Senator Cardin:

Violence against women ranges from gang rape to domestic violence and from acid burnings to so-called honor killings. It also includes sexual violence as a tool of war, such as what is now occurring on a vast scale in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has become a serious public health epidemic and a barrier to solving global problems such as poverty and HIV/AIDS. It devastates the lives of millions of women and girls, and it knows no national or cultural barriers.

Women who are abused frequently die or face serious injury and are at much greater risk of dying in pregnancy, having children who die in childhood, and of contracting HIV/AIDS.

What most people don’t realize is that violence against women is also a major cause of poverty. Typically, women are much more likely to be among the world’s poorest, living on a dollar a day or less. Violence reduces their standard of living by preventing them from accessing education or earning the income they need to lift their families out of poverty. In turn, poverty often prevents them from fleeing, perpetuating a vicious cycle that keeps millions of women from making better lives for themselves and their families.

In Nicaragua, for example, a study found that children of female victims of violence left school an average of four years earlier than other children. In India, it has been found that women who experienced even a single incident of violence lost an average of seven working days.

Every day around the world, a war is waged against women and girls. Approximately one out of every three women globally has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Violence against women includes abuse by spouses or partners in the home, rape as a weapon during times of war, dowry-related deaths and forced prostitution. This abuse is a global health crisis, an egregious human rights violation, and a moral outrage that knows no geographic or cultural barriers.

But what many people don’t realize is that violence against women is also a major cause of poverty. Violence keeps women from getting an education. Violence keeps women from earning an income to help lift themselves and their families out of poverty (research has shown that economic opportunity empowers women to escape abusive situations).

Today, Senator Kerry (D-MA), Senator Snowe (R-ME), Senator Boxer (D-CA), Senator Collins (R-ME), Congressman Delahunt (D-MA), Congressman Poe (R-TX), Congresswoman Janice Schakowsky (D-IL) and others will reintroduce the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA). IVAWA is the most comprehensive piece of legislation addressing violence against women and girls worldwide. This bipartisan bill would support proven best practices for reducing gender-based violence. It would expand our government’s ability to prevent violence against women caught in conflict, support grassroots organizations already working to effectively combat violence in their communities, and would make it globally known that the U.S. is committed to ending violence against women and girls.

To help make IVAWA a priority, please send a message to your Representative and Senators at www.WomenThrive.org/ivawa and ask them to co-sponsor IVAWA. To find out more information about IVAWA, or to read about other ways to get involved, visit www.WomenThrive.org/ivawatools.

- Mckenzie Lock, Women Thrive Worldwide

A crowd of people lined the hall of the Rayburn House Office Building on Wednesday to attend a hearing hosted by Representatives Bill Delahunt (D-MA) and Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA) of the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight. With testimony from Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky (D-IL), Ambassador of Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer, Founder of Breakthrough Mallika Dutt, former Rep. Linda Smith and Actress and UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman, the hearing discussed the International Violence against Women Act (IVAWA), an effort to bring violence against women to the forefront of American foreign policy.

Each panelist provided a unique perspective on the issue, but all agreed on one principle: violence against women should be a priority for U.S. foreign policy. Schakowsky began the hearing with a grim message: over the course of their lifetimes, at least one in three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused. Delahunt continued, emphasizing that violence against women is not merely a woman’s issue or a problem for the developing world, but a concern for everyone. Verveer agreed. She stressed that everyone must act now “to eliminate this worldwide scourge.” Dutt remarked that we must include youth in order to make lasting change. Kidman echoed her fellow participants, adding that violence against women knows no borders and needs support at the highest levels of leadership.

Women in conflict particularly face unimaginable brutality. Quoting Major General Patrick Cammaert, former UN Peacekeeping Operation Commander in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Delahunt remarked that it is now more dangerous to be a woman than it is to be a soldier in conflict: in the DRC alone, 1,100 rapes are reported each month. Schakowsky reiterated this sad fact, adding that rape has become a systematic weapon of war. However, ending violence against women is more than a moral issue, said the panelists: doing so is in our own national interest and the interest of nations around the world. According to Delahunt, it is also a national security issue. Girls’ education, he explained, has proven to be an effective tool against extremism and terrorism.

Schakowsky remarked that violence against women also prevents them from actively participating in their communities, thus depriving societies of their important contributions. Verveer explained that there cannot be vibrant civil society, good governance or economic prosperity if half of the population is left out. The goals set by the international community will not be met without the voices of women, Kidman concluded.

The overarching message was clear: violence against women cannot be relegated to the margins of foreign policy. Check out ONE partner Women Thrive Worldwide for more information on IVAWA and how you can get involved.

Also, check out this clip from CNN on the hearing and Nicole Kidman’s participation in this important movement.

