Year: 2014
World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day
[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]By Eunice Kilonzo
On December 1, you may be one of the millions globally who will be wearing a red ribbon to mark World Aids Day. I will be wearing one in solidarity with about 16 million adults living with HIV are women according to the World Health Organisation. Further, according to Centre for Disease Control, Sub-Saharan Africa bears the biggest burden of HIV/AIDS, with almost 70% of the global total of new HIV infections for 2013. As a Kenyan, the HIV burden is tremendous as we are ranked fourth in the world in new infections.
For this piece, I will look at how AWDF has partnered with organizations advocating for women rights, and specifically those working on HIV/Aids.
One of these organisations is Cameroon Women’s Medical Association. According to statistics, in at least four out of ten Cameroonians between the ages of 15-49, are living with HIV. In addition, about 57% of the 1.47 million pregnant women living with HIV in the French speaking country are estimated to received most regimens of antiretroviral medicine to prevent mother-to-child transmission.
To take this discussion further, I interviewed the Cameroon Women Medical Association head Dr Gladys Enih Fosah Tayong.
Q: What does World AIDs Day it mean to your organisation?
Our organisation runs with the theme “Focus, Partner, Achieve: An AIDS-free Generation.” Therefore, each year we look at our contributions to national and global responds to HIV in a bid to provide a comprehensive HIV/AIDS package.
During the day we carry out activities like voluntary counseling and testing, HIV /AIDS awareness campaigns, and radio talks on the national radio, television spots. Our ongoing projects include counseling/referrals and capacity building for staff on HIV.
Q: Most African countries reported their first HIV cases in the early 1980’s. That makes the condition over 30 years old. What has been your memorable moment in HIV intervention?
Our HIV/AIDS counselor had a case last year during a voluntary counseling and testing campaign.
After pre-test counseling, blood collection and analysis, the results of the married woman were positive. During the post-test counseling, the lady cried: “Oh God why me? What will I tell my husband? How will I live my life? It’s better to die than to live.”
Her husband was called up for couple counseling and was also encouraged to take the test. He was negative. This discordant result made the husband to accuse his wife of infidelity.
It has been difficult for the couple to live together. However, our continuous follow up has encouraged the husband to accept his wife’s positive status.
Q: How is prevalent is HIV infections through mother to child transmission in Cameroon?
In 2013 Nationally, HIV transmission from mother to child when child is tested at six weeks of age is 6.3% and 6.7% in the North West region where we are.
Our minister of public health signed a ministerial order that ensures that when pregnant women are tested positive for HIV they are immediately given ART. This we believe will reduce the MTCT of HIV.
Very few HIV positive Women do not breastfeed their babies in Cameroon. HIV positive women are encouraged to adopt exclusive breastfeeding for six months.
Q: Do women who do not breastfeed their children face stigma?
Yes, their family members, especially mother in-laws and friends, ostracize those that do not breastfeed. Consequently, their infants have a greater risk of dying of diarrhea and other causes that are not related to HIV.
Q: What myths and cultural practices make your work difficult?
People still believe it is not possible for a discordant couple to live together and have HIV negative babies. The women suffer the highest effect as their husbands who are negative, neglect them for other women or bring in other woman who will satisfy them sexually. This triggers domestic and sexual violence.
Also when we talk on women’s sexual rights it seems we are bringing in a bad practice. In Cameroon, a woman is suppose to be very humble when it comes to sex, while the man is the one to insist on when to have sex, when to use condoms, use of contraceptives, and even number of children to have.
Q: How has the assistance from AWDF helped you promote the rights of African Women on the African Continent?
African Women Development Fund is currently one of our main partners, and they have greatly contributed to the success of our organization in terms of programs, organizational growth and impact on our target population.
We received funding for World AIDS day activities in 2011, and another funding to reinforce the sexual and reproductive health and economic empowerment of women living with HIV in 2012/2013. We have signed a new agreement for the 2nd phase of the project to scale up interventions to reinforce the sexual and reproductive health and economic status of Women living with HIV.
Q: The impact made so far?
Through these diverse support programs, over 700 people have known their status, informed on safe sex practices. We have been able to give loans to 10 women living with HIV positive.
The economic empowerment of HIV positive women is one of the most successful interventions because this has reduced beneficiary dependence on our organization for medical and nutritional support. Indirect beneficiaries like the children of women living with HIV are able to go to school and feed well.
Q: Any challenges?
The major challenge we face in this program is that some of the loan beneficiaries often fall sick and are unable to engage in business for some period of time.
However, we support them to access timely treatment for their opportunistic infections.
Q: What does the future means for your organization?
We intend to reach out to commercial sex workers on HIV treatment and care services. On the same, we seek to create a rehabilitation center for children of sex workers in order to ensure the children rights are respected and basic needs such as education, health, clothing feeding is provided.
Develop a family planning program to subsidize family planning devices for women.
Voices of the loan beneficiaries:
Che Judith
I have been living with HIV for 6 years. I identified myself with CMWA a year now. I received 200,000 francs from CMWA and I was told it was provided by AWDF. I have used the money to improve my traditional dress marking business.
I have been able to buy more materials and I can now produce all types of traditional clothes and caps that I now sell to even international customers. It is good that this organisation works with women who are of HIV and provides support in many forms such as monetary and psychosocial.
I am also able to take care of my medical bills and schooling for my children. I am very grateful.
Elizerbirth Mah
I am a hairdresser, living with HIV for 8 years. I became a member of CMWA a year ago. I am a beneficiary of this loan that is interest free. I was doing hair dressing with very little capital, but when I got the loan, I was able to buy more artificial hair and saloon equipment. I can now serve my customers better. I can also generate enough income to take care of my newborn baby who I exclusively breastfeed and my medical follow up.
Secondly, I have benefited knowledge on how to have an HIV negative child. While I was still ignorant on HIV and how to prevent mother to child transmission, I had two babies and they all died after delivery.
I decided never to have children again. I was encouraged by my friend who was working with CMWA to come and join them, I reluctantly did it but while participating in the support group meetings. I was educated on how to have an HIV negative child. My CD4 count was 788 and my doctor advised me to have another baby, which I did. Her HIV status will be confirmed next month.
Efu Rose
I have been living with HIV for the past 3 years. Due to my poor health, I could not engage myself into productive activities. I started drying and selling vegetables. When I got the loan, I bought a machine and more fresh vegetables. Since then, the business has flourished very well and I supply in wholesale and also to “bush fallers” who come from abroad. The contribution of the loan to my family income cannot be overemphasised.
NB .All pictures taken with consent of beneficiaries
Utility:
- http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/cameroon
- Cameroon HIV and AIDS estimates(2013)
- Number of people living with HIV: 600,000 [560,000 – 650,000]
- Adults aged 15 to 49 prevalence rate: 4.3% [4.0% – 4.6%]
- Adults aged 15 and up living with HIV: 510,000 [470,000 – 550,000]
- Women aged 15 and up living with HIV: 300,000 [280,000 – 320,000]
- Children aged 0 to 14 living with HIV: 94,000 [83,000 – 110,000]
- Deaths due to AIDS: 44,000 [40,000 – 48,000]
- Orphans due to AIDS aged 0 to 17: 510,000 [140,000 – 560,000][/tp]
[tp lang = “fr” not_in = “fr”] Par Eunice Kilonzo
Le 1er Décembre, vous serez surement l’un des millions dans le monde qui va porter un ruban rouge pour marquer la Journée mondiale du sida. Je porterai un en solidarité avec environ 16 millions d’adultes vivant avec le VIH qui sont des femmes, selon l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé. En outre, selon le Center for Disease Control, l’Afrique sub-saharienne porte le plus lourd fardeau du VIH / sida, avec près de 70% du total mondial des nouvelles infections au VIH en 2013. Comme Kenyane, le fardeau du VIH est énorme car nous sommes classés quatrième dans le monde des nouvelles infections.
Pour ce billet, je vais regarder comment AWDF a établi un partenariat avec des organisations plaidant pour les droits des femmes, et en particulier ceux qui travaillent sur le VIH / sida.
L’une de ces organisations est de Cameroon Women’s Medical Association. Selon les statistiques, au moins quatre sur dix Camerounais âgés de 15-49 ans, vivent avec le VIH. En outre, environ 57% des 1,47 million de femmes enceintes vivant avec le VIH dans le pays d’expression française sont sensées avoir reçus la plupart des régimes de médicaments antirétroviraux pour prévenir la transmission mère-enfant.
Pour pousser cette discussion plus loin, j’ai interviewé la Directrice de Cameroon Women Medical Association Dr Gladys Enih Fosah Tayong.
Q: Que signifie la Journée mondiale contre le sida pour votre organisation?
Notre organisation fonctionne avec le thème “Focus, partenaire, réaliser: une génération sans sida”. Par conséquent, chaque année, nous regardons nos contributions à une réponse nationale et mondiales au VIH dans le but de fournir un paquet complet du VIH / SIDA.
