Meet Our Summer Intern!

We love summer for so many reasons.  It's the time of year when seeds planted in the spring blossom, bloom and grow strong, and it's a time to prepare for the warm gatherings and occasions for sharing that seem to characterize the fall.  At WEA, the summer is when we tend partnerships, plan for celebrations to come, and welcome in the amazing interns we've been fortunate enough to work with in summers passed.

This summer is no different, and we're so thrilled to welcome Katie to the team here in Berkeley for her summer break. Meet Katie below!

KATIE DOUGLAS — General Office & Research Intern 

1. Tell us about yourself — your background/journey to WEA.  I’m a student at Brandeis University in Boston, and heading into my senior year with majors in Environmental Studies and Anthropology. I attribute my love of the natural world to my parents for introducing me to redwood trees and blue-bellied lizards. During college I became heavily involved with the organization Half the Sky, and was incredibly moved by their work in providing access to education for girls across the globe. When I stumbled onto WEA I was amazed to find an organization that seemed to perfectly address the intersection of my interests in women’s rights, the environment, and the traditional knowledge of indigenous communities.

2. What do you do at WEA?  I’m a General Office Intern so I mainly support Kahea with general administration tasks, such as filing and managing the donor base. Additionally I research ongoing environmental developments for women, and assist with current campaigns.

3. Share 2 unique/fun/crazy/weird things about you that your co-workers do not know!  I worked on a farm for several summers, and seriously considered taking a baby goat home with me because I’m obsessed with goats. I have a secret skill for building camp fires.

4. What do you see as the biggest challenge in the intersections of women, indigenous issues and the environment?  I think that the mainstream western environmental movement can be very ignorant to what an integral role women and indigenous persons play in the protection of the environment. While I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with the preservation of land, or the legal protection of endangered species, I think that the environmental movement can forget that millions of people around the world are already facing the direct consequences of climate change. Therefore their experiences make them experts on the current effects of climate change, and place them at the most important locations to develop sustainable change with equal access to resources and community training.

5. Tell us about a woman who inspires you and why.  Sheryl WuDunn, the co-author of Half the Sky, is one of my biggest inspirations. She has broken so many barriers as a reporter, an educator on women’s rights, and a modern leader. Her work on the direct links from women’s education to a country’s economic prosperity, resource management, and levels of poverty has always reminded me how integral women are to the state of our world.

6. Tell us one thing that surprised you at WEA.  WEA is such a close-knit and welcoming community, and everyone made me feel so comfortable on my first day. I was really surprised by how small WEA is, but all these women have accomplished so much. And there are always so many kinds of tea in the office, which is awesome!

7. What do you hope to get out of your time at WEA?  I hope to be continuously learning about current global developments and issues that deal with the intersection of women’s rights, the environment, and indigenous rights. I’m also hoping to gain a greater understanding of how non-profits like WEA function, and get to know an amazing group of women leaders.


Meet the rest of the talented interns that have worked with WEA throughout the years here!

WEA's New Partnership to Address Environmental Violence

We are so proud to be in partnership with The Native Youth Sexual Health Network on a community-based research and advocacy initiative to address the environmental violence Indigenous women and  youth face as a result of extreme extraction.

Everything that impacts the land in turn impacts our bodies.

Visit the link below to learn more about this initiative, how it aims to address the impacts of extractive industries on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of Indigenous communities, how you can get involved or share your knowledge, or other ways you can support.

Benefit Concert to Support the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and their Efforts

Where will you be tomorrow night?

Please join us at the Eastside Arts Alliance in Oakland, CA for Wintu Ch'aawa, a benefit concert to honor and support the Winnemem Wintu Tribe as they continue their efforts to protect their culture, lifeways, and sacred lands from the Shasta Dam raise. The evening will feature Redstar, Michael Preston, Almas Fronterizas, an art auction and surprise guests!

WEA, along with Idle No More Hawaiʻi and Warriors Rising, is proud to be among the organizations and individuals co-sponsoring this event.

Please share far and wide, and we hope to see you there!

Ticket are $15 sliding scale. Space is limited, so buy your tickets soon, and thank you in advance for your support!

