Archive for category: Women’s Empowerment

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Ethiopian Airlines Promotes Women’s Empowerment in Africa

Ethiopian Airlines Promotes Women’s Empowerment in Africa

During the month of March, as the world observed Women’s History Month, advocates for women’s empowerment in Ethiopia held a celebration of their own. On March 8, Ethiopian Airlines sent an all-female flight crew from the country’s capital, Addis Ababa, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in observation of International Women’s Day.

This was a historical feat, as the group became the first all-female flight crew to fly from Ethiopia to the South American city. However, this event was not the first time Ethiopian Airlines made history by dispatching an all-female crew to another city.

As the premier airline of Africa, Ethiopian Airlines has the largest share of revenue in Africa’s airline industry and operates flights to 50 cities in Africa and 95 countries worldwide. The airline is also home to the continent’s largest aviation academy, which trains students from all over Africa to fulfill careers as pilots, cabin crew members, ground staff and maintenance technicians, among other positions. As of 2016, the airline’s academy enrolled 1,300 students in training and the number of enrolled students is expected to grow to 4,000 in the near future.

History in the Making

Ethiopian Airlines first made headlines in 2015 after it dispatched its first all-female flight crew from Addis Ababa to Bangkok, Thailand. Not only were the pilots and cabin crew members women, but so were the baggage handlers, ramp operators, ticket officers and air traffic controllers.

Furthermore, in 2017, the airline dispatched another all-female flight crew in a flight from Addis Ababa to Lagos, Nigeria, the first flight of its kind in Africa. President and CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Tewolde GebreMariam stated that the historical flights made to different cities are part of its efforts to promote women’s empowerment in Africa and that the historic flight on International Women’s Day reflects the airline’s values to mainstream gender into its business.

Educational Challenges for Women in Ethiopia

Due to cultural traditions in Ethiopia, women are not encouraged as much as men to pursue a secondary education of their choice and many have struggled to pursue professional careers. UNESCO reported that as of 2009, only 30 percent of Ethiopian women were enrolled in a secondary education program, compared to 39 percent of Ethiopian men. Furthermore, the literacy rate among Ethiopian adults was only 18 percent for women, compared to 42 percent for men.

A Time for Change in the Aviation Industry

This gesture by GebreMariam to promote women’s empowerment in Africa comes at a significant time, while the number of males to females in the aviation industry is still largely disproportionate. According to the Royal Aeronautical Society, “only 3 percent, or 4,000, of the world’s 130,000 pilots are women, and only 450 are captains.” GebreMariam is hoping to change this statistic by inspiring young girls in school to be optimistic about their futures with the opportunity to pursue a career in the aviation industry.

Besides establishing a platform to promote women’s empowerment in Africa, the historical flights are also helping bring attention to Africa’s aviation industry. GebreMariam stated that airlines in Africa only receive about a 20 percent share of the global airline market. He hopes that more efforts made to promote Africa’s airlines in distinct ways will help educate youth throughout Africa and, over time, create a greater market share for Africa in the airline industry.

– Lois Charm

Photo: Flickr

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Strengthening Women’s Education in Ghana

Strengthening Women’s Education in Ghana
Several steps are being taken to strengthen women’s education in Ghana and to also narrow the gender gap in schools throughout the country. The country is very close to achieving gender equality in primary school enrollment, which is a significant milestone. Women’s access to education in Ghana past primary school, however, still has room for improvement.

Different approaches are being enacted to promote empowerment and women’s education in Ghana. While some approaches are traditional and in correlation with poverty reduction and Millenium Development Goals, others are led by individuals and women trying to make a difference in their own communities.

One such individual is Adeline Nyabu. Nyabu created the Girls Empowerment League, aiming to increase attendance and boost the academic performance of young girls. This league connects girls to female role models and teaches leadership, passion for education and achievement, and shows the realistic and positive outcomes for a woman who completes continuing education. In addition, the program is designed to boost the self-esteem, confidence, aspirations, determination and self-worth of girls in an unequal society.

