WEA not alone

“As a young child, barefoot women and girls carrying heavy containers of water on their heads, walking long distances under the searing sun were a common sight. The reality of this stayed with me, and I knew I would do something about it someday.”

Through the support and investment of our friends and partners, WEA has unlocked the future for leaders like Olanike Olugboji, a WEA founding mother, who participated in our first Women and Water Training in Kenya, and then returned to Nigeria with a clear vision and a strong network. Equipped with technical skills, entrepreneurship training, and seed funding, Olanike launched her own NGO called WISE, which today has trained over 3,000 women in clean energy, safe water technologies, and entrepreneurship. Her work has created refuge for Nigerian women, who risk rape or assault on the long walks to fetch water and firewood, as well as opportunity for women to create a livelihood and secure a future for their children.

After joining WEA as a regional coordinator, Olanike linked with women around the world. She is not only a regional leader, but she has a global reach as well. Olanike is a correspondent with World Pulse, a recipient of numerous international awards, and a participant in several prestigious leadership trainings. In 2016, WEA will collaborate with Olanike and her team to train women in promoting and selling clean cookstoves, linking up with the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves in Nigeria. (If a woman cooks breakfast, lunch and dinner over a wood fire, she suffers the equivalent of smoking between 3 and 20 packets of cigarettes a day. Over 120,000 Nigerian women die annually from inhalation of firewood smoke.) Olanike's impact on the environment and on women’s well-being and livelihood has only just begun.

Our community of supporter such as yourself are a vital part of WEA’s efforts to build alliances. As we embark on our 10th year, please join with the others in this global alliance to ensure WEA’s impact and our solid beginning to the next decade. We are just $2,000 from reaching our Year-End Campaign goal. Please know that a gift of $100, $50 or $20 makes a huge difference. Together, we can build the leadership of women who will create a future of balance, health, and peace for our world.

Women Climate Warriors

"I’ve got a 25-year-old son named Abe. I’ve got a 20-year-old daughter named Jessie. I would throw myself in front of a bus if it was coming at them. We all need to throw ourselves in front of this bus called climate change."

— Mindy Lubber, one of Vogue's 13 Climate Warriors 

Have you seen the absolutely stunning piece VOGUE published just as COP21 was getting underway? The article—and the profoundly beautiful photographs by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin that accompanied it—feature 13 of the formidable women leading the way on climate action.

Elizabeth Yeampierre. Photo: Vogue

Meet all 13 of these fierce women by checking out the full article here.

While we so deeply respect these women climate warriors and all they do, we also recognize that there are many more women living on the frontlines of climate change and taking action to protect their communities.  We are humbled and honored to support a number of these women and communities.

[In the News] The First Woman Of Women: How Melinda Gates Became The World's Most Powerful Advocate For Women And Girls

We're loving this look at the life and work of Melinda Gates, co-founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and a champion for the health and rights of women and girls.

Photo: Forbes

For the first decade and a half of its existence the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation deployed its remarkable scale toward eradicating polio and malaria, and experimentation in education issues. But over the past few years Melinda Gates has embraced having her name on the letterhead of the largest-ever charitable foundation, along with the influence that comes with that. She has become the most powerful person on the planet whose singular focus is women and girls...

"When you get women in roles of leadership, we make things happen,” Gates says. “It takes us using our voice, and it also takes us making investments, huge investments, in women and girls.”

Melinda Gates has stepped up to use her voice and platform, as well as make those huge, critical investments. We are so inspired by the message this sends about the importance and global impact of investing in the leadership of women and girls.

It's through women leaders like these, believing in the women leaders on the ground, that we can change the world.

Read the full article on Forbes.

WEA Grassroots Partner Celebrated as "Woman Warrior"

Check out this great article on grassroots women warriors--including a WEA partner!--who are protecting their lands and communities against #environmental destruction.

Suryamani Bhagat is a brave forest activist and #Indigenous leader of the Jharkhand Save the Forest Movement in #India, and has mobilized a forest watch committee to stop illegal forest destruction in her state.

WEA partnered with Jharkhand Save the Forest Movement, part of the Bindrai Institute of Research Study and Action, over the last year to support their efforts to enhance decision-making power of adivasi women, who are crucial custodians of forests and #biodiversity.

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.