For more information: g.daniel.rodriguez@gmail.com

WEA Partnership with GREEN Foundation Supports Women Farmers in Karnataka

In India, climate change, the steady degradation of natural resources, as well as political and social unrest and inequity, has severely affected the lives of millions of rural poor—a majority of which are women—who depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. These barriers help to make women and girls more vulnerable to societal and health dangers, and reinforces patriarchal practices that deny them access to arenas where decisions affecting them are made.

That's why WEA was thrilled to partner with GREEN Foundation last year to recognize the knowledge and expertise of women farmers to promote food security and build community resiliency. Through this partnership and GREEN Foundations amazing efforts on the ground, women farmers in Karnataka were mentored, trained and supported as they shared and built their skills in sustainable agriculture, seed saving, income generation, community organizing, and leadership around climate adaptation.

WEA and Fondo Semillas Support Indigenous Women Leaders

In Mexico, the legal system fails to include any specific legislation protecting women's land and property rights. Therefore, Indigenous women's actual control over property has been very limited. Despite the urgency and importance of the situation, there are very few organizations working to improve women’s access to land.

That is why WEA has partnered with Fondo Semillas—the only women’s fund in Mexico—to support Indigenous women leaders who have come together to represent "an unprecedented effort to spark a movement for indigenous women’s land rights in Mexico.”

Meet Silvia (Zapoteca-Chinanteca), one of the courageous grassroots women supported by our partnership, who is working for Indigenous women's land rights in Oaxaca.

WEA is partnering with Pink51 - Shop with Purpose!

WEA is thrilled to announce our exciting new partnership with Pink51.com as one of their featured organizations!

What does this mean?  Well, now there's a new way for your to support our work and vision to uplift grassroots women environmental leaders...all while getting your shopping done!

What Pink51 is: Pink51 is a for profit shopping website that promotes only women-owned and women-led businesses.  It's the only one of its kind, AND 10% of all profits each quarter are given back to featured organizations (like WEA!) that support women and girl's economic success.  Founded by Ann Lawrence and Marta Ferro and launched in June 2014, Pink51 believes that empowering women to succeed economically and in business will change the world for the better.   

Through our purchasing power (women account for $7 trillion in consumer and business spending in the U.S., 85% of all consumer purchases, and 58% of total online spending), we can support women-centered initiatives, can encourage female entrepreneurship, and can convince businesses to promote women to Senior Level and board positions.

How to Shop with Purpose: Super simple.  All you have to do is sign up for a free Pink51 account here, vote for WEA, and then rest assured that each dollar you spend is helping to make an impact.

Through this partnership—and yours—we know we can continue to make a difference by supporting grassroots women and their work around the world.

The Ripple Effect Is Real

by Gemma Bulos

Question: When would the equation 20 x 222 = 4588?

Answer: When you train 20 women how to build rainwater harvesting systems. They train 222 of their colleagues (84% of which were women). And together they build 31 tanks supplying water to 4588 people in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.  Help us amplify this impact by supporting our campaign on globalgiving.org today! 

As a Stanford Social Entrepreneur Fellow for the Center For Democracy Development and the Rule of Law, I was honored to work with Masters Program students Sarah van Vliet and Savannah Hayes, who evaluated GWWI's field data to assess the impact of our current Women-led Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) Service Center Training Program.

Sarah and Savannah combed through data that included hundreds of interviews with trainees, users and community members to objectively assess GWWIs impact for the first Phase of our 3-Phase WaSH Service Center Training where women learned to build rainwater harvesting technologies. They synthesized their analysis and distilled them into a powerful infographic.

We are most thrilled to share that the 20 women we trained in the current program:
 
* Provided water for over 4500 people;
* Reduced their water fetching time from 1 hour to 6 minutes;
* Trained 186 additional women; and
* Raised an average of $1860 to build more tanks and 70% reported an increase in personal income.

THE RIPPLE EFFECT IS REAL!

This of course is just Phase 1 of the 3-Phase Program. GWWI trainees learned how to build toilets last summer and in less than 3 weeks, they will be learning how to build filters and make chlorine at our next training in Kampala, Uganda.

You can join the ripple!  GWWI launched a month long campaign with globalgiving.org to raise $5000 for this next Phase of training where the women will learn a variety of ways to treat water! Please consider making a donation!

