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If you’ve participated in worship with Ecumenical Women, one of these mornings at 8am, you will know Grace as the amazing woman who comes in early each day to make music with us. Today we made music for her–a kazoo, whistle, and tambourine rendition of “Happy Birthday!” We are so grateful for your gifts, Grace! Today and every day!
Today’s worship, led by the WFMUCW, featured the parable of the persistent
Mia Adjali dressed as "a woman at the well."
widow and a dramatized meeting of women at the well. This litany was a part of their service:
Leader: O God of infinite possibility, grant to us all the opportunity to act boldly on our faith in Jesus Christ.
All: I can do it! You can do it! We can do it!
Leader: O God of abundant life, grant to us all emotional, physical and spiritual wholeness so that we might better serve others in your name.
All: Hear our prayer, O God!
Leader: It is more important to perform God’s commandments from inward conviction and in humility.
All: I can do it! You can do it! We can do it!
Leader: God looks upon the heart, while humans often look upon outward appearances.
All: God, you are our covering.
Leader: We can always find healing for all the needs in our lives through the Word of God.
All: Lord, we thank you for your Word.
Leader: O God of strength, give us courage, hope and open hearts, that we might experience expanding possibilities and grow through change.
All: Hear our prayer, O God!
Leader: Nurturing God, you have inspired and empowered women throughout all ages.
All: Give us the courage and wisdom to act boldly on our faith in you, O Creating, Redeeming and Sustaining One.
Leader: We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
All: I can do it! You can do it! We can do it!
While I am here at CSW 56 I had the opportunity to participate in very good discussions specially related to sustainable development and the inclusion of women. This issue relates very much with the work we are doing back in my country and also in my family.
One of the side events I had the pleasure to attend was “Voices of Rural Women: perspectives on Development Agriculture and environment”. As I was there, listening to Ana Chã, from the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement – MST/Brazil, I reflected a lot in the issues we are struggling in Brazil and that are affecting specially women.
As Ana commented, we have in Brazil the invasion of big companies coming to invest in agribusiness, leaving behind 5 million landless people. Seeds are being modified, natural resources being used without limits and it relates to the lives of many small farmers that just want to have a peace of land to work and produce their food. Among them many are women.
Beyond that, it is also really concerning the fact that Brazil is the major consumer of agricultural pesticides in the world. The medium quantity of pesticides consumed in Brazil is estimated in 5.2 litres per Brazilian per year. The advance of agribusiness utilizes a production model that beyond the concentration of land uses high amounts of pesticides to ensure industrial-scale production.
As we discuss the empowerment of rural women, the CSW theme, we need to address and take in account all these issues. A sustainable development can’t be build without thinking on how protect diversity and the continuation of food production. A just and sustainable development needs to consider the voices of the women who have a historical relation in preserving nature and producing food and it also means find ways to stop land grabbing and the use of pesticides.
I am going back to my country strengthened to continue the work towards a world more inclusive and sustainable, where women can have space to discuss and to advocate for their rights. I am going back more strengthened to continue advocating for a rural space that produces food free of pesticides, where people can have food sovereignty and quality on life.
There is no sustainable development if we don’t think about inclusion of women, youth and the poor. There is no diversity without inclusion of all. And to include all we need education for people to know their rights.
Daniele Schmidt Peter
Daniele works for CAPA – Suport Center for Small Farmers www.capa.org.br , an NGO created by the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil – IECLB – a church member of the Lutheran World Federation. CAPA’s mission is support small farmers to sustainable development, producing food through ecological agriculture. Ecological agriculture is a way of life and means producing food without pesticides and chemical products but above all, means the inclusion of family and all its members in the decision making in the work and in the outcomes of this work.
From last week’s side event “From Stories to Skills,” Kym McNair and Kathy Maskell from The Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, lead reflections on Luke’s Persistent Widow and Hosea and Gomer speaking from their experiences working with women affected by domestic violence and human trafficking.
Take a moment to join women from around the world in prayer. You will hear Mieko Nishimaki from Japan pray in Japanese, Pritty Sangma from North India pray in Garo–the mother language of her tribal homeland, Claudette Kigeme from Burundi pray in French, Rosalind Halder from Bangladesh pray in Bangli, France Vizamar from Haiti pray in Creole, Petra Jeong Woon Lee from Korea pray in Korean, and Alyse Sibaen from the Philippines gives the benediction.
