girls Archives - Humanosphere

girls

Should We Care About the 57th Commission on the Status of Women? |

: Liberian Ambassador Marjon Kamara (left) speaks with United States Ambassador Susan Rice (right) at the event. Photo credit: UN Women/Catianne Tijerina

Keshet Bachan (you may know her as one of the authors of the annual Because I am a Girl Report) thinks it is a waste of time.

Different people will have different opinions on the annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). As it enters the second week, it appears that the CSW suffers from some serious problems. Namely the sticky issue of reproductive rights prevents may prevent the outcome document from having real teeth or even meaningful language about reproductive health as a right.

Bachan stresses that now is the time to find ways to end the violence, abuse and discrimination faced by girls around the world. However, the CSW may not be the best way to do it, in her opinion.

The best example of CSW impotence is the fact that in my many travels to ‘the field’, no one has ever heard of this meeting. sorry, but its true. the only interested folks, are those who are attending, have attended, or might attend one of the meetings in future. (sic)

Liz Ford reported from the CSW last week for the Guardian Global Development channel. Her reports showed an event that tried to push against the restriction of women’s rights, but had to balance against the many participating nations. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Justice, Commission on the Status of Women, girls, UN, UN Women, UNDP

October 10, 2012 | 8:49 AM | By Tom Paulson |

Let’s make it Malala Day – International Day of the Girl |

Pak News

The Taliban, in shooting 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai for promoting girls rights, may have done more than any other humanitarian organization could have hoped to do to draw attention to the first International Day of the Girl, on Thursday.

Malala has for years been speaking out in Pakistan against the Taliban’s prohibition on girls’ education. On Tuesday, the Islamists shot her in the head and neck, also wounding several other girls on a school bus. According to the BBC, Malala has so far survived and after surgery to remove the bullet from her head is in stable condition.

The Taliban has already threatened to attack her again with the aim of killing her for her public support of girls’ education. Here is a short documentary the New York Times did a few years ago on Malala Yousafsai and her family:

So Thursday is the day the world is supposed to stand up for girls. Seattle is already pretty big on promoting “girl power” here and around the world.

Many of our local humanitarian organizations specifically work on empowering girls and young women. There was the big “Girl Up” push a few years ago. Global Washington recently sponsored an event called Stand for Girls that brings together a number of organizations working on girls and women’s issues. On Thursday, the Gates Foundation and other members of the Northwest Girls Coalition are sponsoring a number of local events to mark the United Nations’ first International Day of the Girl.

But honestly, these kind of theme days come and go, with varying levels of success when it comes to truly gaining public attention and interest. Simply calling something World (fill-in-the-blank) Day is of debatable value. Today is World Mental Health Day, for example. The practice of proclaiming a day to ‘raise awareness’ for some cause or issue has become so common that now every single day of the year now marks something, or several things.

So maybe we should make this first International Day of the Girl about keeping our eye on just one very brave girl who is on the front line fighting for this cause. Let’s make it about Malala.

FILED UNDER: Basics, education, girls, human rights, Malala Yousafzai, Taliban

November 9, 2011 | 2:16 PM | By Tom Paulson |

RE:VISITING RWANDA

Rwanda is empowering girls, with a little help from Seattle |

RGI

The first class of the Rwanda Girls Initiative, launched by two Seattle women

It has become a mantra in aid and development circles today to say that empowering girls is the single most effective means of fighting poverty, inequity and any number of ills in poor countries.

This is one of the international community’s top priorities, for good reason.

But saying and doing are two different things. Talk is cheap, they say.

Paul Kagame’s government in Rwanda is clearly walking the talk on girls and women — and a number of Seattle organizations are assisting in the gender revolution happening here. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, agriculture, education, Gashora, girls, Ralph Coolman, Rwanda, Rwanda Girls Initiative, Suzanne Sinegal McGill, women's rights

September 30, 2011 | 10:12 AM | By Tom Paulson |

The wisdom of educating Rwandan women |

I’ve written a lot on Humanosphere about how young people, aka the Millennials, are especially interested these days in trying to make the world a better place. It is definitely a phenomenon.

Last night, at a small gathering in a Queen Anne home, I met some young women from Rwanda who are among those trying to make Rwanda a better place — helped by another young Millennial, American Elizabeth Dearborn Davis, who moved to the central-east African nation to start a girls school.

It’s called “Akilah” – Swahili for wisdom.

Tom Paulson

Rwandan student Allen Kazarwa talks with Sharon Woolf at Seattle fund-raiser for Akilah

“When you tell people you are from Rwanda many just think of the genocide,” said Allen Kazarwa, a 20-year-old student at the Akilah Institute for Women (yes, it’s spelled Allen, not Ellen). Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Akilah, Bill Gates Sr., education, Frank Greer, girls, Rwanda, women

September 22, 2011 | 4:57 PM | By Tom Paulson |

UN WEEK

At Clinton Global Initiative: Landless women at root of many problems |

I’ve been reporting this week on the United Nations’ declared support (however vague) for expanding the global health agenda to go beyond the traditional focus on infectious diseases like AIDS, TB, measles or malaria and include non-contagious, chronic disease like cancer or heart disease.

Across town, the Clinton Global Initiative was also in New York City this week and has been exploring how to fight hunger, poverty, unemployment, gender discrimination as well as disease.

One organization from Seattle in attendance here at this high-caliber, invitation-only event, Landesa, is dealing with all these at the same time.

“Land rights are at the root of many of these problems,” said Tim Hanstad, president and CEO of the non-profit organization (formerly known as RDI, Rural Development Institute) which works to help poor people around the world obtain legal ownership of their land.

Tom Paulson

Seattle film-maker Stan Emert talks with Landesa CEO Tim Hanstad at Clinton Global Initiative

Did I mention that the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is pretty high-faluting? Only select folks are invited. People like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Obama, Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi — and actually quite a few people representing organizations from Seattle such as PATH, Microsoft and a creative nerd working on a literacy device.

Media are allowed in, within limits. I got kicked out of a room (where I was interviewing physician-activist Paul Farmer) because I had inadvertently left the media quarantine area. For more on what it’s like to be a journalist at CGI, read this hilarious piece by the Wall Street Journal’s Ralph Gardner Jr.

But I digress. The point is it’s a high honor to be invited to attend the CGI event. It is also often a sign that your issue — aimed at creating a social good — is rising up on the political and philanthropic radar screen.

Hanstad’s been to this luminous event before, but he said there’s no question the issue of land rights for the poor is gaining more recognition. Part of this, he said, is due to the so-called “land grab” going on in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. See this Oxfam spoof video for one view.

“It’s hard to get precise numbers on what’s happening out there, but it’s clearly huge,” Hanstad said. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Justice, Clinton Global Initiative, girls, land rights, Tim Hanstad, UN Week, United Nations, women

March 3, 2011 | 11:49 AM | By Tom Paulson |

The need to “girl up” our approach to development |

Flickr, Alireza Teimoury

There’s a lot of talk these days about focusing on the needs of women and young girls when it comes to foreign aid, development and global health.

As was noted recently by Unicef, and reported in the Guardian, the needs of teenagers and adolescents are generally neglected when it comes to many global health and development programs. This is especially true of the needs of girls and young women. Continue reading →