On March 12th, with every $25 donated, globalgiving.org will match 15%!

Thank you for helping us create powerful, measurable impacts for African women water leaders.

From our Allies: Indian People's Action and the Tar Sands Megaloads

"[Tar sands oil] is not a future issue, it's causing the land to be inhospitable, both on the reservations and for the surrounding area... There's no way we're going to change the surrounding area once it's destroyed." — Naomi Odermann, Media Liaison with Indian People's Action (source)

There are many equally important facets of the Keystone XL and tar sands opposition in which communities are waging non-violent direction actions.  These include Honor the Earth's Ride for Mother Earth, last year's cross-movement #ForwardOnClimate Rally in Washington, DC, and the petitions and campaigns urging the public to seize their final opportunity and submit comments to the Secretary of State on the Keystone XL pipeline.  One such action is currently taking place in Missoula, Montana, where an Indigenous organization is leading the charge by literally stopping climate chaos and environmental destruction in its tracks.

Photo source: Kathy Little Leaf, IPA Board Member

Indian People's Action (IPA) is an Indigenous-led organization aiming to build the voice and power of Montana's urban Indians.  To do this, they rely on strength in numbers, and organize direct actions to achieve systematic change to improve the health and lives of their Indigenous membership.  In early December 2013, IPA's Director Michaelynn Hawk (Crow) and other citizen groups learned that the Oregon-based company Omega Morgan intended to haul several megaloads—trucks typically the size of, or slightly longer than, a football field—of tar sands mining equipment through Missoula on their way to Alberta, Canada in January 2014.  Immediately, and not for the first time, the groups began organizing.  IPA, which had brought Moccasins On the Ground--a non-violent direct action movement to protect sacred lands and waters from environmental abuses--to Montana for a 3 day training in August 2013, became a driving force behind the push to stop the transports.

The reason behind IPA's determination to do their part to stop these hauls is that, simply put, megaloads present a mega problem for our future.  According to the Tar Sands Solution Network, "If we extract all the known tar sands oil the Earth's temperatures will rise substantially, leading to complete climate catastrophe.  [Additionally,] development also pollutes the land, air, and water with dangerous levels of toxic chemicals in northern Alberta and along leak-prone pipeline routes that carry this highly corrosive cargo through communities and waterways across North America."  Those communities, including First Nations communities in Canada, are having their rights infringed, their health and well-being jeopardized, and the lands and waters they have relied on for traditional food sources destroyed.

"We are also acting [on] behalf of our Indigenous brothers and sisters in the First Nations communities in Alberta who have been affected most directly and severely from the contamination of their water, air, and wild natural food sources, although we also expressed that all life on Earth is being deeply affected and endangered by this filthy and completely unnecessary business." — George Price, Police Liaison with Indian People's Action

Photo source: Dan Aguayo via The Oregonion

The protests took place in the late night and early morning hours of January 22-24.  In total, three megaloads drove through the Missoula route.  On January 22, the first load was greeted by 40 protestors, most of which were IPA members.  "It was our intention to enter Reserve street together in front of the megaloads and halt the movement of this tar sands-bound equipment however long we could by leading ourselves and our non-Indian allies in a traditional round dance, which is a form of prayer and a symbol of unity, in the middle of the street, while carrying our signs with words describing our opposition..." wrote IPA's Police Liaison George Price in his editorial comment to the Missoula Independent.  The round dance, as well as the arrest of an elder ally, delayed the trucks passage.  A second, smaller megaload quickly passed through the city on the following evening at speeds too fast to allow for safe and responsible blockades.

IPA and allied groups like Blue Skies Campaign, Northern Rockies Rising Tide, Spokane Rising Tide, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide held a second, larger action on January 24, where Indigenous members numbered roughly 60 of the 70 protestors.  During this action, IPA led a round dance that stopped the megaload transport for 12 minutes.  This was then followed by a speech by IPA member Charles Walking Child (Anishinabe), which caused further delays.  Finally, three elder women allies held up the load by sitting in the street and refusing to be moved.  One was arrested, the other two cited.