Pendant la journée, nous effectuons des activités comme le conseil et le dépistage volontaire, des campagnes de sensibilisation au VIH / sida, et de causeries à la radio sur la radio nationale, et des spots télévisés. Nos projets en cours comprennent le conseil / l’orientation et le renforcement des capacités pour le personnel sur le VIH.
Q: La plupart des pays africains ont signalé leurs premiers cas de VIH dans le début des années 1980. Cela ramène la situation à plus de 30 ans. Quel a été votre moment mémorable dans l’intervention du VIH?
Notre conseiller VIH / SIDA a eu un cas l’année dernière lors d’une campagne de conseil et de dépistage volontaire.
Après un conseil pré-test, la collecte de sang et l’analyse, les résultats d’une femme mariée ont été positifs. Pendant le conseil post-test, la dame a pleuré: “Oh mon Dieu, pourquoi moi? Que vais-je dire à mon mari? Comment vais-je vivre ma vie? Il vaut mieux mourir que de vivre “.
Son mari a été appelé pour le conseil de couple et a également été encouragé à passer le test. Il était négatif. Ce résultat discordant a poussé le mari à accuser sa femme d’infidélité.
Il a été difficile pour le couple de vivre ensemble. Cependant, notre suivi continu a encouragé son mari à accepter la séropositivité de sa femme.
Q: Quelle est l’importance des infections par le VIH par la transmission mère-enfant au Cameroun?
En 2013, à l’échelle nationale, la transmission du VIH de la mère à l’enfant lorsque l’enfant est testé à six semaines est de 6,3% et de 6,7% dans la région du Nord-Ouest où nous sommes.
Notre ministre de la santé publique a signé un arrêté ministériel qui assure que lorsque les femmes enceintes sont testées positives pour le VIH, elles sont immédiatement données ART. Ce qui nous croyons permettra de réduire la transmission mère-enfant du VIH.
Très peu de femmes séropositives n’allaitent pas leurs bébés au Cameroun. Les femmes séropositives sont encouragées à adopter l’allaitement maternel exclusif pendant six mois.
Q: Est-ce que les femmes qui n’allaitent pas leurs enfants font face à la stigmatisation?
Oui, les membres de leur famille, en particulier mère-parents et amis, ostracisent celles qui n’allaitent pas. Par conséquent, leurs enfants ont un plus grand risque de mourir de diarrhée et d’autres causes qui ne sont pas liés au VIH.
Q: Quels mythes et pratiques culturelles rendent votre travail difficile?
Les gens croient toujours qu’il est impossible pour un couple discordant de vivre ensemble et avoir des bébés VIH négatifs. Les femmes souffrent plus de cet effet que leurs maris qui sont négatifs, les négligent pour d’autres femmes ou apportent d’autres femme qui vont les satisfaire sexuellement. Cela déclenche de la violence domestique et sexuelle.
Aussi, lorsque nous parlons des droits sexuels des femmes, il semble que nous apportons dans une mauvaise pratique. Au Cameroun, une femme est supposée être très humble quand il en est du sexe, tandis que l’homme est le seul à insister sur le moment pour avoir des relations sexuelles, sur quand utiliser des préservatifs, quand utiliser des contraceptifs, et même le nombre d’enfants à avoir.
Q: Comment l’aide d’AWDF vous a aidé à promouvoir les droits des femmes africaines sur le continent africain?
Fonds africain de développement de la femme est actuellement l’un de nos principaux partenaires, et ils ont grandement contribué au succès de notre organisation en termes de programmes, la croissance organisationnelle et l’impact sur la population ciblée.
Nous avons reçu un financement pour les activités de la Journée mondiale de lutte contre le sida en 2011, et un autre financement pour renforcer la santé sexuelle et reproductive et l’autonomisation économique des femmes vivant avec le VIH en 2012/2013. Nous avons signé un nouvel accord pour la 2ème phase du projet à l’échelle les interventions visant à renforcer la santé sexuelle et reproductive et le statut économique des femmes vivant avec le VIH.
Q: L’impact jusqu’ici?
Grâce à ces programmes de soutien divers, plus de 700 personnes ont connu leur statut et ont été informées sur les pratiques sexuelles sûres. Nous avons été en mesure d’accorder des prêts à 10 femmes vivant avec le VIH positif.
L’autonomisation économique des femmes séropositives est l’une des interventions les plus efficaces parce que cela a réduit la dépendance du bénéficiaire sur notre organisation pour le soutien médical et nutritionnel. Les bénéficiaires indirects comme les enfants de femmes vivant avec le VIH sont en mesure d’aller à l’école et de bien se nourrir.
Q: Des défis?
Le défi majeur auquel nous sommes confrontés dans ce programme est que certains des bénéficiaires de prêts tombent souvent malades et sont incapables d’exercer son activité pendant une certaine période.
Cependant, nous les soutenons pour accéder à un traitement en temps opportun pour leurs infections opportunistes.
Q: Qu’est-ce que signifie l’avenir pour votre organisation?
Nous avons l’intention d’atteindre les travailleurs du sexe sur les services de traitement et de soins du VIH. Sur le même plan, nous cherchons à créer un centre de réadaptation pour les enfants des travailleurs du sexe afin de garantir que les droits des enfants sont respectés et les besoins de base tels que l’éducation, la santé, l’alimentation soit fournie comme les vêtements.
Élaborer un programme de planification familiale pour subventionner les dispositifs de planification familiale pour les femmes.
Voix des bénéficiaires de prêts:
Che Judith
Je vis avec le VIH depuis 6 ans. Je me suis identifiée avec ACFM il y un an maintenant. J’ai reçu 200.000 francs d’ACFM et on m’a dit qu’il a été fourni par AWDF. Je l’ai utilisé pour améliorer mon entreprise de robes traditionnelles.
Je suis en mesure d’acheter plus de matériel et je peux maintenant produire tous les types de vêtements traditionnels et casquettes que je vends maintenant même à des clients internationaux. Il est bon que cette organisation travaille avec les femmes qui sont atteintes du VIH et apporte son soutien à de nombreuses formes telles que les politiques monétaire et psychosociale.
Je suis également capable de prendre soin de mes factures médicales et la scolarisation pour mes enfants. Je suis très reconnaissante.
Elizerbirth Mah
Je suis coiffeuse, vivant avec le VIH depuis 8 ans. Je suis devenue un membre de ACFM il ya un an. Je suis une bénéficiaire de ce prêt qui est sans intérêt. Je faisais de la coiffure avec très peu de capital, mais quand j’ai été prête, j’ai pu acheter plus de cheveux artificiels et de l’équipement pour le salon. Je peux maintenant mieux servir mes clients. Je peux aussi générer suffisamment de revenus pour prendre soin de mon bébé nouveau-né que j’allaite exclusivement et mon suivi médical.
Deuxièmement, j’ai profité des connaissances sur la façon d’avoir un enfant séronégatif. Pendant que j’étais encore ignorante sur le VIH et la façon de prévenir la transmission mère-enfant, j’ai eu deux bébés, et ils sont tous morts après l’accouchement.
J’ai décidé de ne jamais avoir à nouveau des enfants. Je suis encouragée par mon ami qui travaillait avec ACFM à se joindre à eux, je l’ai fait à contrecoeur, mais tout en participant à des réunions de groupes de soutien. Je me suis instruite sur la façon d’avoir un enfant séronégatif. Mon compte de CD4 était de 788 et mon médecin m’a conseillé d’avoir un autre bébé, ce que je fis. Son statut VIH sera confirmée le mois prochain.
Efu Rose
Je vis avec le VIH depuis les 3 dernières années. En raison de mon mauvais état de santé, je ne pouvais pas m’engager dans des activités productives. J’ai commencé à sécher et à vendre des légumes. Quand j’ai été prête, j’ai acheté une machine et des légumes frais. Depuis lors, l’entreprise a très bien prospéré et je fournir en gros et aussi pour “chuteurs de brousse” qui viennent de l’étranger. La contribution de l’emprunt à mon revenu familial ne peut pas être surestimée.
NB .Tous photos ont été prises avec le consentement des bénéficiaires
Utile:
1. http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/cameroon
2. Estimations Cameroun VIH et le SIDA (2013)
– Nombre de personnes vivant avec le VIH: 600 000 [560 000 – 650 000]
– Les adultes âgés de 15 à 49 ans le taux de prévalence: 4,3% [4,0% – 4,6%]
– Adultes âgés de 15 ans et plus vivant avec le VIH: 510 000 [470 000 – 550 000]
– Les femmes âgées de 15 et plus vivant avec le VIH: 300 000 [280 000 – 320 000]
– Les enfants âgés de 0 à 14 ans vivant avec le VIH: 94 000 [83 000 – 110 000]
– Décès dus au sida: 44000 [40000 – 48000]
– Orphelins à cause du SIDA 0 à 17 ans: 510 000 [140 000 – 560 000][/tp]
Kenyan Women Reclaiming Kenyan Streets with #Mydressmychoice
Kenyan Women Reclaiming Kenyan Streets with #Mydressmychoice
[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]Kenyan Women Reclaiming Kenyan streets with #Mydressmychoice
by Njoki Wamai
Njoki Wamai, is a Gates Cambridge Scholar and alumni, Africa Leadership Centre
On 17th November 2014, thousands of women and men marched in downtown Nairobi in a protest march against the stripping of a woman by men who frequently patronise matatu terminals (public transport vans and buses are called matatus in Kenya ) on Tom Mboya street in Nairobi under the #Mydressmychoice.