Another program in place is the Campaign for Female Education. This program partners with MasterCard to provide scholarships to pay for examination registration fees, uniform costs, educational materials and financial packages for girls in rural communities in Ghana. Since 2012, more than 4,000 girls have been awarded the scholarship to continue their education and are equipped to become influential leaders and scholars, in hopes that they will pave the way and be role models for other girls in situations that seem impossible to get out of.

A traditional approach to improving women’s education in Ghana and narrowing the educational gender gap throughout the country is through the Girls Education Unit (GEU), part of the Ghana Education Service under the Ministry of Education. Since its establishment in 1997, GEU has made it possible to have a Girls Education Officer in every district and region of the country.

The Ministry of Education also provides training for female teachers in male-dominated rural areas and promotes girls’ clubs and camps teaching empowerment, self-worth, leadership and teamwork in a female-dominated environment.

These initiatives and programs have resulted in progress towards the goal to increase women’s education in Ghana, created greater access for girls and narrowed the gender gap within schools. Enrollment in both primary and secondary education has increased by around 10 percent, with a significantly greater increase in enrollment for girls. As a result, Ghana’s gender parity index has improved from 0.93 to 0.95. The country can continue to build on this success to achieve complete gender parity and empower its women and girls to reach their full potential.

– Lydia Lamm

Photo: Flickr

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Addressing Challenges for Women in the Dominican Republic

Facing Challenges for Women in the Dominican Republic
In recent years, the Dominican Republic has transitioned from an agro-industrial economy to a service economy. With this transition has come many changes for the nation, primarily economic changes. The Dominican Republic has experienced significant economic growth due to this transition, which can be seen in its 4.7 percent growth rate between 2004 and 2012. Due to this growth, the Dominican Republic is now classified as a middle-income country, as opposed to a low-income country.

Despite the recent economic success of the country, the Dominican Republic is still facing many obstacles and challenges. Specifically, challenges for women in the Dominican Republic are especially prevalent. Though the economy has grown, so have crimes against women. Reported domestic violence and femicide cases have continued to increase in recent years.

Challenges for women in the Dominican Republic include the basic challenge of surviving. The Dominican Republic has the third highest rate of femicide in its region, and currently, femicide is the primary cause of death for women of reproductive age in the nation. In addition to femicide, gender-based violence has continued to rise in the Dominican Republic.

With gender violence rising, the need for assistance for survivors has risen as well. This need is one that is not being met currently. The Dominican Republic lacks adequate sanctuaries and care centers for the number of abused women and their children in the nation.

In response to these challenges for women in the Dominican Republic, the government has made constitutional amendments that are intended to help the advancement of gender equality in the nation. These amendments include a declaration that the state should promote equal rights for men and women, places an importance upon domestic work and condemns domestic and gender-based violence. In addition to these constitutional amendments, the government has also created the National Plan for Gender Equality, which makes up one of the four pillars of the country’s National Development Strategy.

Though these governmental and legislative actions have not been enough to decrease the amount of violence against women in the Dominican Republic yet, they are important first steps. With these pillars in place and the recent economic growth, the government now has the opportunity to allocate more funding for women’s programs moving forward.

Though the government still needs to make improvements to the amount of funding given to these programs, the problem has finally been recognized. In 2014, an Ambassador of the Dominican Republic, Mildred Guzmán, told the United Nations Third Committee, “As a country concerned about the issues related to women, and as a tireless actor in the long struggle for their advancement and accomplishments, we wish to reiterate the political will of the Dominican Republic for full, inclusive and participatory citizenship. Recognizing that violence against women is an obstacle for the fulfillment of all human rights and in consequence, in the entire citizenship.”

This statement holds hope for the future of women in the Dominican Republic, and now it is up to the government to fulfill this hope.