On March 1, 2012, an interactive panel discussion entitled “Civil society participation in the sustainable development debate: Making Rio +20 count for rural women” took place at 56th UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
Caroline Daly from the YWCA-YMCA of Sweden, was one of the speakers of the panel and delivered a strong call to mobilize young women in the climate change debate as a force in responding to issues related and in the lead up to Rio+ 20.
Co sponsored by CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, the World YWCA and Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO), the side event intended to review the role played by rural women in sustainable development and poverty eradication, from the local to the international level, and critically examined the impact of the current development model on rural women’s participation in global decision-making, particularly as it relates to shaping and implementing the anticipated outcomes of Rio+ 20. Case studies of the work done by rural women were shared as a means to examine the daily challenges women face with regard to property rights, food security, feminisation of poverty, inheritance and violence.
Representing the voice of young women, Caroline Daly, Project Manager at the YWCA-YMCA of Sweden, started her presentation with a powerful quote from Winnie Asiti-Khaemba (African Youth Initiative on Climate Change Kenya): “You don’t get what you deserve; you get what your fight and negotiate for”. Caroline Daly spoke on the most pressing issues concerning young women, how and why it is important to mobilize the youth as a force to respond to issues relating to climate justice. Caroline Daly suggested a number of recommendations to ensure participation of young women in processes relating to sustainable development and climate change.
Caroline Daly
Download Caroline’s full speech.
Re-posted from http://www.worldywca.org/YWCA-News/World-YWCA-and-Member-Associations-News/Climate-change-Making-Rio-20-count-for-rural-women
Feb. 29, 2012
As I entered the Episcopal Church Center, I wondered how many women would brave the cold & the rain that had drizzled down onto our conference all day to spend a couple of hours connecting with one another in a sacred circle. The chapel was set up with about 20 chairs in a circle, but I feared we’d have to take out most of them so the few women who had appeared by just 10 minutes prior to the circle’s beginning could be near enough to each other could pass the talking stick.
One of the sisters played Spirituals on the piano, prompting several of us to sing quietly as the abundance of women appeared, causing us to scoot our chairs back several times to accommodate the more than 50 Spirit-seekers who arrived. A bit more music & the elders of our group shared history of their sacred circles that had met over the years, honoring those women who had provided similar safe place for sharing of the spiritual over the years.
A wooden wind flute called us into intentionality & after silence, we checked into the circle with the principles of the circle read around the circle, followed by the snowflake story & our own sharing of Spirit’s presence within & among us. A breadth of backgrounds & stories were hinted at as each woman honored the whole of the Story with brief contributions of one’s Spirit-presence.
Hopes for a 5th World Conference of Women to be held in San Francisco in 2015, 60 years after the UN Charter was signed there, were expressed, & then, with each woman again honoring the whole by one’s own brevity, we checked out with a few words of farewell until the next time. A word, a song, a prayer—unity despite our diversity—women of Spirit & Grace.
(The Rev.) Martha Frances
Houston, TX, USA
March 2, 2012
Ana Chã spoke to more than 100 people on Tuesday as part of the panel, “Voices of Rural Women,” co-sponsored by United Methodist Women and World Vision International, a side event of the Commission on the Status of Women. “Brazil is becoming a big economy, yet the poor people are still there,” Ms. Chã.
Ms. Chã reported that ‘land grabbing’ in Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world, is prevalent. “Big business is buying land in Brazil for companies to produce products, like soy beans, and then exporting the products,” Ms. Chã said. “And Brazil is buying companies in Africa.”
Ms. Chã’s is concerned for rural women and their exposure to pesticides. Ms. Chã reported, “Since 2009, Brazil is the world’s largest consumer of agricultural pesticides.” Brazil, she reported, uses about a billion liters of pesticides in one year, which she estimated, “is about 5.2 liters of pesticides per person per year.”
Women are the people in communities who care for the environment and for the health of neighbors and children. “The countryside is a place of life; people can live with dignity. There’s another way to live: in the countryside with joy and happiness,” Ms. Chã said.
Rose Cunningham would agree. Ms. Cunningham, a farmer who organizes indigenous women to end hunger and violence in Nicaragua, spoke at the Thursday afternoon panel sponsored by Madre and hosted by United Methodist Women.
