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by Christine Mangale
There was only one session on care giving at the recent International AIDS conference, but I could tell that this was an issue that needs much more attention.
Women and girls comprise nearly 90% of care providers globally especially in rural areas. Women are not just caring for family members, some are trained in home-based care and work in their communities as full-time volunteers because there are no formal health care services available. And yet, this is rarely recognized and only propels the cycle of poverty. The experts at the session seemed to conclude that this current situation is seen as tolerable since women are the ones going through this. A question that summed up the session was: “If it was men who are mostly involved in home-based care, wouldn’t a solution already have been found?
The value of time, energy and resources required to perform this unpaid work is rarely recognized. In the African context, this traditional practice is overly exploited, and caregivers that work full time as volunteers to countless patients may only receive a meal for their labor, while just like everyone else, they need money to support their families, especially pay for their children’s school fees. Why can’t some of the billions currently poured towards the AIDS response be targeted towards women who dedicate all their lives taking care of the sick? To care for the sick, girls are dropping out of school and women are suffering in silence. We must advocate for solutions to this care giving crisis, such as community financing systems. This is key to restoring the dignity of these women.
This conference, sponsored by two Ecumenical Women members, the United Methodist Women’s Division and the National Council of Churches will be an opportunity for faith based leaders to explore best practices and new approaches for working together to end human trafficking. It will be held in New York at the Church Center for the UN from Sept. 29-Oct. 1.
Check out the registration form:
I originally wrote this post for Idealist in NYC, but thought Ecumenical Women readers might like it as well. Enjoy!
In a country where the larger part of our population is religious, and where our current president believes that social change should come about through religious organizations, Former NYU Professor James Carse’s message might be hard for some to swallow: religion, he argues, has very little to do with belief.
To Carse, religion is all about longevity rather than belief; it’s what unites people over millennia. Additionally, Carse dismisses attempts to find some underlying unity to all religions. This idea, I would say, is fairly unpopular among many religious people, either because they want to avoid being exclusionary or because they want to find a common thread in humanity’s search for meaning. As a current student at Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan, I find Carse’s arguments in this Salon.com article incredibly interesting and compelling.
But I bet a lot of folks would wonder: If we remove the idea of belief from the religion, would we lose our ethics as well? And with them, our propensity to act? Read the rest of this entry »
For some of our Ecumenical Women superstars, they’ll remember that the theme of CSW 51 was “The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child.” Well, when we came across this video at Britt Bravo’s blog Have Fun Do Good, we thought it would be a good time to revisit the topic of the girl child.
The video isn’t perfect: it is a project of the Girl Effect, and aside from being partially funded by the Nike Foundation — whose track record isn’t glowing — we wonder if it isn’t a little too simplistic (what? a cow is really the answer?). But in a world where pregnancy is the leading cause of death for girls aged 15 through 19, and where educated girls and women fosters the education of children… well, we’re willing to get on board.
Just some food for thought. What do you think?
You are invited to participate in the online discussion on Women and men: equal sharing of responsibilities organized by the Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations, which will run from 7 July to 1 August 2008.
To register, please click here.
You are encouraged to register before 3 July 2008.
You will receive an email with your username and password before the start of the online discussion.
The online discussion will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the issue of equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS, and to identify good practices and strategies required to accelerate gender equality in this regard. The discussion is part of the preparatory process for the 53rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in 2009. It will provide background information for an Expert Group Meeting organized by the Division for the Advancement of Women on this theme.
On June 19, the U.S. used its presidency of the Security Council in June to host a thematic debate on “women, peace and security: sexual violence in situations of armed conflict.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chaired the debate and read the following presidential statement. Secretary Rice was not the only woman seated around the table, seven others joined her representing their countries, including the Minister of Gender of Liberia, the Baroness of Scotland and the Ambassador of South Africa.
When I, along with the members of the women leaders working group, first began looking at this issue, we realized that in the 60 years of UN peacekeeping, only seven women had held the post of Special Representative to the Secretary General. You immediately took the lead in helping to address that, Mr. Secretary General. And today, Margrethe Loi of Denmark is now the Special Representative in Liberia. We applaud you for your commitment and we look forward to working with you on this critical issue.
I also want to commend all of you here today, my fellow Council members, and I want to thank a number who have traveled from very far to show their dedication to this important issue of ending the use of rape and other forms of sexual violence as instruments of warfare. Rape is a crime that can never be condoned, yet women and girls in conflict situations around the world have been subjected to widespread and deliberate acts of sexual violence. As many of you know, for years, there’s been a debate about whether or not sexual violence against women is a security issue for this forum to address.
The US is expected to introduce a new resolution that builds on the achievements of resolution 1325, focusing on sexual violence. Some speculate that this resolution was inspired by the new documentary, “The Greatest Silence” about rape in the Congo by HBO. The U.S. hosted a showing of the documentary at the UN earlier in the month.
As a precursor to this debate, on May 15, 2008, the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight held a hearing, “U.N. Security Resolution 1325: Recognizing Women’s Vital Roles in Achieving Peace and Security.” The purpose of the hearing was to inform the House’s debate on House Resolution 146, which calls for US compliance to UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and highlights women’s contributions to peace building and security. Read some of the hearing testimony.