– Nicole Stout

Photo: Flickr

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10 Solutions to Global Poverty That Can Be Implemented Today

solutions to global poverty
Nearly half of the world’s population lives at or below the poverty line; out of the 2.2 billion children in the world, one billion of them live in poverty. Though this issue may not be as prevalent or visible in the U.S., it is an issue that affects everyone. Small steps can be taken to better this problem, leading to possible solutions to global poverty.

  1. Properly Identifying Issues
    One of the largest issues involving poverty is the inability to properly identify contributing factors at the micro and macro level. Many organizations assume that local aid alone will better the problem, but it is only with the combined efforts of local, state and national governments that poverty will lessen.
  1. Allocating Proper Time and Resources
    Preventable diseases such as pneumonia claim the lives of nearly two million children per year. Without proper planning, which includes allocating enough time, money and volunteer work, global poverty will continue to exist. Currently, the U.S. spends only about one percent of the federal budget on foreign aid. By creating detailed plans and projects aimed at helping other nations, global poverty will begin to lessen.
  1. Creating organizations and communities to work locally
    Enacting policy is not the only solution to global poverty, as policy often does not affect those suffering directly. As previously stated, efforts must come from both local and federal domains. Essentially, while policy is created to change legislation, local organizations enact the changes, directly helping those in need. On top of that, working with entire communities instead of specific individuals has been proven to be more effective.
  1. Creating Jobs
    Creating jobs in poverty-ridden communities allows individuals to pull themselves out of poverty. This solution to global poverty is arguably one of the most effective. Federal governments can achieve this by rebuilding their infrastructures, developing renewable energy sources, renovating abandoned housing and raising the minimum wage.
    By raising the minimum wage in existing jobs, companies would combat recent inflation in both developed and developing countries. This change in the states (in places such as Seattle and Washington) has been shown to reduce poverty.
  1. Providing Access to Healthcare
    Unpaid medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy. Having access to free or affordable healthcare would allow families to allocate the money they would normally spend on healthcare elsewhere.
  1. Empowering Women
    Female empowerment in developing countries often comes from organizations that work to reduce poverty by allowing them to take leadership positions and advance socially and economically.
  1. Microfinancing
    Microfinancing provides improvements to socioeconomic status by providing access to more, larger loans, providing better repayment rates for women, as they are less likely to default on their loans than men and extending education programs for loan-payers’ children. It can also improve health and welfare by providing access to clean water and better sanitation, create new jobs and teach developing countries to be more sustainable.
    Microfinancing continues to prove that even the smallest amounts of credit can be one of the many solutions to global poverty.
  1. Provide paid leave and paid sick days
    Paid maternal and paternal leave allows families to save money after childbirth, as having a child is a leading cause of economic hardship. Furthermore, giving workers paid sick days allows them to properly get over their illness without worrying about missing a paycheck or receiving a paycheck with fewer funds than normal.
  1. Supporting equal pay for men and women
    Closing the wage gap between men and women would reduce 50 percent of poverty experienced by women and their families. This would also add money to the nation’s gross domestic product.

Global poverty has proven to be an unruly, frustrating cycle, but eradicating it is within our means. These solutions to global poverty can and should be implemented to begin the end of poverty.

– Chylene Babb

Photo: Flickr

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Nine Ways Poverty Is Sexist

10 Ways Poverty is SexistProminent figures in the world of advocacy, including Bono and Melinda Gates, claim that poverty is sexist in nature. This is also referred to as the feminization of poverty. Global poverty disproportionately affects women in several ways. Women and girls are more likely to be impoverished, less likely to have access to educational opportunities and more likely to struggle with health issues.