Ms. Cunningham remembered her happiness as a child watering vegetables and sharing chores with neighbors. “If you are my neighbor, you get to be a part of my family,” Ms. Cunningham said. She defined wealth as sharing resources “in solidarity, harmony and respect.” Like Ms. Chã, Ms. Cunningham advocated for the self-determination, access to resources and community life of small-scale farmers.
Today, Ms. Chã leaves the international meetings of rural women in New York City today to return to Brazil, where she will advocate with the Landless Workers’ Movement, celebrating and demonstrating on International Women’s Day on March 8, 2012. “We are demanding public policies, advocating for pregnant women in rural communities, and denouncing agribusiness, which goes against the small farmers.”
United Methodist Women, too, supports a global network of rural women as they strive for access to dignity, health and, even, happiness. “Voices on Rural Women” also included United Methodist Women-sponsored panelists from Zambia, Japan and Sierra Leone.
Learn more about Women’s Division Statement to the 56th Commission on the Status of Women, which among other issues, recommends that nations: “Protect small-scale farms and cooperatives and create access to finance for women farmers for the improvement of agriculture and better nutrition.”
Mary Beth Coudal is a writer for the United Methodist Church Women’s Division.
Re-posted from http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umw/news/articles/item/index.cfm?id=809
Updated Advocacy Priorities! Keep reading, or download a copy.
56th Commission on the Status of Women Agreed Conclusions Priority Positions – 27 February Draft
- Ecumenical Women (EW) Disagrees with attempts to remove the word “gender”, because this word is a neutral word used in agreed language, CEDAW, and the Beijing Platform for Action. Failure to recognize this word could have negative effects on these historic agreements.
- EW Disagrees with attempts to weaken the document around equal inheritance for women.
- EW Agrees with efforts to include more language about the basic issues of rural women’s empowerment.
- EW Agrees with efforts to include language about coastal rural people and fisheries.
- EW is concerned that using words like “burden” and “drudgery” with respect to women’s unpaid care work imposes a lack of value to this work. While we agree with the concept of lessening the burden, we also want to recognize the value of this work.
Para. 3: “Israel TO ADD: Noting that poverty remains a massive and predominantly rural phenomenon…”
- EW Disagrees with this addition, because we recognize that poverty is both rural and urban.
Para. 4: “Switzerland TO ADD: the widely spread land grabbing due to vast investments by foreign companies.”
- EW Agrees with this addition from Switzerland. Land grabbi
ng is a major issue in rural areas, by both governments and major corporations and this language needs to be retained in the document.
Para. 6: “EU TO ADD: financial services, information,”
- EW would like to further ADD: “financial institutions,” to this phrase, because rural women need access to institutions as well services.
Para. 8: (from Friday’s discussion) “Holy See TO ADD: consistent with national laws and development priorities with respect to religious and cultural priorities of member states.”
- EW Disagrees with this addition, fearing that this language could be used by member states to ignore any agreed language that may be difficult to pursue.
Para. i): (original text) “… and build innovative partnerships, including public-private partnerships…”
- EW would like to ADD: “and partnerships with civil society.” The partnership with civil society is critical for effecting change in our communities.
Para. m): “[US TO ADD: energy production farming as a means to restore agricultural opportunities] commercial farming and entrepreneurship.”
- EW Disagrees with this addition. Production of energy crops reduces the availability of food on the market and increases its price.
- EW would like to DELETE: “commercial.” Replace “commercial” with “income generating.”
Para: n): “US TO DELETE: and invest in rural women’s initiatives that promote sustainable agriculture and biodiversity.”
- EW Disagrees with this deletion. Sustainable agriculture and biodiversity are critical for ensuring food production and a healthy environment now and in the future.
Para. o): US TO DELETE: Para (o)
- EW Disagrees with this deletion. This is an important paragraph, which encourages investment in empowerment.
- EW Agrees with the addition by Chile et al and would like to ADD: “and partnerships with civil society.”
Title C: “Expanding access to resources, assets, employment, and services”
- EW would like to ADD: “transportation” to the title. Transportation is an important issue, which is not given the attention it needs in this document.
- EW would like to ADDthe following agreed language:
- Identify and address opportunities to achieve affordable, economically viable, socially acceptable, safe and environmentally sound transportation systems, so that rural women have transportation choices that improve access to better jobs, educational facilities, health care, markets, food and water.
(based on E/2011/29 para. 17 (a) and 12)