Recognizing Women's Leadership to Mitigate Conflict & Climate Change

Blog post by: Rucha Chitnis, Director of Grantmaking (@ruchachitnis)

Manipur, a state in India bordering Burma, is part of the "Seven Sisters" -- seven contiguous states in Northeastern India, known for their rich ethnic diversity, bountiful natural resources, as well as political conflict and turmoil.  For over 50 years now, Manipur has been bound by the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which grants extraordinary powers to the Indian armed forces to suppress separatist insurgencies in the region.  This act has been fiercely criticized by human rights groups for its abuse by the Indian Army through arbitrary killings, torture, enforced disappearances and violence perpetrated against women.

Northeastern states, like Manipur, are also ecologically fragile lands, and are part of the Eastern Himalayan tracts that are considered a major biodiversity hotspot.  In recent times, big dams, mining and oil exploration activities and rapid forest degradation have deeply concerned environmental advocates, especially as the impacts of climate change are worsening economic and food security in the region.

Women play a crucial role in all socio-economic aspects Manipur and are key food producers.

Earlier this year, I traveled to Manipur to learn about the emerging priorities and strategies of women's groups to promote sustainable development and livelihoods in the midst of political tensions, militarism and ecological vulnerabilities. Our grantee partners in Manipur, Rural Women Upliftment Society (RWUS) and Weaker Sections Development Council, (WSDC) are using holistic multi-pronged approaches to promote food security, advocate for peace and security, and raise awareness on climate change among vulnerable Indigenous hill tribes.

A women's group in Chandel district that is growing and processing organic turmeric as a collective

Ignored by History: Recognizing Manipuri Women's Role in Social Movements

Shangnaidar Shangdar, leader of WSDC, is passionate about highlighting the role of women in Manipur to forge long-term movements to bring peace and security in the region. Historically women in Manipur have also led brave social movements, including fighting British imperialism. Known as Nupi lan, or women’s war, women in Manipur led a successful brave agitation in 1939 protesting exploitative British free trade laws that precipitously raised the price of rice by increasing exports, and adversely affected local communities and small traders through food shortages. Sadly, these crucial resistances by Manipuri women are largely invisible and unknown in mainstream India's historical chronicles.

During my visit, Shangnaidar took me to Ima Keithel, also known as Mother's Market, which is a sprawling market in the capital city of Imphal, where all stalls are run by women. Mother's Market stands out as a proud, unique heritage of Manipur, which speaks powerfully to the crucial role women play in socio-eonomic realms here.

These women are promoting inter-tribal peace building efforts & are training women affected
by gun violence and HIV/AIDS on weaving and other livelihood generation activities

WSDC raises awareness among women widowed by gun violence and HIV/AIDS on their rights and entitlements from the state, including widow pension and food security provisions. They are also training communities on organic farming practices, raising awareness on the rights of small farmers, and are supplementing women’s income through diversifying their livelihoods by soap making, weaving and artisanal bamboo products.

Both of our grantee partners recognize that empowering women, and promoting their political, social and cultural rights, is crucial for peace building and strengthening civil society and ushering sustainable development.  WSDC and RWUS also organize trainings and educational activities to promote women’s role in governance and in conflict resolution.

Recently RWUS conducted several workshops to raise awareness on climate change among women in the hilly tribal areas of Churachandpur, the largest district of the Manipur.

“Being largely an agrarian economy, climate change is affecting the economy of the state over time. Unnoticed by the policy makers, one of the major victims of climate change have been the marginalized women of the society, who have always suffered for being financially weak and also for lacking the power of decision making in the society.”  RWUS further notes that climate change is affecting water availability in the region and is making agriculture increasingly harder for small farmers.

A small grant from WEA is enabling RWUS to organize women in 15 vulnerable tribal villages affected by climate change.  With WEA's support, RWUS is raising awareness on the crucial need to protect Manipur’s forest biodiversity and other natural resources, and the key role women can play in protecting their environment and promoting sustainable livelihoods.

“The impact of climate change has already forced many to abandon their existing professions and search for alternatives. Many women particularly youth are forced to move out of home to seek employment elsewhere because agriculture has become unsustainable,” notes the RWUS team.

In the near future, RWUS plans to organize workshops for women on dams and mining and how they impact Indigenous livelihoods, culture and way of being, as well as continue their assessment on the impact of climate change on women and promote women’s role as environmental advocates.