How Poverty is Sexist

  1. Girls have less access to education over their lifetime, one of the major ways poverty is sexist. Education helps girls defy traditional gender roles and encourages them to pursue job opportunities.
  2. Attacks on girls’ schools and education discourage parents from sending their daughters to school, fearing for their safety. In countries engrossed in domestic armed conflict, girls’ education often faces targeted attacks using threats, acid, explosives, gunfire, kidnappings or school closings.
  3. Women spend twice as much time as men doing unpaid work such as cooking, cleaning and caring for children. This kind of domestic labor restricts the time women can spend working for wages, finishing their education, learning new skills or opening new businesses. The traditional gender roles are more prominent in developing nations, so this gap is even larger.
  4. Child marriage, which is often driven by poverty, traps girls in a cycle of poverty. Child brides are less likely to finish their education, making them less likely to earn a safe and adequate income. In communities where child marriage is common, girls’ education is often not valued over their roles as wives and mothers.
  5. Women are more prone to poor nutrition over the course of their life, which makes them more susceptible to diseases. Poor maternal health and nutrition feed down from mother to child, resulting in a vicious cycle of lack of nutrition and provisions against diseases.
  6. Land is a crucially valuable asset in rural areas of the world, yet almost 70 percent of the world’s population does not have access to land registration systems. Women are disproportionally affected by land title ambiguity, making them more likely to suffer from poverty and economic insecurity.
  7. Women face significantly greater challenges in gaining access to financial services than men. In developing countries, women are 20 percent less likely to hold accounts at a formal financial institution than men and often face restrictions that require a male family member’s permission to open a bank account.
  8. A lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services and reproductive rights is a form of sexual discrimination that puts women and girls at a higher risk of poverty and limits their economic empowerment. Approximately 225 million women do not use safe and effective family planning methods, most of whom live in 69 of the world’s poorest countries.
  9. Data about global poverty in some of the poorest countries in the world is incomplete and lacking in gender-disaggregated data. There is a major need for gender-disaggregated data in order to understand how poverty is sexist, where and how women and girls are being left behind and how to fix it.

These are only a handful of the many ways in which poverty is sexist. The need for further study of the relationship between poverty and sexism is vital to level the playing field between men and women in the progression of economic and social opportunities.

– Sydney Lacey

Photo: Flickr

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Women Can Do It: Myanmar’s Push for Women in Government

Myanmar
In 2011, Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country formerly known as Burma, began to transition to a democratic form of government after previously being under military rule for decades. This transition to a civilian-led government encouraged leaders of Myanmar’s economy to open their borders to foreign investment and reintegrate the country into the global economy.

Myanmar’s Isolated Past

Despite the country’s best efforts to catch up economically, Myanmar remains one of the poorest countries in Asia. Roughly 26 percent of the population’s 55 million people lives below the poverty line. This is a result of the isolationist policies that existed for years prior to the country opening its borders to the rest of the world. As a result, Myanmar suffers from poor infrastructure, underdeveloped human resources and deeply embedded government corruption.

As the country moves to a democratic form of rule, women have been finding ways to participate in a political system that was historically headed by men. A recent push for women in government in Myanmar’s last two elections in 2010 and 2015 shows the potential for more women representation and equality for women across the country.

Women in Government

On paper, Myanmar appears to be one of the most progressive countries in Asia when it comes to women in government. In 1935, women were given equal political participation rights in the constitution. Additionally, in 1995, Myanmar endorsed the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. This aimed to remove obstacles for women in both the public and private spheres of life.

However, women’s ability to participate in Myanmar’s government has been relatively limited. Sixty years of military rule kept women from participating in any capacity in the decision-making process. Even today, though Myanmar appears to be progressive when it comes to gender equality, the reality is that there are relatively few women in government compared to men. In the 2010 elections, only 6 percent of national parliamentarians were women.

It is essential to include women in the government decision-making process as Myanmar attempts to address issues of poverty within their borders. Female representatives can bring new perspectives as the country continues to develop. Many groups exist to promote the inclusion of women in politics of Myanmar. One of the many active groups is Women Can Do It.

Women Can Do It

Women Can Do It (WCDI) is an organization dedicated to raising awareness and building self-confidence in women. Across the country, women influenced by this organization are encouraged to run for office and become change-makers for their communities.