Each of these tactics—distributing press releases to the media, holding signs, handing out informational leaflets, holding a round dance, giving speeches, the arrests and the citations—played critical roles in delaying the transport, thereby increasing the cost to the company hauling the loads.  They also served as a way to increase public awareness of the megaloads and tar sands in general.  These direct actions provided an opportunity for IPA and allied groups to focus public attention on climate change and the destructive practices of the extractive industries, while making it clear that Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities alike would stand alongside one another to stop fossil fuel projects where they could.

"During this whole experience...many, mostly young, Native American people, learned much about the issues facing our planet and became first time public activists for the Earth, and they will be back again and again, in greater and greater numbers, as long as all life on Earth cries out against this most grave injustice, corruption, and destruction.  That was our primary success in these actions..." — George Price, Police Liaison with Indian People's Action

Indian People's Action continues to keep an eye on and prepare for any future megaloads which plan to travel through Missoula en route to Alberta.  We at Women's Earth Alliance encourage our friends and partners to learn as much as you can on this critical issue, including more about the many Indigenous communities in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and elsewhere currently standing on the frontlines of megaload protests, and then go forward and share that information with your friends and partners.

The above article was reviewed by and posted with the permission of Indian People's Action.  The Women's Earth Alliance Advocacy Network has allied with Indian People's Action to facilitate advocacy support around their efforts to oppose tar sands oil.

GWWI Partners with KIVA

By Bess Zewdie, Research Intern

Jane Joseph, KSHP

Global Women’s Water Initiative is thrilled to announce our new partnership with Kiva, the worlds largest – and highly successful - online micro-lending platform. Kiva allows contributors to fund loans in low socio-economic communities, where access to conventional means of financial support is not available. 

This is done through their easy-to-use online system, where one can donate anything from $25-$100.This new partnership presents an invaluable opportunity to GWWI by helping two of our organizations service their local communities - Kilili Self Help Program (KSHP) in Kitale, Kenya and Women in Water and Natural Resources Conservation (WWNRC) in Kakamega, Kenya. These microloans are significant to our women due to the ability to finance entrepreneurial projects in a short amount of time, whilst paying themselves AND positively impacting their communities. These micro-business projects include the production and selling of handmade soap, shampoo, reusable sanitary pads and other sanitary-related products. In addition to income-generating purposes, microloans will assist households in purchasing the likes of 15,000 liter rainwater harvesting tanks to provide clean water in these Kenyan regions.

Rose Wamalwa, WWNRC

It’s no new revelation that the role of a woman in both the financial stability and sanitary health of her family is incredibly undervalued, particularly in the developing world. In East Africa, where KSHP and WWNRC are based, many women from low-income families are limited to household activities and farm work. Responsibilities beyond that, particularly finances, are left to men. Statistics show, however, that “poor women often have the best credit ratings. In Bangladesh, for example, women default on loans less often than men, and credit extended to women has a much greater impact on household consumption and quality of life for children,”(IFAD 2004). Due to their lack of access to the labor force, women are more inclined to be creative in their financial efforts, and more responsible in their spending.

GWWI is not only supporting and training KSHP and WWNRC about full WASH services such as construction, but we are also creating a framework of self-reliance. This self-reliance means that our women will continue to grow in their entrepreneurship endeavors long after our absence, and this partnership with Kiva will only further strengthen and sustain this vision. 

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Phionah: From Sex-Worker to Water Champion

By Gemma Bulos, Global Women's Water Initiative Director

“I have been a sex worker for so many years, but when I met Godliver (GWWI Head Technology Trainer), I have withdrawn. She trained me on tanks, now I can make bricks, I can make a tank... I think I can almost be a technical engineer!” Phionah Mbugua

Every once in a while you come upon someone who is truly the embodiment of transformation and inspiration. For our Global Women's Water Initiative, Phionah Mbugua is that person.

Phionah came to GWWI through Life Bloom Services International. Life Bloom works with commercial sex workers providing them with emotional counseling and services as well as vocational training to consider alternative livelihoods to uplift themselves from their situation. Life Bloom women leaders have been participating in the Global Women’s Water Initiative Training Program since 2011, where they have been learning to  become water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) technicians, educators and entrepreneurs.