-Jen Fraser and Pooja Gupta

-Kara Arsenault

There are about 1.4 billion people worldwide, most of whom are women and children, living in extreme poverty (defined as living on approximately $1 per day or less). As president and co-founder of Women Thrive Worldwide, I spend my days advocating on behalf of these women. This fall, I lived in Tactic, Guatemala for four days, a mountainous, rural region that contains some of the most desperate poverty in Central America. I spent time with three Mayan women—Margarita, Dorotea, and Eluvia—and attempted to experience what they must do everyday: live on less than $1, or 8.3 Quetzales (Guatemala’s currency), per day.

The following is an excerpt from my diary:
……

Back at Margarita’s home we talk to her about her life. Because of a poor economy, there are no formal jobs in Tactic, so, like most women, Margarita supports her family selling vegetables that she grows with her husband. However, they can barely produce enough food to feed their family, let alone enough to sell. Hence, their income is extremely low – combined they earn about 50 Quetzales a day ($6.02), which they must split among 13 people.

With limited income and limited crops, come limited diets. In the morning, children in Bempec will usually have a cup of coffee with sugar and two tortillas. At school, they will receive a cup of Atol de Elote (ah-TOLL day eh-LOW-tay), a thin corn-based porridge, followed by herbs cooked in water after school. Mothers often have to send their kids to bed as early as 4pm just to keep them from feeling hungry for dinner.

I look around at the lush landscape and think about how much food Margarita could grow if we could get U.S. development assistance programs to reach women like her. You wouldn’t know it in the States, but much of the developing world, including Guatemala, is experiencing an extreme food crisis.

Yet women, who produce the majority of the world’s food supply, receive a scant amount of the credit that goes to small farmers. It strikes me that growing food in the fertile Western region and selling it to the Eastern region, where there is a famine, could be a path out of poverty for these farmers. But that can’t happen until development programs get serious about helping agricultural communities like Bempec – and women like Margarita. Read more about women & food security here.



Read my full diary, view my photo album, and watch videos from the trip here.

-Ritu Sharma, president and co-founder, Women Thrive Worldwide

Photos by Mckenzie Lock, Women Thrive Worldwide

Ritu Sharma, President/Founder of Women Thrive Worldwide and leading voice on international women’s issues and U.S. foreign policy, opened the event. Next to speak was the Honorable Jim Kolbe, Senior Transatlantic Fellow for GMF. Kolbe has served in the United States House of Representatives and has made significant contributions to the world of international development and trade. Kolbe touched on the importance of trade in promoting development before introducing featured speaker Ambassador Demetrios Marantis. Mr. Marantis serves as Deputy USTR (United States Trade Representative) and is responsible for US trade negotiations and enforcement in Asia and Africa.

Mr. Marantis explained that many people don’t realize that trade is an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to economic growth and poverty reduction. While access to new markets for poor countries is a significant part of accelerating and achieving development, trade is an essential component, too.

“We must explore ways to use trade to fuel future development,” Mr. Marantis remarked.

Similarly, Ms. Sharma said that “Foreign assistance is not enough to lift people out of poverty.” In order to achieve development goals, economic growth is needed through private sector investments, foreign direct investment, and trade.

The take-away message? The US can (and should) use trade to further the US Global Development Goals, and even reduce conflict throughout the world. We as ONE members have the power to influence the government to maximize the role the United States plays in achieving development. But in order to do this, we should recognize the significant role that trade policy plays in this process.

Learn more about the ways in which trade creates economic growth and opportunities for the world’s poor here.

-Jen Fraser

People thought Alicia would never do anything more than sweep streets. After she had to drop out of school, they thought she would never go back. When she got married at 15 and had her first child, her fate was sealed in the eyes of her community – she would spend the rest of her life sweeping streets, struggling to earn enough to feed her children.

But Alicia had other plans.

The daughter of a desperately poor family in Colombia, Alicia del Socorro Meneses has spent her whole life overcoming what could easily have been crippling challenges.

When a bloody conflict unfolded in her village, she and her husband were forced to leave their home. They moved to a new city, Agua Blanca, and hand built a house from cardboard in the slums. Alicia struggled for five years, until she met a group of Catholic nuns who gave her a small micro-loan through one of their development programs. Alicia used the loan to start a small business selling food from her house. She called her business “Alicia’s Delicacies.” Soon she was making a profit. Her husband started treating her with more respect, she was able to buy her children more necessities, and her neighbors began to view her as a community leader – she was even elected for local office!


With her new success, Alicia enrolled in a university certificate program to study business development, cooperatives, and project management. Her new skills enabled her to grow her business and employ four new women. Today Alicia’s Delicacies is thriving and Alicia is working with the same nuns who helped her, to teach other women in the area how to start their own businesses.

Says Alicia, “Now I am able to train other women and I hope that they will be able to lift themselves from poverty just as I have.”