Yet, this case was not an isolated case as some of the headlines below from Kenyan newspapers indicate from the last couple of years. Public stripping of women has often been done by rowdy men and some women, who have been complicit in these acts of public humiliation showing it is a deeply entrenched societal problem based on patriarchal values. Even pregnant women have not been spared. These are some of the few cases that have been reported in the media. Many more go unreported, and only recently after the protests have arrests been carried out.
Table 1 – Timeline of Kenya’s woman-stripping problem
In her article , Silence is A Woman, Dr. Wambui Mwangi, untangles silences Kenyan women have been forced to live with emanating from a conspiracy of a patriarchal cultures and successive regimes keen to keep women discriminated and silent to these injustices at the national/political level and ultimately at a personal level. Women who have endured these traumatic experiences are often relegated to mere statistics and ‘interesting news’ as evidenced by the casual nature news anchors laughed about a previous incident in Nyeri town on live TV
These violations clearly contravene the Kenyan constitution in addition to regional and international human rights conventions such as the African Union’s Maputo Protocol, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women , peace and security and the Convention of Elimination of All forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) which Kenya has ratified. The Kenyan constitution states in articles 27(3) states that women and men deserve equal treatment before the law and part (5) states that no one shall be discriminated against on any grounds, as well as article 28 which states that “Every person has inherent dignity and the right to have that dignity respected and protected.”
As Dr. Godfrey Chesang has observed on Nairobi’s geographical inequality , Nairobi’s downtown is divided in two at Tom Mboya Street. The ‘post card’ side where the state is in charge and the messy chaotic side after Tom Mboya where an army of shoe shiners and sweepers ensure the ‘ordinary mwananchi’s’ shoes from the dusty and muddy side of Nairobi are sanitised in readiness for the clean, orderly, secure post card side, west of Moi Avenue. Stripping of women and mugging is less common on the post card side of the city, unlike the less glamorous side, where the few police on patrol look on, when violations happen most times having been compromised through constant bribes for traffic offences, drugs and other illegalities. A recent article by Nation’s Mucemi Wachira on Nairobi’s Filthy Streets illustrates my point.
These invisible line can be trace back to the apartheid-like British colonial system in Kenya which demarcated one side of Nairobi for whites, ‘the post card side’ while the Africans and Indians patronised the other side of the city starting from Moi Avenue with little government infrastructure, planning and security personnel.
The post-colonial elites inherited this division and further perpetuated it by providing more security to themselves on the ‘post card side’ and in their homes while less security was offered to those on the other side of Moi avenue. As a result, insecurity became normalised for the Africans. This legacy remains with a costly impact on ‘less privileged men and moreso women’, as security on their side of Nairobi is left to hooligans, muggers and strippers.
In a recent interview with a Guardian journalist after #Mydressmychoice protests, some touts at the Tom-Mboya , Accra Road junction reminded the journalist that an invisible line exists in Nairobi where certain hemlines are unacceptable.
Political will from the president isn’t enough, a reordering of the state to reorient itself from a state centric concept of security to a human security centred approach whose focus is the citizen is important. State centric security approach values sovereignty of the state and its elite while providing minimum security to the most vulnerable. So much needs to be done at a systemic level. The Kenyan government has recently established a police force to deal with ‘women strippers’ and a national gender policy at the launch of the 16 days of activism campaign by Kenya’s president. Kenyan women hope that resources will be invested to ensure that these policies are not mere tokens to appease women for the next election in 2017.
Other leaders such as county governors, county members of parliament and members of county assemblies(MCAs) need to lead their counties in similar campaigns as part of the 16 days of activism on violence against women by introducing gender policies that criminalise stripping, immediate arrests and stiffer penalties for violators till women’s choice of dress is respected, as they did before the infiltration of christian-victorian standards of dress with the colonial encounter. Additionally, innovative forums to unlearn flawed masculinities among potential perpetrators, while learning positive and healthy masculinities from role models, on what is to be a man in Kenya needs to be promoted while providing education and economic opportunities.[/tp]
[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”en”]Les femmes kényanes Reconquièrent les rues du Kenya avec #Mydressmychoice
par Njoki Wamai
Njoki Wamai, est une boursière Gates Cambridge et les anciens, Centre de leadership en Afrique
Le 17 Novembre 2014, des milliers de femmes et d’hommes ont défilé dans le centre de Nairobi dans une marche de protestation contre le déshabillage d’une femme par des hommes qui fréquentent souvent les terminus de matatu (camionnettes de transport en commun et les autobus sont appelés matatus au Kenya) sur la rue Tom Mboya à Nairobi sous #Mydressmychoice.
Pourtant, ce cas n’a pas été un cas isolé comme certains des titres ci-dessous à partir de journaux kenyans l’indiquent depuis ces deux dernières années. Le déshabillage publique des femmes a souvent été fait par les hommes turbulents et quelques femmes, qui ont été complices de ces actes d’humiliation publique qui montre qu’il existe un problème de société profondément enraciné fondé sur des valeurs patriarcales. Même les femmes enceintes ne sont pas épargnées. Voici quelques-unes des rares cas qui ont été rapportés dans les médias. Beaucoup d’autres ne sont pas signalés, et ce n’est que récemment, après les protestations ont été menées arrestations.
Tableau 1 – Chronologie du problème de la femme-déshabillée au Kenya
Dans son article, le silence est une femme, le Dr Wambui Mwangi, démêle les silences de femmes kenyanes qui ont été forcées de vivre avec le poids émanant d’une conspiration de cultures patriarcales et les régimes successifs désireux de garder les femmes victimes de discrimination et silencieux à ces injustices au niveau national / politique niveau et, finalement, à un niveau personnel. Les femmes qui ont subi ces expériences traumatiques sont souvent reléguées à de simples statistiques et ‘les nouvelles intéressantes” comme le témoigne du caractère occasionnel des ancres de nouvelles au sujet d’un incident précédent dans la ville de Nyeri à la télévision en direct.
Ces violations contreviennent clairement la constitution du Kenya, en plus de conventions de droits de l’homme régionales et internationales telles que le Protocole de Maputo de l’Union africaine, la résolution 1325 du Conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies sur les femmes, la paix et la sécurité et de la Convention sur l’élimination de toutes les formes de discrimination contre les femmes (CEDAW ) que le Kenya a ratifié. Les Etats Constituants du Kenya dans les articles 27 (3) stipule que les hommes et les femmes méritent un traitement égal devant la loi et une partie (5) stipule que nul ne peut être l’objet de discrimination pour quelque motif que ce soit, ainsi que l’article 28 qui stipule que «Toute personne a dignité et le droit d’avoir cette dignité respectée et protégée ».
Comme le Dr Godfrey Chesang a observé sur l’inégalité géographique de Nairobi, le centre-ville de Nairobi est divisé en deux à Tom Mboya Street. La ‘carte postale’ du côté où l’état est en charge et le côté chaotique après Tom Mboya, où une armée de cireurs de chaussures et les balayeuses assurent les chaussures des ‘Mwananchi’S ordinaires du côté poussiéreux et boueux de Nairobi d’être désinfectées en préparation pour le nettoyage , ordonnée, côté poste de la carte sécurisée, à l’ouest de l’avenue Moi. Le déshabillage des femmes et des agressions est moins fréquent sur le côté carte postale de la ville, à la différence du côté moins glamour, où les quelques policiers en patrouille regardent lorsque des violations se produisent, la plupart du temps après avoir été compromis par des pots de vin pour les infractions de la circulation, des médicaments et d’autres illégalités. Un article récent de Mucemi Wachira de Nation sur Filthy rues de Nairobi illustre mon propos.
Cette ligne invisible peut remonter jusqu’au système colonial britannique de l’apartheid comme au Kenya, qui délimitait un côté de Nairobi pour les Blancs, «le côté de la carte postale« tandis que les Africains et les Indiens avec condescendance l’autre côté de la ville à partir de l’avenue Moi avec peu de personnel; d’infrastructure du gouvernement, de planification et de sécurité.
Les élites post-coloniales héritées de cette division et perpétuent encore les codes en fournissant plus de sécurité pour eux-mêmes sur le «côté de la carte postale» et dans leurs maisons, tandis que moins de sécurité a été offert à ceux de l’autre côté de l’avenue Moi. En conséquence, l’insécurité est devenue normalisée pour les Africains. Cet héritage reste avec un impact coûteux sur les «hommes les moins privilégiés et les femmes moreso», comme la sécurité de leur côté de Nairobi est laissée à des hooligans, des agresseurs et déshabilleurs.