Phionah was one of Life Bloom's clients. When her husband left her 14 years ago with 2 kids, she had to raise her children on her own. And with a 7th grade education, she felt her only alternative was to sell her body.  She was invited by Life Bloom to learn how to build a rainwater harvesting system and tank from GWWI Technology Trainer Godliver Businge. Phionah was astounded to meet a woman who not only could build things like tanks and toilets, but who was teaching other women these same skills.

Because of Phionah’s talent and interest, Life Bloom’s Executive Director who has been elected as the Board Chair of her local water board, withdrew from the GWWI training program to let Phionah take her place. Phionah has since been hired by Life Bloom as their first WASH program manager and is currently construction WASH technologies, offering WASH education in schools and in the community. And she's getting getting paid to do this work.
In this video Phionah shares with her GWWI sisters and fellow participants her story of transformation. (Transcript below)

Hello. I think I’m one of the retired sex workers! I have been a sex worker for so many years, but when I met Godliver, I withdrew. She trained me on tanks, now I can make bricks, I can make a tank, I think I can almost be a technical engineer. Yea, with my fellow colleagues the sex workers,  we have done the first tank we did it in a primary school and we want to do the other tank in a primary school.

So my fellow sex workers, they are very happy because when you come from building the tank, in the evening, we are so tired, even we can’t be able to go to the streets! I appreciate Godliver for the change she has brought to us because we were selling our bodies day and night you see because we don’t have anything to do in our life. Like, we don’t have courses. Like me, I learned up to class 7.

So right now, I’m learning, I want to do my class 8 next year. I want to get my diploma certificate this year so I’m sure I’ll do it, because you have empowered me.  Now my children are appreciating me. They are appreciating my job, even my family. Because before I was a drunkard, I couldn’t even listen to them. But right now I’ve changed. Like now my mom yesterday was asking me

“Oh, where are you going?” and I told her,

“I’m going meet other women in Kisumu. I’ve never been to Kisumu.”

And right now, even me , I don’t even feel like selling my body.  I’m very fit now. I’m 45 years (old). I’m retired and I don’t want my young girls who are behind me to follow my steps. Right now I want to follow these steps – of building tanks. Building biosand. And I think for biosand I am qualified because the last three weeks, the mortar followed me so I think  I have one certificate.

So I thank you ladies. We are together. I’m from Life Bloom. And I think because I’m interested, that’s why my boss withdrawn for me, ‘you can go instead of me Phionah.’ Because I’m interesting, interested and I’m strong.  And I will do it. And right now I’m going for another tank. Thank you so much!
Support the Global Women's Water Initiative here!

For more inspiring stories, visit Global Women's Water Initiative blog and follow on Twitter at @womenwater -or- @gemmabelle. Join us on facebook.com/womenwater 

World Toilet Day: Everyone Goes But Not Everyone Has a Place to Go

By Women's Earth Alliance, GWWI Director, Gemma Bulos
Believe it or not, there are more people in the world that have cell phones than toilets! Which means more people can make a phone call or send a text than access a toilet. This has significant impact on public health. Biological contamination and the presence of feces in water is one of the highest causes of diarrhea and water-related disease causing millions of people to lose their lives every year.

But the issues that arise because of lack of toilets extends beyond health – it impacts safety, security and even education, especially women and girls. Women and girls are the most affected by the lack of sanitation because they are at risk of violent attacks when they don’t have a private or safe place. Many women and girls will withhold consuming food or drink during the day so they will not have to relieve themselves in the daylight. 1 out of 8 girls drop out of school by the 8th grade when they start menstruating because there are no toilets.

But sanitation is not just about toilets.  Women leaders who are participating in the Global Women’s Water Initiative WASH Service Center Training Program understand these challenges and have identified sanitation as one of their priorities in their communities. This past July, they learned to build two different kinds of waterless toilets – for safe storage of feces, and menstruation cleaning bays – so women and girls can clean themselves when they have they are menstruating. They also learned to make reusable sanitary pads as well soap, shampoo and perfume.