RWUS shares how one of the participants of the climate change training called Sangpui, a mother of three, began taking personal responsibility to protect the environment. Sangpui went on to plant over 1000 saplings and is slowly recognizing how forest degradation affects her community. “Each time I plant a tree, I realize I am contributing to sustain the livelihood of forest dependents, like me,” she says.

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!
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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 

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!

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

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.

Food - Not Just a Source of Profit But A Source Of Nutrition & Sustenance

Dr. Vanaja Ramprasad, founder of WEA's partner in India, the GREEN Foundation, shares what the global community can learn from women farmers in India.

Why Food sovereignty? In renaming the concept, we have moved away from the mainstream discourse using familiar terms such as food security, right to food or entitlement to food. No doubt that this is a complicated issue since food production and availability play a critical role in a country’s progress.

The multidimensional nature of food production spans across several issues starting with appropriate use of natural resources such that it does not erode into needs of the future generation. Today’s technological developments have brought in a new dimension to the production, distribution and consumption of food and that new dimension is the global politics of control over food in all its spheres.

Yet, at the same time there is a growing resistance against control over food as a source of nourishment, and not poison, as a source of peace and not conflict, as a source of health and not as disease, as a source of prosperity and not poverty, as a source of nurture and not destruction and decimation. The resistance is to free the notion of food as a weapon and from the shackles of globalised control.

Green Foundation – which has been working on vital issues such as seed conservation, also works on viable alternatives that have emerged from its intensive field-based work with small and marginal farmers in rain-fed areas of India. In this effort women have played a major role in self provisioning food for their families and their communities.

The crisis that today’s farming community is facing is complicated by links with agro-chemical companies, seed companies, veterinary drugs, banks, food processors, retailers, packers and other stake-holders in the food production and distribution chain. Each link in the chain is being controlled more and more by giant corporations.India in the last three to four decades has focused on chemical intensive farming and reached national level self sufficiency, but today we are importing wheat which is the staple food of millions in this country. We have farmers committing suicide.

Women have played a major role in changing the mindset of the Green Revolution era, which did not look at the regional variations. Women all over have shown that food supply is not a source of profit but a source of nutrition and sustenance. There have been efforts to empower women to remodel the system to bring together the water, soil and the flora and fauna to perceive it as the food we eat. Women have demonstrated that the most important lesson we learn is the circular loops of fertility, seeds and resilience of communities in the food web and have shown that food production is also about biology and not just economics.

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Remembering Becky Tarbotton

Women's Earth Alliance joins the environmental community in mourning the passing and honoring the life of Rebecca Tarbotton, Rainforest Action Network's executive director, who died on December 26th in Mexico.

It is difficult to capture Becky's spirit in words.  Those who knew her, admired and adored her for her vivacious energy, her welcoming spirit, and her uncompromising approach to her work.  She was a true leader who met seemingly insurmountable environmental challenges head-on, and won.  "We're not the Rainforest Negotiation Network," she said, "we're the Rainforest Action Network."  This past year, under her leadership, RAN saw one of its biggest wins ever — getting the Disney Corporation to commit to eliminating the use of paper sourced from Indonesia's rainforests.

Becky's influence and presence as a woman leader on the world stage was grounded in her years of working alongside grassroots women organizing in places like Ladakh, India.  There, she supported a local women's farming alliance to grow its membership from 7 to 4,000.

Of that time, Becky said: “working with those women, helping them build alternatives to the western development model that was being imposed on their communities, was a foundational experience for me. It showed me that local wisdom is a powerful tool for change and that true solutions, when grounded in deep respect for cultural traditions, ecological wisdom and creativity can both improve quality of life and build a future where people live in harmony with nature.”

We at Women's Earth Alliance draw deep inspiration from these words, and from the wisdom and commitment they represent.  All of our hearts ache at the loss of this brilliant, dedicated, joyful woman.  We persist in our work with renewed commitment in 2013, so that we may contribute to the realization of Becky's dream of a peaceful and sustainable human existence on earth.

To make a donation to RAN in honor of Becky, visit RAN's website. 

THE WAVE of H2ope!