Dans une récente interview avec un journaliste du Guardian après les protestations #Mydressmychoice, certains démarcheurs à la Tom Mboya-, Accra jonction road ont rappelé au journaliste qu’une ligne invisible existe à Nairobi, où certains ourlets sont inacceptables.
La volonté politique du président ne suffit pas, une réorganisation de l’Etat à se réorienter d’un concept centré sur l’état de la sécurité à une approche centrée sur la sécurité humaine dont l’objectif est le citoyen est important. L’approche de la sécurité centrée sur l’État valorise la souveraineté de l’Etat et son élite tout en offrant une sécurité minimale aux plus vulnérables. Donc beaucoup ont besoin de faire à un niveau système. Le gouvernement kenyan a récemment mis en place une force de police pour faire face aux «femmes» déshabillées et une politique nationale de genre, lors du lancement des 16 jours de campagne de militantisme par le président du Kenya. Les Femmes kenyanes espèrent que les ressources seront investies pour assurer que ces politiques ne soient pas de simples jetons pour apaiser les femmes pour la prochaine élection en 2017.
D’autres dirigeants tels que les gouverneurs de comté, les membres de comté du parlement et les membres des assemblées de comté (MCM) ont besoin pour mener leurs comtés dans des campagnes similaires dans le cadre des 16 jours d’activisme sur la violence contre les femmes en introduisant des politiques de genre qui criminalisent déshabillage, les arrestations immédiates et des peines plus sévères pour les contrevenants jusqu’au choix de la robe des femmes est respectée, comme ils le faisaient avant l’infiltration des normes chrétiennes de l’époque victorienne des robe avec la rencontre coloniale. En outre, des forums novateurs pour désapprendre les masculinités erronées parmi les auteurs potentiels, tout en apprenant les masculinités positives et saines à partir de modèles de rôle, sur ce que c’est d’être un homme au Kenya doit être encouragée tout en fournissant l’éducation et des possibilités économiques.[/tp]
A New Kind of Dance: Book Launch Supported by AWDF
A New Kind of Dance: Book Launch Supported by AWDF
We are excited to announce the launch event of the book, A New Kind of Dance, by our grantee partner, Habiba Dangana Foundation (HADIS), in Nigeria. The book is written by Amina Salihu, a development consultant with a well of knowledge and experience in building women’s political participation. The African Women’s Development Fund contributed $15,000 to the completion of this project.
Sarah Mukasa, AWDF’s Director of Programmes shares, “This publication charts the experiences of women in politics in Northern Nigeria. It makes a very useful contribution to our understanding of what works and what doesn’t and how women should be supported in electoral processes.”
A New Kind of Dance is the first of its kind written from the perspective of someone observing a campaign trail and organising women to be politically active. The uniqueness of this book is that no one had ever documented the multi-dimensional experiences of a woman on the campaign trail before. Salihu details stories as a spouse, a mobilizer and a campaign leader in Northern Nigeria. The book has also been translated into Hausa as Sabuwar Gada.
With the release of this book, Salihu hopes to accomplish the following objectives:
- Increase women’s qualitative participation in the 2015 elections
- Strengthen the knowledge base of young girls and women across selected public schools
- Mature the confidence of women whose work and voices are captured in the book
- Create a richer awareness by making the book available for strategic distribution to partners and stakeholders.
The launch of A New Kind of Dance takes place at the Women’s Development Centre Central Area in Abuja on Wednesday, November 26th, 2014 at 10am prompt. The event is open to the public.
Thank you to the HADIS Foundation and author Amina Salihu for creating free e-book versions of A New Kind of Dance to share with women worldwide! ( English and Hausa versions). Hard copies of the book can also be purchased on Amazon.
African Women Speak Back – Using Radio to Tackle Violence
African Women Speak Back – Using Radio to Tackle Violence
African Women Speak Back- Using Radio to tackle Violence
by Jen Thorpe
If you are a woman, you are aware of the threat of violence. You are also likely to have experienced violence in some way – whether it is verbal threats of harassment, or physical or sexual violence. To be a woman in 2014 means to be aware that your security and safety are precarious.
When it comes to the 16 Days of Activism, and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, these thoughts are often on my mind as I compare the world now to the world it was this time last year. As a female activist working in the field of gender-based violence, the problem can at times seem overwhelming. It can feel like there are so many reasons for the occurrence of violence, so many factors that make violence more likely, and so few appropriate state responses to violence when it happens. In short, it can feel insurmountable, and at times inevitable.
It’s on these days that I often feel grateful because I know that women and men around the world are working on addressing violence, and at developing ways of targeting the issue. The ecological model of violence is one helpful framework for looking at how we might begin to tackle violence against women from various angles. This model looks at elements in the society, relationship, individuals and community in order to target interventions at each element that allows violence to happen or makes it more likely. The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) funds a number of organisations working at these different entry points, for example:
- Stepping Stones International (Botswana) targets orphaned and vulnerable adolescents, combining life skills, leadership, psychosocial support and community mobilization. The AWDF grant supported them to organize community marches by youth peer educators in three districts, which were attended by over 3,000 community members.
- ALAFIA (Togo) was supported by an AWDF grant to undertake a series of empowerment and advocacy activities on harmful traditional practices among queen mothers and opinion leaders as well as to organize awareness creation programmes on widowhood rites within selected villages. As a result of the project the Head of the cantonment decreed that women will no longer be subjected to widowhood rites of long duration.
- The Gender Violence Recovery Center at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital (Kenya) was supported by an AWDF grant in 2009 to organize a strategic plan workshop, provide medical support to survivors of sexual and domestic violence, and to facilitate rape survivor support groups.
The 16 Days has a strong focus on encouraging a community of people around the world to commit to ending violence. There is the risk though, that those messages only reach people who are already interested in ending violence. The question then becomes – how do we reach people who are not listening? The AWDF supported The Women Inspiration Development Centre (WIDC) in Nigeria to cleverly used radio as a tool to reach a broader community. The radio programmes were aimed at awareness raising, and allowed for phone-in sessions for members of communities to ask follow up questions.
This choice of radio is not insignificant – many myths around violence against women suggest that only certain men perpetrate violence, and only certain women are the victims. Through using radio, the message of ending violence “is accessible to all: the rich, poor, the privileged, and the underprivileged”, says Busayo Oibisakin, Founder and CEO. Via the radio waves, messages that might not ordinarily enter a home create the opportunity for discussion of taboo subjects. The WIDC experience with using radio indicates that it also can be a tool that allows women to reflect on their own situation, and to make them aware that there are options for them to leave violent relationships or seek help. “After our radio program in 2012, funded by the AWDF, we [have] received a call for help every week from women and girls facing one form of violence or the other,” says Oibisakin. Sadly, the effect of the success of this campaign is that the WIDC has been overwhelmed with calls for assistance.
By building partnerships with other experts in their community, the WIDC increased ability to support the high volume of women seeking advice and help from them. “Among the group, there must be lawyers so that you will know the steps to take at every stage of handling cases of violence.” Other experts to consider including would be health care workers, social workers, and free counseling services, so that the survivors of violence are able to heal both physical and psychological injuries. A good funding strategy should be in place, so that after the campaign the organization ensures that it is sustainable.
In 2014, when many non-governmental organizations are facing tough funding climates locally, radio also has other benefits. Radio “is cheaper and accessible to many” and “can reach as many people as possible…wherever they are.” This means that relatively inexpensively a very broad group of people who might not ordinarily have been interested in helping. Radio, by not being an adversarial advocacy tool, allows organisations to reach into homes, and into hearts, encouraging people to see their own lives in the stories they hear. For Oibisakin, the positive effect of this is that “today unlike before, many are now aware of violence against women. We now have support of many people including men to fight violence against women in our community.” Until the 16 Days becomes 365 days, this support will remain vital in building the community of peace that we so desperately need.
It has been the year of #BringBackOurGirls in Nigeria, #MyDressMyChoice in Kenya, #HeForShe around the world, as well as many other campaigns that make it clear that enough is enough. Activists are working across sectors to end violence, so whilst starting something is always harder than finishing it, it’s good to know that work is happening across the continent. We just need to join the movement.
Jen Thorpe is a feminist writer and researcher from Cape Town, South Africa. She is a passionate advocate for women’s rights and has worked in this field for six years. She has an MA in Politics from Rhodes University, and recently completed her first novel ‘The Peculiars’ through the UCT Creative Writing Masters Programme. Look for it in stores soon. Jen is part of the African Women’s Development Fund’s (AWDF) Community of African Women Writers. Click here to learn more.
The WHEAT Trust Launches FemPress
The WHEAT Trust Launches FemPress
The WHEAT Trust, a grantee partner of AWDF, will launch FemPress, a publishing house to amplify the visibility of grassroots women and their stories next month.