Take the enzymatic digester, for example. One of the most common toilets in developing countries are pit latrines. In some communities, pit latrines exist, but they are unusable, as they are full of human waste and often shut down or locked as a result. The toilet digester is an enzymatic powder that can break  down and eliminate waste in a pit latrine within 24 hours for a fraction of what it would cost to build another toilet or hire a company to extract the waste. This product is a solution for existing full toilets and can rejuvenate otherwise unused toilets. And we are discovering that participating women trainees can sell it and make a profit.

GWWI graduates now have an array of appropriate tools to start their own micro-businesses. They are being hired to build toilets and sell sanitation and hygiene-related products. Most importantly, the knowledge doesn’t end here. Our partners are helping other women do the same.

On World Toilet Day, we reflect on the courageous steps our colleagues are taking in their communities to ensure people’s safety and dignity on this day and every day.

Women Water Champions Partnering Across the World

“Can you train my wife to do what you do?” was a common question Grace Mushongi of Bukoba Women’s Empowerment Association would hear from some of the local men while she was building rainwater harvesting systems and tanks in villages around Bukoba, Tanzania. Even her husband bragged to the masons who were building their house to seek help from his wife, because after all, she was a mason too! 

But if you’d have met Grace two and half years ago, she would not have been able to tell you how to mix cement, explain the elements of a rainwater harvesting system or test water.  Since participating in the Global Women’s Water Initiative Training Program, Grace and her partner Rachel Nyamukama have been able to build water technologies that have already provided over 2000 people with water in her region. Prior to Grace and Rachel’s efforts, women would have to walk upwards of 8 hours a day to fetch water at the dirty river.

Grace and Rachel have learned how to build two kinds of water tanks, a variety of water catchment systems, two kinds of toilets as well as how to manufacture soap, shampoo, reusable sanitary pads and toilet digesters to sell locally. They are continuing their WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) training in April where they will learn how to make and build different water treatment options to clean contaminated water. They are both well on their way to being able to provide full water and sanitation services in their community to address water access, water quality and sanitation.

But Grace and Rachel couldn’t have done it alone. With the support of Women’s Global Connection, a foundation in Texas, and their biggest cheerleader, Patricia Lieveld a professor at a local university, Grace and Rachel were able to raise over $20,000 to cover the costs of their participation in the training, seed grants and technology construction.

When we visited Bukoba, wherever we went, everyone called Grace their ‘local water champion’ – because she didn’t just build technologies, she taught other women how to build them and encouraged people to treat their water and wash their hands.

 “I used to think that you had to be educated to be a trainer! But look at me now!” Grace told GWWI.

Grace now wants to have a greater impact! She has since enrolled herself in school to learn how to speak English so that she can train people in surrounding regions.  

Grace is an amazing example that GWWI is all about - supporting women to unleash their strengths and providing them with the tools to step into their role as water champions!

Fun (d) Raising at WEA's 2013 Gala

The Women's Earth Alliance Gala, "From Ripple to Wave," was an unforgettable night. The event marked another rite of passage for WEA as we celebrated our 7th year; reflected on our past, shared our vision for growth, laughed and celebrated, and thanks to all of you, made a wave of support for our efforts going forward. We want you to know that we are already working hard to translate your generosity into action.

If you missed the event, catch a glimpse of the magic through the new WEA short video by Unseen Pictures that we premiered and enjoy photos of the evening.

Thank you to our special guest Rose Wamalwa for traveling to be with us from Kisumu, Kenya and sharing her incredible story. Rose spoke about her journey from being a little girl carrying water for miles on her head, to a community leader, trainer and entrepreneur with our Global Women's Water Initiative bringing clean water to thousands in her community.

At the end of her talk she said, "my daughter now looks at me and says, 'mama, I want to be like you some day." Rose is a living testament to the wave of change that women environmental leaders generate, not only throughout regions but across generations.

Thanks to our event sponsors, who helped us with our commitment to make the Gala as low-cost an event as possible. Alcohol and beverages, centerpieces, take-home gifts, the lighting and photography were 100% donated. Production expenses, food, and table settings were generously discounted. And we couldn't have done it without our dedicated volunteers!



As our Advisor Paul Hawken said so eloquently in his talk, "there is no solution to climate change unless women's leadership is at the heart of it." Grassroots women worldwide are bringing forth life-sustaining solutions to the mounting crises we all face -- we are honored to stand with them.

