the more than 37 cities that are taking part in UN Women’s Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Initiative The Maputo Safe City Programme with Women and Girls was designed and launched in partnership with Maputo’s local government, the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Action, UN Women, UN Habitat, Horizonte Azul, Men for Change Network (HOPEM), the Office of Technical Cooperation, Spain, women’s organizations and other key stakeholders.
Day 4 March 14th
In rural Georgia women are asking for kindergartens, here’s why
More public service stories
Women in rural Kyrgyzstan bring change through water, technology and better infrastructure
Migrant workers lacking work benefits learn how to save in the Philippines
From where I stand: “I never gave up and I am learning everyday”
In remote villages across Georgia, better roads and kindergartens are high on women’s agenda, and understandably so. How long it takes them to commute due to the lack of road infrastructure or essential public services such as kindergartens, and how far a mother has to go to get affordable childcare, determines how much time she has left in a day to get paid work.
“When I was raising my children, I had to take them from the village of Tsilkani to a kindergarten in another village, Tserovani. The road was damaged, and sometimes the bus would break down. We had to wait [for the bus] in bad weather and the children would fall ill,” recalls Eka Daudashvili from east Georgia.
It used to take Eka Daudashvili at least an hour, if not more, to take her children to kindergarten every morning, and then rush to work. She was often late, which made her worry constantly. During those days, if anyone had asked Daudashvili, her biggest wish would have been a kindergarten in her own village, Tsilkani. But at the time, there was none. Years later, when the municipality built one, it lacked adequate infrastructure and amenities and wasn’t a reliable option for mothers.
Eka Daudashvili wasn’t alone in this struggle. Worldwide, the lack of quality and affordable child care and schooling often penalizes mothers as they try to balance care work at home and their career aspirations. It’s also detrimental for early child development.
Over the last nine years, since 2010, UN Women has supported local partners to renovate and improve 16 kindergartens across rural Georgia. Last year, in partnership with International Women’s Association and local partner, TASO Foundation, UN Women improved services and amenities in three kindergartens in the area, including in the village of Tsilkani, which hosts a sizeable population of internally displaced people (IDPs). The project supported the construction of a new kitchen and a yard for children to play in, and supplied toys and musical instruments for the Tsilkani kindergarten.
By then Eka Daudashvili’s children were old enough to go to school, but she joined the kindergarten as a manager. A teacher by training and an IDP herself, she was excited to be part of an effort that’s helping other mothers in the area by freeing up their time to pursue paid work.
“This is a very important initiative. We would like to improve this difficult situation for our sisters, because we know that these problems affect women most of all,” says Aleid Douma, Vice-President of the International Women’s Association.
Changing lives
Today, Tamila Ghunashvili is among the many younger mothers in the Tsilkani IDP settlement who has benefitted from having a public kindergarten near her home. The 37-year-old economist is a mother of three and now works with the IDP community, preparing identity papers for the displaced population and providing them information about available public services.
“My workplace and kindergarten are located close, about a 10-minute walking distance,” says Ghunashvili. She can drop off her youngest daughter, 4-year-old Mariam, at the kindergarten before 9.30 a.m. and go to work. It’s made a world of difference to how much she can do with her time now. When her sons were younger, she barely had time to work since there was no kindergarten near her.
“I used to take my sons Giorgi and Luka to the Tserovani kindergarten when they were young. There was a bus, but it took up much of my time,” explains Ghunashvili. “Without a kindergarten [here], I would not have been able to start working, because I wouldn’t have had enough time. My income has brought additional money to the household. Now we can afford more education for my children… my sons go to football classes now and they like it a lot. I want to take them to the English courses as well.”
A kindergarten class in east Georgia. Photo: Taso Foundation
St Patrick's Day at the UN CSW63
Day 3 March 13th
Esperance escaped the war with her family to live in a refugee camp. This UN Women programme has given her an opportunity to gain new skills & financial empowerment: This is her story....
From where I stand: “I never gave up and I am learning everyday”
Globally, 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked, and 56 per cent of them are women, according to latest data from The World Bank. The trend continues in Africa, where up to 95 million unbanked adults receive cash payments for agricultural products, and 65 million save using semiformal methods. Lack of access to banking services and financial skills such as savings, budgeting and debt management, means women who are already poor, have little or no means to invest, retire or build a cushion against emergencies. In humanitarian crisis, these challenges are compounded. Esperance Mutegwaraba, 61, fled the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012 along with 30,000 refugees.
Escaping war along with my four children and four grandchildren, and a young orphan girl I rescued...life was really tough… we had nowhere to sleep, and nowhere to go. My husband and I were separated.
I came to this refugee camp in June 2012. My children are my motivation to stay here, because if I take them back to Congo, they will not be able to finish their studies.
I was so excited when I was selected to be trained in UN Women’s programme in the refugee camp! We are learning how to weave beautiful baskets that Indego Africa sells all over the world. We receive orders and we get paid through personal bank accounts that we opened as part of the programme, a first for me. Our cooperative, Igisubizo (The Solution) earned around 300,000 Rwandan francs (USD 340) from its first order.
In the six years that I’ve spent in the refugee camp, this is the first time that I have somewhere to go and be productive, meet other women, share experiences and comfort each other. I am 61 years old; the other women call me “Taté” (granny). Earlier, people used to doubt that I was capable of working, because of my age. But the programme raised my confidence, and despite the many failed attempts at weaving baskets in the beginning, I never gave up and I am learning everyday with the support of the trainers.