I am the Rose
If you are in the Cape Town (SA) area, join the December 2nd launch festivities which include the unveiling of I am the Rose, a collection of poetry and art by Zulfa Abrahams.
Zulfa Abrahams is a poet, artist and feminist scholar from Cape Town, with an interest in identity politics, gender and embodiment and mixed media visual art. She has MA in Women’s and Gender studies where she examined Muslim women and the politics of power and gender. She is currently undertaking her doctoral study which focuses on emerging technologies, women,power and education.
Recently, Zulfa has taken a keen interest in expanding her artistic work as a sketch artist and painter to include a number of mediums. She is particularly interested in the ways in which visual art empowers and provides a feminist space for intellectual creativity.
Inspiring women such as Diana Ferrus and Dr. Nadia Sanger will be leading the conversation at the launch.
FemPress, a publishing house for grassroots women stories in Africa
Grassroots women are sorely under-represented in the dialogue surrounding the issues that most affect their lives. Thus, they are often robbed of their physical and literary voices.
Instead of speaking on their behalf, The WHEAT Trust strongly believes that they deserve the opportunity to tell their own stories.
In April 2013, WHEAT hosted a writing skills workshop for some Western Cape grantees that work in the field of Gender Based Violence in their communities.
They published a first book containing these grantees’ personal stories born from the workshop. The book was entitled Every Scar Tells a Story.
This has inspired other women, like Zulpha, to come forth and tell their stories, and highlighted the need for a platform through which to raise their voices.
Thus, it is WHEAT’s aim that the launch of FemPress will enable women to share their stories, articulate their needs and share in the mainstream media in print as well as the additional digital platform.
To find out more about The WHEAT Trust and how you can help, visit the organisation’s website.
Governments Must Re-Dedicate to Women’s & Girls’ Rights Commitments
Governments Must Re-Dedicate to Women’s & Girls’ Rights Commitments
Press Release
November 17, 2014
For Immediate Release
Women’s rights organizations meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 14-16 November have called on African governments to re-dedicate themselves to upholding national, regional and international laws and policies that advance women’s rights and gender equality on universal human rights standards already agreed upon and protect them from social moral and cultural arguments and positions.
Civil Society Organizations were discussing the progress made in the field of women’s and girls’ rights 20 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BDPfA) was adopted.
Participants said that most of the gains made in Women’s and Girls’ rights since the holding of the International Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 have come under various threats and are facing persistent challenges, notably from widening inequalities between the rich and poor and between men and women due to prioritization of macroeconomic policies that are driven by growth without equitable development and respect for human rights.
“HIV, maternal mortality and morbidity continue to be amongst leading causes of death for women; the rising radical and extremist groups pose threats to the safety, security and advancement of women and girls as indicated by on-going abductions of girls shrinking space and; resources for civil society; and macroeconomic policies that perpetuate inequalities,” as noted in the CSO Forum Declaration (available online on www.femnet.co).
The rights, priorities and needs of African women and girls must intentionally be highlighted in the ongoing regional and global discussions such as the 59th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 59) scheduled for in March 2015, where governments will be reviewing and appraising implementation of the BDPfA. In addition, CSOs are keen to strengthen gender equality and the empowerment of women in the Post-2015 development agenda through the integration of a rights-based and gender perspective.
BPfA is a landmark visionary roadmap for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment as set out by governments during the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing 1995. To date, no country in the world has achieved gender equality. According to UN Women, “though much has been achieved, progress has been unacceptably slow, particularly for the most marginalized women and girls”.
The weekend conference was attended by over 150 African women and girls from 34 countries across the continent.
Rachel Kagoiya
Information Manager
The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)
library@femnet.or.ke
Follow conversations online #Beijing20 and #THeAfricaWeWant
Africa CSO Position Statement for Beijing +20
Africa CSO Position Statement for Beijing +20
African women have been at the forefront of shaping the global agenda for women’s rights from the 3rd World Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985 that resulted in the “Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies”.
The 4th World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 was chaired by a prominent African woman, Mrs. Gertrude Mongella, who alongside other African women ensured that the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action’s (BDPfA) 12 critical areas of concern reflected priorities of African women and girls.
Over the last two decades, Africa has made tremendous strides in developing progressive frameworks to advance the rights of women on the Continent. This is evident from the adoption of the gender equality principle in the African Union’s (AU) Constitutive Act of 2002, the AU Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa of 2003, and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa of 2004, to mention a few. At national and regional levels, significant progress has been made in such critical areas as: girls’ education, women’s political participation, maternal health, adoption of action plans on UN Security Council Resolution 1325, as well as laws and policies on violence against women, amongst others.
Nevertheless, the 20 year review of the BDPfA comes within a social, political and economic environment in which many of the gains made in 1995 are facing various threats. The following trends and challenges continue to hinder the advancement of women and girls’ rights including, but not limited to: widening inequalities between the rich and poor and between men and women due to prioritization of macroeconomic policies that are driven by growth, without equitable development and respect for human rights; HIV, maternal mortality and morbidity continue to be amongst the leading causes of death for women; increasing radical and extremist groups that pose threats to the safety, security and advancement of women and girls, as indicated by on-going abductions of girls; and the shrinking space and resources for civil society particularly those working on women’s rights.
It is therefore incumbent upon us, as Africans, to re-dedicate ourselves to the commitments made in the BDPfA and other international and regional commitments on rights of women, recognizing women in all their diversities. This includes ensuring on-going processes and negotiations on Post 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Financing for Development (FfD), the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), and the Africa Agenda 2063 do not erode these commitments and that they consolidate the gains made. Reaffirming as well that the State remains the principal duty bearer of human rights obligations and this responsibility should not be shifted to other actors such as civil society, development partners or the private sector.
We, 190 representatives of civil society in our diversity from 34 countries in the 5 regions of Africa and the Diaspora, gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from November, 14 -16 2014 for the NGO Forum on the Beijing+20 Review, and building on the UNECA CSO Technical Consultation on Beijing+20 convened in October 2014, hereby recommend the following to African governments, recognizing that each organ and department of government is responsible and accountable for women’s rights falling within its mandate, under coordination by the gender machineries.
Access the full Beijing +20 Africa CSO Position Paper here.
AWDF’s 16 Days of Activism Blog Series Begins
AWDF’s 16 Days of Activism Blog Series Begins
[tp lan=”en” not_in=”fr”]In June 2013, a thirteen-year old Egyptian girl Sohair al-Bata’a, died while being circumcised by a doctor in a small village northeast of Cairo. Today it was announced that the “doctor” who performed the procedure was acquitted in Egypt’s first Female Genital Mutilation trial. But we must not forget. We must get up and stand up for our rights and those of girls like Sohair.
Girls such as Sohair are the reason that the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign exists. From 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign is a time to highlight action to end violence against women and girls around the world.
The campaigns key dates include: November 25th: The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women; December 1st: World Aids Day; December 3rd: International Day for Persons with Disabilities; December 10th: International Human Rights Day. This year, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign will continue with the theme of “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women!”
Violence against women continues to affect women in all corners of the globe. The United Nations (UN) defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”.
One in three women globally has been a victim of either sexual or physical violence by a partner, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement released alongside the reports, published recently in the Lancet medical journal.
According to the WHO “despite increased global attention to violence perpetrated against women and girls, and recent advances in knowledge about how to tackle these abuses, levels of violence against women — including intimate partner violence, rape, female genital mutilation, trafficking, and forced marriages — remain unacceptably high, with serious consequences for victims’ physical and mental health.”
In Africa, violence against women continues unabated. Families show their preference for boy children over girl children. Violence against the girl child starts right at birth, with some circumcised between infancy and age 15. These procedures are not performed by medical professionals; moreover, circumcision has no health benefits for girls and women. Circumcision may cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, infertility as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths. According to World Health Organisation, more than 125 million girls and women alive today have been cut in the 29 countries in Africa and Middle East where FGM is concentrated. Despite activists calling for the end of the practice, female genital mutilation is still a common practice in many communities.
Earlier this year, Uganda signed the Anti-Pornography Act into law; a number of women around Uganda were stripped for wearing mini skirts. Last week, a group of men were caught on video stripping a woman at a popular bus stop in Nairobi, Kenya. Fortunately, women and men from around East Africa took to social media, tweeting the hashtag #MyDressMyChoice and organized protests through the streets of Nairobi demanding the government deal with perpetrators of sexual violence.
We are violated in our own homes by the people who we love; our spouses, our siblings, our relatives, men in the streets, on our way to the well. As a woman, almost everywhere seems unsafe. As a woman, I am used to being harassed, not because of how I dress (and there is nothing wrong with how most women dress) but because I am a woman. And the men get away with it because they think it’s their responsibility to treat women the way they want. In order for women to live peacefully, we need peace in the homes, in the streets, where we can walk without being harassed.