Thank you for being a part of our community. We invite you to consider making a gift to WEA at this time to help us continue to thrive. Here's to a wonderful and fulfilling fall season!

Making the Invisible Visible: Valuing women’s work and challenging gender bias in agriculture and resource rights

Blog by Rucha Chitnis,WEA's South Asia Program Director

Yashoda is slowly stepping into a leadership role in her community

“A woman is not recognized for her work,” declares Yashoda, a woman farmer in the drought-prone area of Challekere in Karnataka, India.  Yashoda is among many women farmers, who believe that they are not valued for the multiple roles they juggle as farmers, resource managers, caregivers and homemakers.

“Sometimes I wonder why I work so hard when the land is not on my name,” Yashoda continues.  We are on a small family farm, meeting women farmers, who share how gender discrimination defines how women’s immense contribution to agriculture is often overlooked and undermined. Gender inequalities also erode women's ability to access and manage land and other productive resources and pose as a significant barrier to promoting their economic security and self reliance. 

According to the United Nations Populations Fund, women work longer hours than men, in almost every country, but are usually paid less and are more likely to live in poverty. This is the same case in agriculture as well, where gendered roles imply that women perform almost all aspects of farming and post harvest activities but receive little recognition for their efforts. In India, as in many parts of the Global South, women farmers are key food producers and biodiversity managers, yet their labor remains invisible and unrecognized in their own communities and in broader policymaking.

Women farmers are learning about the importance of seed saving
of native crops  during drought conditions

A series of grants from Women’s Earth Alliance is enabling our partner, the GREEN Foundation (GREEN), to address this gender bias in agriculture and mentor women farmers, like Yashoda, as community leaders, who in turn will act as mentors and resource people to other women in their communities in sustainable agriculture and promote rights of women as farmers.

Over the past 18 months, the GREEN team has worked hard to offer a holistic capacity building program for women farmers; these include peer to peer exchanges with farmers who are pioneering sustainable agriculture practices and are diversifying their livelihoods through poultry management and growing fruit trees with food crops. Challekere is a drought-prone area and women, as water primary water collectors, bear a disproportionate brunt of this scarcity. Recognizing the impact of these gendered roles on women, GREEN has also trained them on making "wicking" beds, a water efficient and space saving method for vegetable cultivation and on other dry land management practices.

“We aim to break through mental, social and cultural barriers that define women’s lives, in order that they may become true leaders of their communities. An important aspect of our approach, therefore, involves initiating discussion platforms that create an inclusive, safe atmosphere for women to express their struggles and gain the confidence needed to become strong advocates for their own cause,” notes Veena Hassan, a gender expert and the former project director at GREEN.

Rural women are often sidelined in political leadership and decision-making, and GREEN staff have oriented women farmers on Panchayat (local self governing units) schemes and services and have  mentored women to embrace their leadership in their respective villages so that they can demand their rightful entitlements by forming peer pressure groups if they were denied any services due to corruption or exploitation of poor farmers.

Veena believes that self-sustenance of women at, both, individual and community level is crucial and that promoting sustainable agriculture practices with a strong framework of human rights is an approach that has great potential for creating a peaceful, ecologically balanced and just society. 

“I felt like I was in a well and now I am surfacing and swimming in a bigger world,” reflects Yashoda on the impact of her participation in GREEN's women’s leadership program. 

Veena Hassan, far left, believes that women need to embrace their
leadership at, both, the individual and community level

5 Reasons to Join us for the 2013 WEA Gala, "From Ripple to Wave"

1.    We will celebrate the world’s women who are making the ripples. You will meet Rose Wamalwa, who will be joining as a Special Guest.

2.    We will take you back to earth. We will all be nourished with a seasonal, organic dinner from Back to Earth Organic Catering.

3.    WEA will share our roots and fruits. WEA will share stories of where we’ve been and our vision for where we’re going. And we’re taking you with us, so bring your flippers!

4.    We will harmonize. We will sing our hearts out for you. And we will all groove to the world music of Dogon Lights.

5.    We will do the wave! WEA will gather our remarkable community of local and global changemakers, luminaries, and leaders together in one space. (And yes, we will have to do the wave!!)

So don’t wait any longer—dive in! Tickets sell out, so reserve your seat today!