In my hometown, the only available work for women would be farming or domestic work; we were not expected to work together in cooperatives or speak in public. Coming here really taught us a lot, this is knowledge that I will use if I go back to the Congo.
We have learned how to manage our finances and we save 10 per cent of what we earn in our accounts. Even though it’s just the beginning, I can already feel the impact on my family, and this gives me hope for their future…the programme opened doors for me that I never knew existed.”
Because of her age and illiteracy, Esperance Mutegwaraba wasn’t getting opportunities to work until she enrolled into a UN Women-supported programme run by Indego Africa, which trains refugee women in entrepreneurial skills. Funded by the Government of Sweden, the programme also teaches refugee women financial skills, has facilitated their membership in a cooperative and gives them access to credit and banking service.
Esperance Mutegwaraba. Photo: Novella Nikwigize/UN Women, 2019
getfvid_10000000_182144929415913_1084159514610085776_n.mp4David Stanton TD was appointed Minister of State for Justice at the Department of Justice and Equality with special responsibility for Equality, Immigration, and Integration on Thursday, 19th of May 2016. He is attending the CSW for the second time.
Berlin offers women 21 percent metro ticket discount to highlight pay gap
Move comes after city authority creates public holiday for International Women’s Day.
Updated 3/12/19, 8:17 PM CET
BERLIN — Women will ride Berlin's metro, trams and buses at a 21 percent discount this month to reflect Germany's gender pay gap, the city's mass transit operator BVG said on Tuesday. The “Frauenticket” will appear at city ticket machines on March 18, with stamped passes valid until 3 a.m. the next day, BVG said. The discount would reduce the cost of a day ticket in the inner two zones of Berlin from €7 to €5.50. “Most men from Berlin will not only understand this action, but support it,” said BVG, adding it is a temporary measure to raise awareness. More here
The sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 11 to 22 March 2019.
Themes
- Priority theme: Social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;
- Review theme: Women’s empowerment and the link to sustainable development (agreed conclusions of the sixtieth session);
Scroll down For Previous Days
Irish at the CSW63.mp4Eiman and Athena are travelling to #CSW63 this week, to speak with global leaders and to highlight the importance of young women’s voices.
Day 2 March 12th
Secretary-General's remarks to High-level event on Women in Power [as delivered]
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Madame President, let me begin by thanking you for this excellent initiative.
After having addressed this same room on Friday and Monday, I think my duty today is to be brief. Today what matters is to listen to the voices of those that are making a difference: the women leaders that are indeed contributing to the necessary shift of power in today’s world.
I will limit myself to repeat what has been my central message in relation to this issue.
As I said before and I will say again and again, gender equality is fundamentally a question of power, as we still live in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture.
That is the reason why I have been pushing so hard for gender parity here at the United Nations.
When I took office, I said we should concentrate on a surge in diplomacy. But I believe that as important as the surge of diplomacy has been for us the surge in parity.
The President of the General Assembly has already said that it was possible to achieve very quickly parity at the level of the Senior Management Group or our Resident Coordinators around the world. It was simple for one reason – those are the people I can appoint myself without limitations. Where I am free to act, we are coming very quickly to full parity within the UN. But when we have to trickle down to go across the board in all structures of the United Nations, there we start to see the resistance, the obstacles, and the pushbacks. What I can promise you is we will pushback against the pushbacks, and we will not give up until we reach parity across the board in the United Nations.
And why parity? Why is it such an important objective? Why are we striving to open doors of opportunity for so many outstanding, talented, qualified women?
Yes, of course, it is about equality. Of course, it is about fairness. But it goes beyond that.
We need parity and let me repeat again, to change power relations in societies for gender equality to be a reality.
And we also need change in power relations to advance peace and security for all, as gender equality is a key instrument of peace and security.
To promote human rights for all, as gender equality is a central instrument for human rights.
To ensure development for all, as gender equality is a fundamental tool for development.
The truth is that when women are at the table, the chance of sustainable peace increases.
When women have equal opportunities at work, development accelerates tremendously.
And when gender is at the heart of humanitarian assistance, vital assistance has greater impact for everyone in a much fairer way.
The bottom line is simple: When we exclude women, we all pay the price.
When we include women, the world wins. We all win.
Dear friends,
I understand that you are now focused at the Commission on the Status of Women on sustainable infrastructure. But sustainable infrastructure is just a tool for a broader objective.
And the broader objective is to build better societies, to change power relations, to close gaps, to tackle biases, to preserve gains, and to push the boundaries of the possible.
I said yesterday, and I will repeat today, I am proud to be a feminist. For all those men that believe that gender equality is a necessity, I recommend that they are also feminists. We all need to be feminists in order to make sure that gender equality is achieved in our unequal societies.
Thank you especially to the women leaders present today in this room. Thank you for your leadership, for your example, and for powering the change the world needs.
Thank you very much.
And from UNIRL Youth
5 key areas to strengthen social protection for girls and women:
1. Birth registration.
2. Education grants and scholarship.
3. Enhancing girls' economic participation.
4. Strengthen data and research.
5. Redesign the workplace for the future.
Day 1 March 11th
I am a proud Feminist
Antonio Guterres
Antonio Gutteres CSW63.mp4
When men are oppressed we tend to speak of tragedy, of abrogation of rights. But when women are oppressed, we use terms like tradition or cultural norms. Let’s call a spade a spade.” #CSW63 Chair, Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason
With just minutes to go, #CSW63 Chair, Amb Byrne Nason is ready with her gavel before the opening of the session. #Delegations are gathering in numbers in the General Assembly Hall!