Created in 2001, well before the country’s transition to democracy, WCDI is working to create a just, peaceful and gender-equitable society in Myanmar. One of its key goals is to get women involved in the government decision-making process on issues of peace and development nationwide. This includes some of the aforementioned issues like addressing poor infrastructure, inadequate human resources, and fighting corruption.

WCDI works in five primary sectors:

  • Capacity Building
  • Research and Advocacy
  • Campaign
  • Media and Publication
  • Sisterhood Bonding

By focusing on these five sectors, WCDI educates women and pushes for more women in government across the country. The organization uses these five areas to give women a springboard from which to advance and become more involved in their communities. These efforts have great potential to improve the quality of life not only for its women, but for all of Myanmar’s citizens.

– Sonja Flancher

Photo: Flickr

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Merry-Go-Strong Encourages Women’s Development in Kenya

UW-Madison Grassroots Encourages Women's Development in KenyaIt doesn’t take an organization with hundreds of thousands of members to make a difference in the world. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, there is a group known as Merry-Go-Strong (MGS). MGS is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting children and women’s development in Kenya through the expansion of both minds and resources.

Women’s Development in Kenya

Back in the spring semester of 2012, Professor Lesley Sager challenged her students to use design thinking processes to artistically create shelters for people displaced from natural disasters.

The students created a structure based on cardboard. Susan Miller, a designer, saw value in cardboard structures being brought to Kenya. Sager and Miller teamed up and decided to journey to Kenya to see if there was any viability in promoting cardboard houses for families there.

Aside from the architect side of the trip, Sager had a deep interest in bringing education opportunity to the children (specifically girls) in Kenya.

Sager’s Journey in Gatunga

When she arrived in Gatunga, a small village in Tharaka Nithi County, Sager met Aniceta Kirigata, the founder of the Tharaka Women’s Welfare Program (TWWP) and the Alternative Rite of Passage (ARP). ARP is designed to protect girls from female genitalia mutilation (FGM). TWWP receives its funding through a scholarship with the Women’s Global Education Project (WGEP). Many girls are forced to drop out due to lack of money to pay for fees, or they must remain out of school in order to work; therefore, a scholarship like one from WGEP is a huge deal.

Once she realized there was an immense lack of income generating options for women and children, Sager decided to take a different approach to helping women’s development in Kenya.

The Origins of Merry-Go-Strong

In fall of 2014, Sager offered the first of four sequential design thinking courses at UW-Madison. These courses would focus on using student’s own ingenuity to create projects and tools that would be useful to the women in Kenya. These projects range from product development, to solar power, beekeeping and other options.

And one of these projects is how MGS was born. The members within this organization partner with TWWP in the village of Gatunga, a project that supports women by providing materials to create viondo (aka bags/purses). The purses are then bought from their Kenyan makers to be sold in the United States where there is a much bigger consumer market.

MGS’ Impact

The profits from the purses are used to fund future projects and create scholarships for girls to continue to attend ARP and finish proper schooling. This approach to supporting women’s development in Kenya is empowering because it provides for self-sustainability both among women and the community in Gatunga; these lives will be positively impacted in the upcoming future.

Sager still continues to go to Kenya once or twice a year to follow up on the progress of Merry-Go-Strong’s efforts in empowerment and ending FGM (Big Ten Network, 2017). With this type of resiliency and consistency, women’s development in Kenya will hopefully experience leaps and bounds.

– Caysi Simpson

Photo: Flickr

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New Laws Address Women’s Rights in Timor-Leste

Women's Rights in Timor-Leste

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, a country located in Southeast Asia, gained its independence from Indonesia on May 20, 2002. This came after a popular vote in favor of becoming independent on August 30, 1999. As one of the world’s youngest and poorest nations, it is facing numerous social, political and economic issues. The country is not ignoring its issues but is instead working to improve them daily. One subject that is currently being brought to public attention is women’s rights in Timor-Leste, or the lack thereof.