When Grace Mushongi came to the GWWI training in Kampala in Summer of 2011, she was working as a community organizer and Board Member for Bukoba Women’s Empowerment Association. Grace brings groups of women together to discuss development projects and increase women’s participation in the management of their livelihoods. Prior to the GWWI Women and Water Training, BUWEA assisted women with funding for purchase of cows, goats, pigs, and other supplies in order to maintain a method of increasing their household income, and allowing their children to attend school. When Grace returned home from the GWWI training with her partner Rachel Ndyamukama, they were able to introduce water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) education for improved health; water testing techniques so they can identify contaminated water sources and introduce affordable ways to clean their water; and rain harvesting technologies to help women have access to water closer to their homes instead of walking upwards of 8 hours to fetch water.

Since the training and with GWWI's ongoing on-site and virtual support, Grace has helped train women in her community to build 5 rainwater harvesting systems with tanks providing clean water to over 1000 people in Kasangi, Tanzania. Grace not only has the passion and the drive, she now has the solutions to bring much needed change in her community! Grace and Rachel are just one of the ten GWWI Teams who are part of GWWIs 2013 Program Women-led WASH Service Center Training, where they deepening and strengthening their capacity as WASH technicians, educators, facilitators and solutionaries!

2012 : A STORY OF TRANSFORMATION

Today we’d like to tell you a story about Global Women’s Water Initiative (GWWI) graduates Florence Acharit and Eunice Aliamo of Orphans and Widows Association for Development in Uganda. Because of their leadership, 200 girls at Amuria High School no longer miss classes or face violence because they have to fetch water. Remarkable transformation was possible in 2012 because YOU got involved. Because you share our posts, introduce us to your friends, host house parties, attend our Weaving the Worlds Events, join our Giving Circle and contribute financially to our work – the world is changing.

If WEA raises $75,000 by this year’s end, we will launch into 2013 ready to support and unite more grassroots women leaders working tirelessly on issues of clean water, sustainable agriculture, and climate resilience. Please join us by making a donation today. We will be awarded a challenge grant of $10,000 if over 100 of you give to WEA by December 31st!

Florence and Eunice were one of 16 teams to attend the 2012 GWWI Grassroots Women and Water Training in Uganda. GWWI, our partnership with Crabgrass, has been hosting trainings since 2008. This year participants learned water and sanitation technologies, entrepreneurial tools and leadership skills. And for an entire year, GWWI provided follow-up financial, technical and peer support to the teams.

So, what was it like before Florence and Eunice participated in a GWWI training? Girls had to fetch water during school, which could take 3-4 hours and put them at risk of being attacked. Girls would sometimes faint from dehydration while waiting for water or meals that were prepared late because there was no water. The school spent around $150 every week to buy clean water and cover medical expenses for students who fell ill from water-related diseases.

Florence and Eunice applied their skills to build two 15,000 gallon tanks to catch rainwater in a primary school and high school in Amuria, Uganda. Now, the girls have safe water to drink. Money that their school once spent on water and medicine will go towards a well that will that serve the entire community for years to come.

2012 is full of stories of bold women leaders like Florence and Eunice protecting the earth and redefining our future. The grassroots women and groups WEA partnered with this year brought 15,000 people access to clean water and trained 2,400 women farmers in sustainable agriculture and native seed saving practices, along with climate change awareness programs. From East Africa to India to California, we supported women leaders to share water and sanitation practices, develop strategies to adapt to a changing climate, and build relationships critical for creating change. Read more about our 2012 Impact.

With your help, we can respond more fully to our partners’ call. In 2013:

• The India Program will expand its support to South Asia with the launch of a small grants initiative for indigenous and rural women’s groups working to promote human rights, traditional knowledge, sustainable agriculture, and environmental justice.
• GWWI will launch the WASH Service Center Training Program for graduates of Women and Water Trainings to deepen their knowledge of sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene strategies, and become professional implementers, trainers and social entrepreneurs.
• The North America Program will continue to coordinate legal advocacy support in partnership with North American Indigenous women leading environmental justice campaigns.

We are reminded by the collective efforts of grassroots women that resilience – the ability to rise up stronger from a difficult situation – is possible when we stand together.  The more we unite, the greater strength we have to persevere against all odds. When you donate to WEA, you stand with a global network of women leaders moving together towards resilience in the New Year and beyond. Please give today and be 1 of the 100 donors who make our challenge grant and $75,00 goal possible.

In partnership,

Amira, Caitlin, Gemma, Kahea, Melinda, Rucha and Tejeswi

P.S.  If you are still shopping for Holiday gifts, you can make a donation to WEA’s work in honor of your loved ones and we’ll send them a beautiful, personalized card!

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