Reverend Ann Tiemeyer, the NCC’s representative in Ecumenical Women, has been targeted for her outstanding service and passion this month at faithandfeminism.org. Giving us special insight into how her own faith guides her social activism, which women have been influential in her life, and what issues are important to her and why, Tiemeyer is eloquent and passionate in a way that makes Ecumenical Women proud:
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Woman extraordinaire, experienced community organizer and Lutheran pastor, the Reverend Ann Tiemeyer is Program Director for Women’s Ministry at the National Council of Churches, USA.
Congratulations, Ann!
After staying up until 4 am negotiating last Friday, the member states have finally presented us with the CSW Agreed Conclusions. This document serves as the outcome on the theme of Financing for Gender Equality and has important implications for the review of the financing for development meetings later this year.
Check back later for analysis from Ecumenical Women. In the mean time, please provide your feedback on the recent experience at CSW by taking this very brief survey. Ecumenical Women look forward to your recommendations and input to improve our effectiveness at next year’s CSW!
by Jocelyn Tengatenga
The imperative to act on gender equality and development is an integral part of the mission of God. God’s mission and vision for humanity is one of peace, prosperity and justice. We believe that because women and men are made equally in the image of God they are equal players and equal beneficiaries in God’s bounty. This is the new life as God intended it to be, a life of equality which is spelt out in Galatians 3:28, “in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female for all are one in Christ Jesus”. It is therefore a calling on each one of us as women to be involved in the fight for liberation from all forms of oppression and marginalization. We can only do that if we are united and collectively speak out. As women of faith we have been silent for a long time and now is the time to raise our voices together and join hands in working towards a better tomorrow. As Mercy Amba Oduyoye said,
“As a woman who feels the weight of sexism I cannot go again and again to the stories of the exodus, exile and to other biblical motifs in which the “least” are recognized and affirmed, are saved or held up as beloved by God or at least are empowered to gnaw at the fundaments of the structures of injustice until these fundaments cave in on themselves.”
Read the rest of Josie’s speech here.
On Saturday, February 23, Ecumenical Women gathered for our orientation on the 52nd Commission on the Status of Women. On that day, we joined together as women from many different areas of the world, cultures, ethnicities, denominations, and identities of all kinds, to form a coalition of women advocating for gender equality at the United Nations, from a faith-based perspective. We worshipped together, learned together, reflected together, and ate together! And after all that togetherness… we advocated together!
Photograph by Kimberly Llerena.
Ecumenical Women, together with the Al-Hakim Foundation and Religions for Peace, announces a multi-cultural, multi-religious panel, entitled “A Dialogue Between Cultures: ‘Iraq for All‘” on Monday, March 3, 1:00 - 3:30 pm in the Tillman Chapel of the Church Center for the United Nations. The topics of conversation are: the role of NGO’s in re-building civil society, women as builders, and practicing the Millenium Development Goals.
Panelists:
- Ms. Layla Al-Khafaji, Member of the Iraqi Parliament, Al-Hakim Foundation, IRAQ
- Dr. Michele Fedoroff, Deputy Chief of NGO Section, DESA
- Rev. Kyoichi Sugino, Assistant General Secretary, World Conference of Religions for Peace
- Dr.Bayan Al-Araji, Al-Hakim Foundation, UK
- Dr.Jafar Jawad, Al-Hakim Foundation, US
- Michel Ngoymulunda, Lutheran World Federation, Youth leader in Lutheran Communion in Central and Eastern Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Moderator: Dr. Mohammed Mohammed Ali, IRAQ
Come and join us for some stimulating conversation!
About a month ago, I was writing the litany for Ecumenical Women’s opening worship for the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). In the first draft of the refrain, I wrote, “Shower the earth with your justice, O God, and invest life into the bodies of your people.” Bringing it to Kathleen Stone, the chaplain at the Church Center for the United Nations, I, a white, privileged, upper-middle class (by American standards), North American woman, expressed my timidity about using the word “justice” so liberally in the refrain. “What is justice, anyway?” I thought to myself, “and how do I feel about a God who openly distributes justice upon God’s enemies? What does it mean for God to have enemies?”
As I expressed these perusings to Kath, she paused before commenting. When she spoke, it was reminiscent of what my Exegesis professor at Union Theological Seminary would later say about Ezekiel 37:1-14. For those people who have witnessed the ravaging of their homes, who have experienced the debilitating scourge of poverty upon their bodies and communities, and whose flesh has been torn and wounded—indeed, for those who have seen the “dry bones” of Ezekiel—the word “justice” is never too strong a word to use. In these situations, when humanity is hampered by our inability to distribute justice, it is God who must distribute justice. The women who would be reciting my litany have seen these dry bones, and they have come to the CSW to right the injustices of this valley. With these women in mind, Kath and I changed the refrain to “Thunder the earth with your justice, O God, and invest life into the bodies of your people.”
Last year a great group of women came together as Ecumenical Women to CSW-51. The theme was The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child. In this picture we are getting to know each other making an “web of connections” out of yarn. Don’t worry, this year we plan to have a party instead!
