Newsletter 79: Women’s Civil and Political Participation – Winter 2010

IWDA’s winter newsletter features some of our work in women’s civil and political participation. Giving space and support for women’s voices is such an important step to achieve gender equality. It builds women’s self-esteem and sense of growing empowerment, and it increases respect for women within their communities.

Including women in decision-making allows them to take on leaderships roles and hence have the power to help catalyse change.

“Now women start to talk in meetings, now there are women who help take decisions
It makes me so proud that we have a voice in development compared to previous year
where only men talk.” ~ Pacific woman

That’s why, in this newsletter, we wanted to share with you the stories of positive changes for women. The cover article ‘Thinking global, talking locally’ is a fantastic example of how our programs deliver positive outcomes for women and their communities. Also, we have several articles on young women wanting to change their communities for the better! In Fiji, they are participating in the Generation Next project to raise issues affecting them and to discuss ways to build peace. In New York, young women from Burma courageously gave testimonies about Burma’s brutal military regime and its negative effects on women.

Also, Renae Davies, our Overseas Program Manager, interviewed a student of the Emerging Leaders School. It is wonderful to see how this program is challenging this young woman’s thinking, changing her life and strengthening her skills to develop further her school in Burma.

Finally, as you might know, this year marks our 25th anniversary. Since 1985, IWDA has been building on the vision of the three founders, Ruth Pfanner, Wendy Rose and Wendy Poussard. These three women came together to create an entity that would address immediate practical needs of women such as access to food, income, safe houses and education. And it would also create long-term change that enables women to participate in decision-making, play a role in economic life and in the sustainable use of natural resources.

We’d welcome your participation in our celebrations of our 25^th anniversary. You will see on page 6 a list of our coming events. Also, you will find out how you can get involved.

The projects we write about in our newsletters change lives, and we enjoy being able to share something of this with you. To read the Winter 2010 newsletter please download the pdf.

Download Newsletter 79 in PDF format

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 7th, 2010 under Newsletters, Recent.