Sometimes, I dream about the time that no child will undergo genital mutilation, no woman will be whistled to by men on the streets, homes where women feel safe and loved and not worry about defilement, rape or incest. And this is not something that is hard for us to do, but why can’t we do them? Why can’t we love women? Why can’t we treat women with respect? We all want peace but we never want another person to be peaceful.
This year, AWDF has commissioned six of the participants of the FEMRITE/AWDF non-fiction writers workshop to blog about the issues highlighted on each day of the campaign. This year’s writers include: Jennifer Thorpe from South Africa and Njoki Wamai from Kenya who through interviews with AWDF grantee partners and using an analysis of women’s rights organising focus on how communities can get involved to end violence against women. Eunice Kilonzo from Kenya and Kechi Nomu from Nigeria focus on issues of HIV/AIDS and disability how they have impacted on women on the continent and some of the strategies of resistance that we see emerging; and finally to close the series on December 10th, Valerie Bah from the DRC tells the story of a Togolese woman who has faced a widowhood rite, and contextualizes it against the advocacy work being done by AWDF grantee partners there.
Every year, AWDF provides resources to women’s organizations and groups all over Africa who are working to end gender-based violence in Africa. To support the 2014 global campaign to end violence against women, AWDF will support small to medium scale women’s rights organizations across Africa to lend their voice to the campaign to end violence against women. AWDF will support initiatives by women’s organizations and groups in Africa working to: address stigma and discrimination against women living with HIV/AIDS; empower women living with HIV to participate effectively and take the lead in the HIV response in their various communities; and to amplify the voices of women living with HIV. For several years AWDF has recognised the importance of providing grants to support activities to mark 16 Days of Activism and remains committed to this work.
I am glad that women are doing everything to make every woman safe in this world, and men have joined in the fight. Some men need to know that the woman is as important and human as they are, and we should be treated with respect and love. Every woman must help each other fight violence against women. As Maya Angelou once said, “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”
Beatrice Lamwaka was born in Gulu in northern Uganda, and now lives in Kampala. She is the General Secretary Uganda Women’s Writers Association (FEMRITE) and a freelance writer with Monitor Newspaper, UGPulse and the Press Institute. She was shortlisted for 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing and finalist for the PEN/Studzinski Literary Award 2009. Her short stories have appeared in Caine Prize anthologies, To See the Mountain and other stories, and African Violet and Other Stories. And other anthologies including: Butterfly Dreams and Other Stories from Uganda, New Writing from Africa 2009, Words from A Granary, World of Our Own, Farming Ashes, Summoning the Rains, Queer Africa: New and Collected Fiction, PMS poemmemoirstory journal, among others. She is working on her first novel and a collection of short stories.[/tp]
[tp lan=”fr” not_in=”en”]En Juin 2013,une jeune écolière égyptienne de 13 ans Sohair al-Bata’a, est morte au cours d’une excision par un médecin dans un petit village au nord du Caire. Aujourd’hui, il a été annoncé que le «docteur» qui a effectué la procédure a été acquitté dans le premier procès pour mutilations génitales féminines en Égypte. Mais nous ne devons pas oublier. Nous devons nous lever et défendre nos droits et ceux des filles comme Sohair.
Les filles tels que Sohair sont la raison pour laquelle lla campagne des 16 jours d’activisme contre la violence sexiste existe. Du 25 Novembre, la Journée internationale pour l’élimination de la violence contre les femmes, au 10 Décembre, Journée des droits de l’homme, la campagne des 16 jours d’activisme contre de violence basée sur le genre est un temps pour mettre en évidence l’action pour mettre fin à la violence contre les femmes et les filles à travers le monde .
Les dates clés de la campagne comprennent: Le 25 Novembre: La Journée internationale pour l’élimination de la violence contre les femmes; 1 décembre: Journée mondiale contre le sida; Le 3 décembre: Journée internationale des personnes handicapées; 10 décembre: Journée internationale des droits de l’homme. Cette année, les 16 jours d’activisme contre la violence basée sur le genre se poursuivront avec le thème de «De la paix à la maison pour la Paix dans le Monde: Défi militarisme du LET et pour en finir avec la Violence contre les femmes”
La violence contre les femmes continue d’affecter les femmes dans tous les coins du globe. Les Nations Unies (ONU) définit la violence contre les femmes comme «tout acte de violence sexiste qui entraîne ou est susceptible d’entraîner, un préjudice physique, sexuel ou psychologique aux femmes, y compris la menace de tels actes, la contrainte ou arbitrairement la privation de liberté, que ce soit en public ou dans la vie privée “.
Une femme sur trois dans le monde a été victime de violence sexuelle ou physique par un partenaire, a déclaré l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé (OMS) dans un communiqué publié aux côtés des rapports, publiée récemment dans la revue Lancet medical journal.
Selon l’OMS “malgré l’augmentation de l’attention mondiale à la violence perpétrée contre les femmes et les filles, et les récents progrès dans les connaissances sur la façon de lutter contre ces abus, les niveaux de violence contre les femmes – y compris la violence du partenaire intime, le viol, les mutilations génitales féminines, la traite et le mariages forcés – restent inacceptablement élevé, avec de graves conséquences pour la santé physique et mentale des victimes “.
En Afrique, la violence contre les femmes se poursuit sans relâche. Les familles montrent leur préférence pour les petits garçons plus que les filles. La violence contre la petite fille commence dès la naissance, avec certaines circoncisions entre l’enfance et 15ans. Ces procédures ne sont pas effectuées par des professionnels médicaux; En outre, la circoncision n’a pas de prestations de santé pour les filles et les femmes. La circoncision peut provoquer de graves hémorragies et des problèmes urinaires, kystes et plus tard, les infections, la stérilité ainsi que des complications lors de l’accouchement et le risque accru de décès de nouveau-nés. Selon l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé, plus de 125 millions de filles et de femmes vivant aujourd’hui ont été coupées dans 29 pays d’Afrique et du Moyen-Orient où la MGF est concentrée. Malgré les militants appelant à la fin de la pratique, la mutilation génitale féminine est encore une pratique courante dans de nombreuses communautés.
Plus tôt cette année, l’Ouganda a transformé la loi anti-pornographie en droit; un certain nombre de femmes autour de l’Ouganda ont été dépouillées pour avoir porté des mini-jupes. La semaine dernière, un groupe d’hommes ont été capturés sur la vidéo de déshabillage d’une femme à un arrêt de bus populaire à Nairobi, au Kenya. Heureusement, les femmes et les hommes d’Afrique de l’Est ont utilisé les médias sociaux, Twitter :#MyDressMyChoice hashtag et des manifestations organisées dans les rues de Nairobi exigent l’accord de gouvernement pour les auteurs de violences sexuelles.
Nous sommes violées dans nos propres maisons par les personnes que nous aimons; nos conjoints, nos frères et sœurs, nos parents, les hommes dans les rues, sur notre chemin vers le bien. En tant que femme, cela semble dangereux presque partout. En tant que femme, je suis habituée à être harcelée, pas à cause de la façon dont je me habille (et il n’y a rien de mal avec la façon dont la plupart des femmes s’habillent), mais parce que je suis une femme. Et les hommes pensent qu’il est de leur responsabilité de traiter les femmes comme ils le veulent. Pour que les femmes puissent vivre en paix, nous avons besoin de la paix dans les maisons, dans les rues, où l’on peut marcher sans être harcelée.
Parfois, je rêve de l’époque où aucun enfant ne subira de mutilations génitales, aucune femme ne sera sifflée par les hommes dans les rues, des maisons où les femmes se sentent en sécurité et aimées et ne vous inquiétez pas à propos de la souillure, du viol ou de l’inceste. Et ce n’est pas quelque chose qui nous est difficile de faire, mais pourquoi ne peut-on faire entre eux? Pourquoi ne pouvons-nous pas aimer les femmes? Pourquoi ne pouvons-nous pas traiter les femmes avec respect? Nous voulons tous la paix, mais nous ne voulons jamais une autre personne d’être pacifique.
Cette année, AWDF a commandé à six des participants de FEMRITE/AWDF non-fiction writers workshop un blog sur les questions mises en évidence à chaque jour de la campagne. Les écrivains de cette année comprennent: Jennifer Thorpe de l’Afrique du Sud et Njoki Wamai du Kenya qui, à travers des entretiens avec les partenaires bénéficiaires de subventions d’AWDF et de l’aide d’une analyse des droits des femmes organisant l’accent sur la façon dont les communautés peuvent participer pour mettre fin à la violence contre les femmes. Eunice Kilonzo du Kenya et Kechi Nomu du Nigeria se concentrent sur les questions de VIH / sida et handicap comment ils ont eu un impact sur les femmes sur le continent et quelques-unes des stratégies de résistance que nous voyons émerger; et enfin pour clore la série le 10 Décembre, Valerie Bah de la RDC raconte l’histoire d’une femme togolaise qui a fait face à un rite de veuvage, et contextualise contre le travail de plaidoyer effectué par les partenaires bénéficiaires de subventions AWDF.