Women in Timor-Leste face daily challenges that their male counterparts do not face to the same degree. One of these challenges is of an economic nature. Many women in Timor-Leste do not have the same training opportunities as men, which limits their job options. This limited access to jobs became a large issue after the conflict that Timor-Leste faced following the vote for independence in 1999 and before it was declared a sovereign state in 2002. During this time, nearly half of Timorese women were widowed due to widespread violence. These women became the sole provider in many households, and with economic options greatly limited for women in the country, many were left in poverty.

The government of Timor-Leste has recognized the economic challenges faced by women in the country. It is for this reason that Timor-Leste’s 2014 Country Gender Assessment includes an area dedicated to laying out a framework for advancing the economic opportunities of women. This framework includes increasing women’s participation in the labor market by improving training opportunities and implementing the Secretariat of State for Professional Training and Employment Policy’s gender mainstreaming strategy. These efforts will help to increase the number of financially independent women in Timor-Leste. In this area, women’s rights in Timor-Leste are advancing tremendously.

Another area of women’s rights in Timor-Leste that the country has struggled with is domestic and gender-based violence. Domestic violence is the most reported crime to the Vulnerable Persons Unit of the National Police by Timorese women, showing that this is a serious issue that is being faced by numerous women in the country. The government of Timor-Leste is determined to end this cycle of domestic violence. In addition to including women’s rights in the new constitution, the nation has also passed violence-specific legislation. This includes the Law Against Domestic Violence, which was passed in 2010 and defines domestic violence as a public crime. Timor-Leste also adopted the National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence, which provides a strategy of prevention for domestic violence, as well as a number of services for survivors of gender-based violence and domestic violence.

In addition to the legislative actions being taken to reduce domestic violence in Timor-Leste and promote the economic advancement of women, government officials are also speaking out on the subject of women’s rights in Timor-Leste. The Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, Rui Maria de Araújo, made a statement at the Global Leader’s Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in 2015. He stated that Timor-Leste is fully committing to “achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.” There is hope in this statement, and the lives of the citizens of Timor-Leste can only continue to improve as the rights of women continue to increase.

– Nicole Stout

Photo: Flickr

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5 Nonprofits Helping Women and Girls in Nigeria

5 Nonprofits Helping Women and Girls in Nigeria

Traditional religious and cultural beliefs have hindered the growth and development of women and girls in Nigeria. Often faced with opposition, this particular demographic does not have any support. As the economy of Nigeria continues to worsen, many programs that aid women and girls are likely to be cut. However, most remain strong and continue to provide assistance to Nigerian females through various institutions. These are five nonprofits helping women and girls in Nigeria.

Kudirat Initiative for Democracy

Based in Lagos, Nigeria, Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) works on projects focused on eliminating barriers for women’s public participation in social, economic and political development and ending violence against women.

KIND is just one of the many nonprofits helping women and girls in Nigeria by providing them with the information and skills needed to take part as service leaders at all levels of society.

One of KIND’s leadership programs, Kudra, is offered at higher institutions of learning in Nigeria. This program works with young women at universities, supplying them with leadership tools and life-building skills. These young women are encouraged to engage in changing their communities through community engagement, building businesses and mentoring others, thereby boosting the development of a generation of women leaders in Nigeria.

Wellbeing Foundation Africa

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa is a maternal, newborn and child health group in Africa, noted for being one of the first established nonprofits in Nigeria and the backbone of the larger Wellbeing Group.

Through strategic collaboration with preeminent global providers of maternal and child health products, with the hopes of sealing the cracks in health infrastructure, Wellbeing Universal Health organizes the expedition and accessibility of life-saving supplies to expectant and new mothers in Africa.

Working to Advance Science and Technology Education for African Women (WAAW Foundation)

Founded in 2007, WAAW Foundation is an international organization that works to enhance the pipeline of African women entering the science and technology workforce.

WAAW Foundation’s STEM strategy underlines how the use of computer science, technology and programming can be used to solve the energy and clean water crisis occurring in Africa through the use of an integrated inquiry-based learning experience.

They are able to give girls an opportunity to seek STEM training while also introducing them to technologies that use available resources to solve massive issues in their own local communities.

Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ)

WIMBIZ is a Nigerian nonprofit created by individuals who recognized a major issue of few women in leadership roles in workplaces and businesses.

This organization helps women manage the many conflicts they face in the workplace by motivating them to achieve their potential and be meaningful contributors to economic development. Its goal is to increase the success rate of women entrepreneurs and progressing the number of women in senior levels at corporations and empowering women to secure leadership positions in management, businesses and public service positions.

Stand to End Rape Initiative

Stand to End Rape Initiative is a youth-led nonprofit organization advocating against sexual assault by offering prevention methods and psychological services for survivors. They advocate for rape survivors who find it difficult to speak out because of social stigma and also utilize varying platforms to teach the communities sexual violence and abuse.

With these five nonprofits helping women and girls in Nigeria, the opportunity for other organizations to contribute their resources toward addressing social problems will hopefully alleviate societal issues within this specific demographic.  

– Zainab Adebayo

Photo: Flickr

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Bollywood’s ‘Padman’ Tackles Issues of Women’s Health in India

Women's Health in IndiaOn Feb. 9, 2018, the Bollywood movie “Padman” was released to the largest film market in the world. “Padman” is exactly what it sounds like: a film about a man who creates pads. The Bollywood film chronicles the true story of Arunachalam Muruganantham, India’s pioneer of a revolutionary method of producing cost-effective sanitary pads for women and girls across the country.

The film is more than just a story about someone with a good idea; it is also challenging the stigma that surrounds menstruation and women’s health in India. “Period Poverty” is a global phenomenon that describes a woman’s inability to buy proper feminine hygiene products. In India in particular, the effects of period poverty hinder many girls’ abilities to stay in school. In India, one in four girls miss one day or more of school due to menstruation.

In lower and middle income countries, poor sanitation facilities are one thing that keep girls from attending school while on their period. Many schools in lower income countries also do not have the puberty education necessary to educate girls about menstruation. A recent study found that 71 percent of girls in India have no knowledge about menstruation prior to their first period.

Most cultures around the world also have a major stigma surrounding menstruation. In India in particular, a lot of taboo surrounds the topic of periods and women’s health in general. Restrictions for women on their period include not being able to enter religious shrines or come into contact with food, further keeping girls from school. Many girls are nervous about asking for help in the event of stained clothing due to improper feminine hygiene care.

Another thing keeping women from proper feminine hygiene care is cost. Until recently, 70 percent of Indian women could not afford to buy pads for their family. Instead, families resorted to using and reusing rags which quickly become unsanitary as breeding grounds for disease. In rural areas, materials other than rags were often used like sawdust or ash.

There are currently many NGOs operating around the world with the goal of creating affordable solutions for women suffering from period poverty. Many of these organizations are dedicated to solving issues of women’s health in India.

Innovator Arunachalam Muruganantham has created a machine that makes sanitary pads that are sold mostly to NGOs along with women’s self-help groups. The machine comes in two different types, a manual version and a semi-automated version. Each machine can make 200 to 250 pads a day and is designed to be user-friendly for women living in rural areas.

The pads sell for about 2.5 rupees, almost half of what it would be to buy them commercially. This system not only provides proper sanitary products for women, but also creates jobs for women living in rural areas as they learn how to use and operate the machine. Muruganatham has expanded his efforts well beyond India and is now working in 106 countries around the world.

An organization created in 2008 called Days for Girls is dedicated to improving women’s health around the world. The organization aims to provide girls with invaluable health education and provide its recipients with a Days for Girls kit. Each kit contains sanitary napkins, washcloths, soap, a menstrual chart and underwear. This is just one example of the many organizations fighting to end the stigma surrounding periods.

India is the largest film market in the world, with 2.2 billion movie tickets sold in 2016. Hopefully, the recent film, “Padman,” will reach a wide variety of audiences and bring more attention to issue of women’s health in India.

– Sonja Flancher

Photo: Flickr