Alicia’s story is a testament to the power of micro-finance to transform women’s lives. Last year, Alicia traveled from Colombia to Washington, DC to convince lawmakers to pass the Global Resources and Opportunities for Women to Thrive Act (GROWTH), a bill now in the Senate that would give millions of women the opportunity Alicia had.

Walking through the halls of Congress with Women Thrive staff Alicia said, “I really want the U.S. Congress to pass the GROWTH Act because […] it would open the doors for women to benefit from micro-finance and invest in local organizations like mine – we are the key because we know best how to solve local women’s issues on the ground.”

Activists around the country are participating in a call-in effort to urge Congress to pass the GROWTH Act. We need your voice: Please call your Senators TODAY and ask them to support the GROWTH Act!

Here’s how to take action:

1. Call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senators’ offices.

2. When an office staffer answers the phone say, “As a constituent of Senator ______, I am calling to ask the Senator to highlight his/her commitment to ending global poverty and empowering women worldwide by co-sponsoring the Global Resources and Opportunities for Women to Thrive Act, S. 1425.”

Please take action for women like Alicia: Call your Senators today!

-Mckenzie Lock, Women Thrive Worldwide

Photo caption: Alicia and a Senate staffer outside the office of former Oregon Senator Gordon Smith

This week, Ritu Sharma, Women Thrive’s Co-founder and President, has been in Ghana and Burkina Faso, trying to learn about what life is like for women farmers, what their governments are doing to empower them, and what U.S. assistance programs can do to help. Accompanied by a team of Women Thrive staff, Ritu has met with local women’s organizations, such as their advocacy partner, Coordinator Coalition Burkinabe pour Le Droit du la Femmes (CBDF), a coalition of 15 women’s associations that educates Burkinabe women and helps them advocate for better economic rights. She has also met with individual women farmers, Burkina Faso government officials, and U.S. development agencies working in the country.
Read Ritu’s daily diaries and conversations with women farmers.

For most women in Burkina Faso, where almost half of the population lives below the poverty line, life is a daily struggle. Typically living in rural areas, most women have little access to ongoing education or potable water. Yet because they are the majority of farmers and are responsible for child care, Burkinabe women spend much of their day performing field work, growing food and crops for their families. However, despite this often grueling work, many Burkinabe women are not allowed to own the very land they farm, because customary often law excludes women from land ownership, preventing them from investing in the tools, irrigation, and seeds that would make their families better fed and their children better off. Learn more about women’s role in agriculture.

-McKenzie Lock, Women Thrive Worldwide

-Margaret McDonnell, NGO Partnerships

In honor of International Women’s Day, Women Thrive Worldwide is pleased to release its toolkit on Foreign Aid Reform!

Investing in women and girls is one of the most efficient uses of our foreign assistance dollars and best ways to make the world more peaceful and prosperous. Decades of research and experience prove that women are more likely to invest their income in food, clean water, education, and health care for their children, creating a positive cycle of change that lifts entire families, communities and nations out of poverty. Simply put, when women thrive, we all do.

This International Women’s Day, take a minute to learn more about how you can get involved to ensure that women and girls are at the center of the current efforts to reform our foreign assistance programs. Our toolkit, complete with a sample action alert, newsletter article, petition, and letter to the editor, is all that you or your organization will need to get started!

To learn more about Women Thrive Worldwide’s campaign to reform foreign assistance, please visit www.womenthrive.org/foreignassistance.

-Lorelle Curry, Women Thrive Worldwide

This February, in honor of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month (March), I left my home in Annapolis, MD and traveled to Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in the Americas, to try to experience what it was like to live on less than $1 a day.

In Nicaragua, I stayed with a member of FEMUPROCAN, an agricultural cooperative that helps women produce and sell crops in organic, sustainable, and income-generating ways. I met Leticia Mansaranes Lanza, an inspiring woman who lives on less than 20 Cordovas (about $1) a day. Like many Nicaraguan women, unemployment, drought, and unequal economic barriers have left Leticia with little to no income. Without the credit she needs to build an irrigation system for her small plot of land, Leticia is forced to rely on the weather for her entire livelihood: when there is no rain, there is no food. Leticia cannot afford basic healthcare and must constantly choose between necessities. If given tools like credit to build wells, small business training, and access to trade, Leticia told me, she and the other women of FEMUPROCAN can earn the income they need to lift their families out of poverty for the long-term. They have the ability and dedication, all they need are the resources.

Leticia reminded me how important it is that the U.S. invest in women’s economic opportunity. Imagine how many women would get tools like credit and access to trade if we passed the GROWTH Act, for example (click here to learn more and take action!). The possibilities are endless. Our only limitation is the will of the American government to make women’s opportunity a priority.

To learn more about Nicaragua and browse my photo album visit my diary.

-Ritu