Chaque année, AWDF fournit des ressources aux organisations et groupes africains de femmes qui travaillent pour mettre fin à la violence fondée sur le genre en Afrique. Pour soutenir la campagne mondiale 2014 et mettre fin à la violence contre les femmes, AWDF va soutenir les petites et moyennes organisations de droit des femmes à moyenne échelle à travers l’Afrique afin de prêter leurs voix à la campagne pour mettre fin à la violence contre les femmes. AWDF va soutenir les initiatives des organisations et des groupes de travail de femmes en Afrique: lutter contre la stigmatisation et la discrimination contre les femmes vivant avec le VIH / sida; l’autonomisation des femmes vivant avec le VIH afin de participer efficacement et de prendre les devants dans la riposte au VIH dans leurs différentes communautés; et pour amplifier la voix des femmes vivant avec le VIH. Depuis plusieurs années AWDF a reconnu l’importance de fournir des subventions pour soutenir les activités pour marquer le 16 Jours d’Activisme et demeure déterminé à ce travail.
Je suis heureuse que les femmes fassent tout pour rendre chaque femme en sécurité dans ce monde, et les hommes ont rejoint dans la lutte. Certains hommes ont besoin de savoir que la femme est aussi importante et des humains comme ils le sont, et nous devrions être traités avec respect et amour. Chaque femme doit aider l’autre dans le combat contre la violence contre les femmes. Comme l’a dit Maya Angelou, “Chaque fois qu’une femme se lève pour elle-même, sans le savoir peut-être, sans prétendre, elle se lève pour toutes les femmes.”
LamwakaBeatrice Lamwaka est né à Gulu, dans le nord de l’Ouganda, et vit maintenant à Kampala. Elle est Secrétaire générale de l’Association Ougandaise des femmes écrivains (FEMRITE) et un rédacteur pigiste avec moniteur de journaux,a UGPulse et l’Institut de presse. Elle a été finaliste en 2011 pour le Prix Caine pour l’écriture africaine et finaliste pour le PEN / Studzinski Literary Award 2009. Ses nouvelles ont paru dans des anthologies Caine Prize, pour voir La Montagne et autres histoires, ou La violette africaine et autres histoires. Et d’autres anthologies dont: Rêves de papillon et autres histoires de l’Ouganda, de l’Afrique du New Writing 2009, Mots de A Granary, World of Our Own, agricoles Ashes, Summoning les pluies, l’Afrique Queer: Nouveau et recueilli Fiction, PMS poemmemoirstory Journal, entre autres . Elle travaille sur son premier roman et un recueil d’histoires courtes.[/tp]
Letters from the Ground: Women Organisations Respond to Ebola
Letters from the Ground: Women Organisations Respond to Ebola
At the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), we are actively working with women’s organisations on the ground to respond to the ebola crisis.
Members of our Grants department correspond with partner networks each week who are responding to community needs by amplifying accurate information about the virus and viable prevention methods, particularly to remote communities.
Below are excerpts of letters from the field written by AWDF’s grantee partners in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Women Solidarity, WSD-Liberia
Bettea S. Monger
The disease has spread to all 15 counties. It is no longer the business of the Liberian government. The virus is covering the entire country.
The most affected communities are West Point, Montserrado, Dolo’s Town, Margibi, Barkidu, Grand Kru, Lofa, Gbarpolu, Bong, Sinoe, Nimba, Kolahun and Foyah District Lofa counties.
With limited and restricted financial resources, we have created public awareness and prevention strategies for the disease through the following activities:
1. Radio awareness and prevention messages in two dialects (Kpaleh and Bassa) during the months of August and September. The radio program is presently operating in six counties including Montserrado, Margibi, Bong, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount and Grand Bassa.
2. Printing and posting of information leaflets in the communities of Soul Clinic, Paynesville and Zaysay.
One of the volunteers in our office has nearly lost her entire family to ebola. They were among the twenty-five (25) who succumbed to the virus on 20th August in the Kolahun district of Masabolahun.
In many cases, a driver will take a patient from one health center to another until the person ends up dying inside the vehicle. The body could be in the vehicle for 2-3 days before the ebola response until takes it away. The death rate of women affected by ebola is quite high, particularly among pregnant women as well as children and babies.
The increasing spread of ebola is due to people traveling from community to community without taking preventive measures into consideration. At the same time, awareness and prevention messages are yet to reach the most remote communities in the country.
In an effort to rapidly respond to and combat the ebola crisis, we are in dire need of the following items:
- Printing educational posters, banners and leaflets
- Handwashing buckets
- Community to community sensitization and awareness/prevention workshops for residents, rural clinical workers (TBAs and TTMs and other midwives assigned in remote communities)
- Chlorine
- Protective personal equipment (PPE) for rural clinical workers
The markets are closed causing the price of commodities to skyrocket. Traveling from one part of Liberia to another has become extremely difficult. The epidemic is devastating the economic fabric of our country.
Community Empowerment Program (CEP), Liberia
Lucy Page
The outbreak has created an unfavorable economic situation. Communities are hugely challenged by the interruption of their cultural practices – shaking hands, hugging, bathing and grooming the dead. While none of the members of the organization have been personally affected, they have been emotionally and culturally impacted because of the number of relatives, friends and associates who are at risk because they live in “hotspot” communities.
If death occurs from the virus, they are unable to celebrate the homecoming properly because the deceased can not be touched or provided a proper burial. Women are at high risk for infection due to their dominance in the nursing profession and other caregiving careers.
Compound Number 1, a project community based in Grand Bassa County is encountering a spillover effect from Dolos Town in Margibi County. The gender equality program there is currently under quarantine. Market sellers are prohibited from trading in the quarantined neighborhoods causing additional challenges in income generation and food security.
CEP management has integrated an ebola prevention awareness campaign into one project, Department of Defense-Supported HIV/AIDS Prevention, as well as treatment and care targeting soldiers of the armed forces and surrounding communities of five (5) military barracks.
The organisation will conduct individualised and group counseling sessions, integrated with psychological counseling, and community events that target survivors of ebola. This action plan will be followed by the reactivation of economic empowerment initiatives to help rekindle the hopes of Liberians. These high-impact initiatives will help beneficiaries and communities to heal from the trauma of this experience. It is our hope to mend the existing fractured socio-cultural system so that citizens can resume a normal life.
What is still needed are the provision of sanitising materials or hygiene kits – chlorine, soap and rubber buckets with faucets. We also need funding to intensify the campaign of massive sensitisation and awareness with special attention to curbing the spread of the disease in high risk communities.
Given the accelerated pace that ebola is spreading in Liberia, we request fast-tracked assistance to provide women organisations the capacity to intensify the campaign against ebola.
New Liberian Women Organisation
Miata Kiazolu Sirleaf
My sisters, can you imagine that it was the women of West Point who led the demonstration! About 31 persons are said to have died. Our people are losing their lives on a daily basis. Much is needed in every way possible to make our people aware.
We encountered a problem in the field with a 16-year old girl giving birth. She went into a coma for three hours at a local clinic in Fandell, rural Montserrado County. We tried taking her to the hospital but, unfortunately, none of the hospitals allowed her. This took us nearly three days running from one place to another. At one point we were asked to carry her to the center where ebola patients are treated. We’ve known her quite well for many months and she was only giving birth. We refused because she does not have ebola.
At last, one private hospital, SDA Cooper Hospital, was able to treat her and she is responding well, even speaking and walking.
The country has very limited ambulance activity. As a result, dead bodies remain in the streets and homes for three to four days before the Taskforce Team can remove them.
Through the AWDF grant we have been able to do the following:
- A well-organized educational and awareness campaign to spread the word on symptoms and prevention methods
- A dramatization of how ebola is spread
- A talk show on radio in rural Montserrado County
- Distribution of essential materials such as clorox, biomedical soap, handwash buckets, stickers, fliers and posters to local marketplaces, communities, villages and towns
- A large projection frame to show how the virus works on the human body
We no longer live in normal conditions.
Schools are closed. The economy has declined, prices of local and international commodities have increased, hospitals are refusing people who are sick for fear of ebola. We no longer have long hours of work. Our rights are limited and the future of our children is at stake. It’s difficult to find food, women are depressed due to a loss of dignity and financial capacity to take care of their families. Women are especially affected because they tend to be the breadwinners for the family.
We need massive educational and awareness campaigns in the rural parts of the country where people lack basic information due to bad road conditions and limited electricity. Medication, food and ambulances are highly required to fight this battle against ebola.
In closing, let me give you nine (9) unsuspecting ebola sources you and your staff should pay extreme caution:
1. Door handles/access and transfer points in public places
2. Toll gate exchanges
3. Sharing writing utensils
4. Restaurants, food and drink handling
5. Fuel pumps and tanks
6. Makeup kits
7. ATM machine buttons
8. Hair and nail salons
9. Sharing cell phones and other mobile devices
Women and Children Development Association of Liberia (WOCDAL)
Malinda B. Joss
Along the Robertsfield Highway, twenty-seven (27) persons have died in the last two weeks. 13 children, 9 men, 6 women.This community is a concession area with diverse people. The situation was so alarming that President Sirleaf paid an emergency visit.