2013 WEA Gala Host Committee
Tod Arbogast, Laura Belzer, Dondeena Bradley, Shirley Richardson Brower, Sara Ellis Conant, Kyia Downing, Stacey Frost, Claire Greensfelder, Paul Hawken, Sandra Hay, Nick Heldfond & Simmone LaCorte, Julia Butterfly Hill, Dana King, Catriona MacGregor, Joel Makower, Angela Mason, Konda Mason, Nick and Sloane Morgan, Marcy Taylor Pattinson, Ina and Fred Pockrass, Ahmed Rahim, Kavita Ramdas, Deborah Santana, Angela Sevin, Nancy Schaub, Molly Singer, Roselyne C. Swig, Pandora Thomas, Lynne and Bill Twist, Janet MacGillivray Wallace and Randall Wallace.

A Ballad of Resistance: An evening with feminist film-maker, Leena Manimekalai

By Lauren Bellenie, WEA General Intern

Dayamani Barla was jailed last year to silence her anti-displacement activism.

On June 18th, friends of WEA, old and new, trickled into the David Brower Center to meet a special guest speaker, Indian social justice film-maker, poet and actress, Leena Manimekalai.  Rucha Chitnis, WEA's South Asia Program Director, welcomed everyone to the event and shared how indigenous women were on the frontlines of global resistance against landgrabs that threatened their ancestral homelands, and how films, such as Leena's "Ballad of Resistance", are an important vehicle to highlight the crucial role women play in social movements and defending human rights.

Guest speaker, Preeti Mangala Sekar, ED of Narika, read a poem written by Leena called "Penalty." The poem framed the public response to Leena's poetry, including demands from some right wing voices, who shunned it as "pornographic" writing. The poem's content highlighted the feelings and situations that arise when the only path to follow is one that is honest, yet perceived by some as inflammatory because it expresses and asserts female sexuality and power. Leena relates to this through her own unconventional life path and through the stories of human rights activists, especially women, that she documents in her films.

Leena sharing about her personal journey as a feminist film-maker

Leena screened "Ballad of Resistance", which follows Dayamani Barla, India's first indigenous female journalist from Jharkhand, who has centered her life on protecting ancestral lands occupied by tribal communities in her state. "Ballad of Resistance" offers a breath-taking view into the longterm social action against the external pressures of development facing indigenous communities in India.  The film shows how Dayamani works tirelessly at the grassroots, documenting the struggle through her journalism and efforts to organize tribal communities to stand strong against corporate landgrabs for mining and other industrial development projects.

Dayamani explains in the film that the Munda tribe has been resilient to many attempted impositions over the years. She notes that this area represented resistance against British colonizers, long before the time of Gandhi. Though the fights have not always been easy, their persistence has afforded them their land rights on multiple occasions. Today, women are on the frontlines of these movements against land grabs from powerful forces. One moving scene in the film showed women from Nagri communities tearing down walls of government-santioned construction sites to make way for business and law schools, despite police presence. The women featured in the film echoed the sentiment, "We will give our lives but not our land."  Dayamani stands for the dignity, rights and identity of her community and the ancestry that constitutes the foundation for their relationship with "Mother Nature".

Anu Mandavilli introduces Leena

Throughout the evening, the audience gained fascinating insights into Leena's own life as a feminist artist and activist. During the question and answer portion, Leena shared how she began making films to document lives of people, who are left out of mainstream media and development processes. She explained that she would go to communities and document their story of oppression, and then the oppressors of that group would also want her to document their story as well.

Leena's films are creative and effective means to highlight human rights violations, as well as the agency of local communities to demand justice and dignity. When Dayamani was arrested in 2012 for two and a half months, supporters used Leena's film as a means to raise awareness to free her.  Attendees were so engaged in the discussion with Leena that it continued well past the scheduled finish time.

Leena closed with a statement about our role in these issues as international allies. She encouraged our role as funders, given the sparse monetary sources available for NGOs and social movements in India and profoundly stated that "Indian resistance is at a challenging point, but we can give them hope and solidarity that they are not alone."

Special thanks to activist, Anu Mandavilli and Friends of South Asia for partnering with WEA to host this gathering.