Four people have died in the community where our program manager lives. There’s not enough materials there for sanitation.
The government ministries don’t have the requisite training to prevent the spread. Cultural and traditional norms are negatively competing with the interventions of NGOs and medical team workers. There is a huge need for more funds to enable us to do the work.
Thankfully, we have a disaster management person on staff who was trained in Zimbabwe. This will help us to ensure that we handle the intervention according to the appropriate standards.
Centre for Safe Motherhood Youth & Child Outreach (CESMYCO), Sierra Leone
Laurel Bangura
For now, all organisations in the country are geared towards fighting ebola. It has caused a lot of mayhem in every facet of our society. Women and children are suffering. They are always the most vulnerable especially because women serve as domestic nurses to patients before the intervention of medical personnel.
In many cases when both parents die, the children are left as orphans. There are so many now in different communities across the country.
The government is presently quarantining five (5) districts in Sierra Leone: Moyamba, Bombali, Portloko, Kailahun and Kenema. The government is unable to meet all the needs of the people, especially that of women and children. We have been helping to assist pregnant and nursing mothers with food items, toiletries and soap.
On October 8th, Laygbay Lilian Amadu, Gender Advocacy Officer for Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, provided the following estimates of ebola’s impact on women and children:
Number of children infected: 105
Number of women infected: 813
Number of children orphaned: 313
Number of children who have died: 48
Number of women who have died: 433
The numbers are growing with each day.
*All photos used in this article are from ebola prevention activities implemented by the Women and Children Development Association of Liberia (WOCDAL). AWDF provided USD5,000 towards this endeavor.
IN THE BREAK: AWDF Partners with Grantees in Response to Ebola
IN THE BREAK: AWDF Partners with Grantees in Response to Ebola
Schools are closed. The economy has declined. Hospitals are refusing people who are sick for fear of ebola. Women are especially affected because they tend to be the breadwinners for the family.
We no longer have long hours of work. Our rights are limited and the future of our children is at stake.
-Miata Kiazolu Sirleaf
New Liberian Women Organisation
On the 18th of September 2014, the UN declared ebola as a threat to international peace and security and swiftly formed the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER). Currently, there are more than 13,500 cases globally and the West African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have been hit the hardest. UNICEF estimates that 5 million children have been affected by the outbreak and 4,000 orphaned by the virus.
The disease has killed nearly 5,000 people and the World Health Organization figures show that 12 new cases are reported in Sierra Leone every day.
The daily life of women, in particular, has been greatly impacted by the virus since women most often are the primary caregivers of family members, especially those who fall sick. This puts women at significant risk should they come into contact with the bodily fluids of the infected, including blood, sweat, feces or vomit.
The hazards are evident in Liberia where more than 75% of the ebola death toll has been women.
Implications of the disease on women’s lives
The government ministries don’t have the requisite training to prevent the spread. Cultural and traditional norms are negatively competing with the interventions of NGOs and medical team workers. There is a huge need for more funds to enable us to do the work.
-Malinda B. Joss
Women and Children Development Association of Liberia (WOCDAL)
As providers of healthcare in their communities, women have a greater likelihood of contracting the disease since they are often employed as nurses or patient care technicians. Furthermore, women are the ones who check on family members who have been quarantined. If family members are not well informed about the modes of ebola transmission or the welfare of infected kin, panic and worry can become additional traumas affecting women caregivers.
The spread of the virus has interrupted the daily life of cultural communities in West Africa – particularly spaces where women are critical decision-makers – such as markets (where crowds and market sellers are being stigmatized), food and water gathering practices for families (women are going further away from home centers to locate adequate and cost-effective supplies) and corpse bathing rituals (important socio-cultural traditions between the living and deceased).
On this point, AWDF’s CEO Theo Sowa adds, “Women are the ones who have primary responsibility in most of our communities for family and family responses. If we look at the HIV/AIDS crisis, if it hadn’t been for African women, our continent probably wouldn’t have survived. It was women who were the caregivers, women who worked to help change behaviors, women who took care of treatment. Women have trusted relationships with their families and communities. They can change the way people think about ebola and help others to really understand the nature of the disease. If we want to crack any problem on our continent, women have to be at the heart of the response.”
The disease has not only impacted everyday life but also the convening of organisations in West Africa and even other parts of the continent. The African Media Leaders Forum, which enables networking and discussion of new opportunities in multimedia, was postponed because many participants come from West African countries and, therefore, would encounter difficulties acquiring visas to South Africa for the forum. Similarly, the African Grantmakers Network [AGN], chaired by Theo Sowa, has postponed the 3rd annual General Assembly due to Ghana’s government moratorium on all international conferences.
It is expected that the outbreak could take more than six months to control.
AWDF activates ebola prevention and eradication
One of the volunteers in our office has nearly lost her entire family to ebola. They were among the twenty-five (25) who succumbed to the virus on 20th August in the Kolahun district of Masabolahun.
The disease has spread to all 15 counties. It is no longer the business of the Liberian government. The virus is covering the entire country.
–Bettea S. Monger
Women Solidarity, Liberia
In response to the epidemic, AWDF has ensured measures to protect employees and to gain a greater insight into the effects of ebola on grantee organisations. Subsequently, learning sessions with health professionals have been provided to thoroughly educate all staff about prevention strategies within and outside the workplace. Precautions have also been implemented in the event of an ebola outbreak in Ghana.
Since early August, AWDF has supported six (6) grantee organisations in Liberia and Sierra Leone, with a total amount of US30,000, to intensify educational activities and resources that help prevent the spread of the disease and increase community knowledge about the outbreak. The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Market Fund for Women (SMFW) has been granted USD10,000 to facilitate large-scale, mass awareness campaigns by market women in seven (7) markets across the country. The organisation is working with a coalition of government, NGO and CSO partners to accurately inform citizens about the disease, symptoms and prevention methods. SMFW improves the infrastructure of markets in Liberia by connecting women traders to a wealth of information and resources including assistance with credit, healthcare, childcare centres, storage areas, sanitary facilities and literacy development.
Additionally, the New Liberian Women Organisation/Skills Training Centre (NLWO) has been awarded USD5,000 to undertake a series of educational activities on the outbreak within selected communities in Careysburg City, Bentol City, Yeantown and Cruzerville. NWLO will use the community-valued methodologies of music and dance to translate ebola prevention messages to residents. The organization works to develop the capacity of unemployed, young women and refugee women in specific skills-based training and advocacy.
In Sierra Leone, the Foundation for Integrated Development (FID) was granted USD5,000 to generate the “Kick Ebola Out of Makpele and Soro-Gbema” campaign as a supplement to the government’s efforts to prevent the spread of the disease in the Pujehun District. The campaign will build critical awareness of the epidemic in targeted sessions with 120 town chiefs and provide sanitation kits to selected communities in two chiefdoms. FID was set up in southern Sierra Leone in 2004 to support women with small scale agricultural trading and other income generation projects.
A Labor of Love
Communities are hugely challenged by the interruption of their cultural practices – shaking hands, hugging, bathing and grooming the dead. If death occurs from the virus, they are unable to celebrate the homecoming properly because the deceased cannot be touched or provided a proper burial.
It is our hope to mend the fractured socio-cultural system so that citizens can resume a normal life.
-Lucy Page
Community Empowerment Program, Liberia
The effects of the outbreak are felt on an intimate level in Moiyatta Banya’s story, “A Phone Call, a Journal and a Bar of Soap.” The reality of the disease in Sierra Leone, a country in persistent recovery, has been devastating. Moiyatta’s organisation, the Girls Empowerment Summit Sierra Leone, educates and builds the capacity of young women by providing them with “knowledge, skills, courage, and confidence to become fulfilled and successful young women.” In the article, Banya narrates how the loss of family members, and particularly breadwinners, has been detrimental to the sustainability of families. Schools have been shut down in order to prevent the virus from spreading. However, this measure disrupts the education of girls and increases their vulnerability through this indeterminate suspension of school.
Since the presence of ebola has now been documented in a few cases outside West Africa, there is greater urgency for the disease’s containment and eradication. Liberia’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Axel Addy, alluded that human kindness, which has led to the spread of the disease, is the very trait that could aid its elimination. Similarly, Wanja Maina, a Kenyan journalist and participant in AWDF’s African Women Writers Residency on Creative Non-fiction, muses on the transmission of the virus: “Ebola is spread through love, really. It is very African to take care of a sick relative. Therefore, we need a global community to show love to our West African friends during these trying times.”
Together, we can support women organisations to provide comprehensive and sustainable community responses to the disease. This is one way forward towards counteracting the devastating effects of ebola.
By: Sionne Neely & Shakira Chambas