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Join Women on the Bridge All Around the World - 2012

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Join Me On The Bridge in 2012 and read below about the events in 2011

March 8th 2011 is the 100th anniversary of International Womens' Day. Come and celebrate with us, all around the world by either organising your own bridge event, or join one that has already been arranged. This is the era when people-power can make a big difference and where the internet can unite people. You still have time to organise an event with 2, 20 or 200 people - it's still a show of support! Join with us to buid the bridges of peace across the world today and show respect to our Moms', Grandmoms' and Great Grandmoms' - who started this day through the suffragette movement and womens' right to vote, a whole centenary ago!

I created this lens to draw attention to womenforwomen.org, an incredible charity that is doing so much to help the women of the world. In this lens, I will outline the roots of the charity and what they are aiming to achieve from these global events, organised for March 8th 2011. I hope you like it!

What you will find in this Lens....

Please click on a link below to go directly to that area...

  1. Books on Amazon That Give Proceeds to Charity...
  2. WomenforWomen.org - The History
  3. What Women for Women want to achieve...
  4. Join Us on the Bridge...A mixture of Videos from Women for Women
  5. How You Can Help
  6. How Else you Can Help - Attend an Event, Organise an Event, Fundraise or Donate
  7. Women for Women International: Supporting Afghani women
  10. These Links are Associated with the text above.
  11. Report on Repressive Laws pertaining to women in Afghanistan
  14. Local Craftwomen, making beautiful items...
  15. March 8th 2011 - Follow Up
  16. Please feel free to leave your comments below...

Books on Amazon That Give Proceeds to Charity...

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WomenforWomen.org - The History

WomenforWomen International Originated in the USA

WomenforWomen.org

Women for Women International was founded by the husband and wife duo Amjad Atallah and Zainab Salbi. It was started due to the problems within the camps in the former Yugoslavia, where rape was an everyday occurrence and the international community was slow to react to the problem. The charity started by creating connections within the female population in the USA, who would act as sponsors and the women survivors of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the beginning, Women for Women worked with 8 women and managed to create $9,000 in aid. They learned in that time that money was not enough for women that had lost everything. To become functioning human beings again, the women needed to develop skills to secure an income and to see their true potential and worth. Once the women learned these skills, it helped give them the internal strength to deal with what they had been through and become an active part of their communities.

Since its inception in 1993, thousands of women that were most often the sole breadwinners, were socially excluded from their communities and have had to get over the most horrific issues, (such as rape, torture, widowhood, murder, starvation, extreme poverty, for example), have been helped by Women for Women International. They now serve more than 120,000 women and have managed to raise $33 million in aid. They support women from Afghanistan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Colombia, DR Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan. Through women to women, you can sponsor women from 55 countries.

What Women for Women want to achieve...

We're changing the world one woman at a time....

Stronger Women Build Bridges of Peace

Women for Women International/UK aim to build a larger group of people than they did last year. To make a public statement that the women in war-torn areas are supported. Women need to be a greater part of the peace process in many countries, to help end the violence against women in these areas.

Join Me on the Bridge is our chance to get behind the women that have been caught up in conflict and aid them in bringing security and peace to their lives. We will join women on bridges all over the world to make these womens' voices heard. The troops pull out of Afghanistan in June 2011 - we need to help the women now.

"We're not asking for any new policies or laws. They already exist. We have UN Resolution 1325, and we have the Millennium Development Goals. It's time to act, and we're calling for everyone who wants to make a stand against the brutalities inflicted on women in Afghanistan, and in areas of conflict around the world, to join us on a bridge on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, 8th March 2011." Says Kate Nustedt, Executive Director of Women for Women UK, and organiser of the global Join me on the Bridge campaign.

Be part of it. One woman can change anything. Many women can change everything. Join a Bridge Event.

Join Us on the Bridge...A mixture of Videos from Women for Women

These videos move me to tears every time...

These videos describe some of the countries that the charity works in and also what they achieve during that work. They also give a great insight into where Join Me on the Bridge originated from and also the amount of women, from all around the world, that will be supporting these women on March 8th 2011. So, why not find an event in your area and pop along?
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How You Can Help

Sign The Petition

Sign The PetitionClick on the banner on the right to go direct to the site and sign the petition. It is 10 seconds of your time, but a lifetime of difference to them and urgent action now will make a big difference to the women and girls of Afghanistan.

How Else you Can Help - Attend an Event, Organise an Event, Fundraise or Donate

Anyone of these will do...

100 for a 100Please click on the picture on the right. to go directly to the page where you can fundraise, make a donation, attend/organise an event. You may need to scroll down the page a little depending on the size of your screen. :)

Women for Women International: Supporting Afghani women

english.aljazeera.netAfghanistan's tribulations are no secret and have not occurred over night, since the 1970's with the Soviet Union invasions the Afghani people have had to face instability and intermittent conflict. With the withdrawal of the Soviet Union in 1989 came the conflict between different factions of militia each fighting for greater power and control eventually leading to the formation of the Taliban in 1994. By 2001 the Taliban regime has banned the use of the internet, computer disks, movies, satellite TV and musical instruments, declaring they were against Islamic law. (1)

The regime has impacted Afghanistan in many ways and it is the women who have been and are bearing the brunt of these changes and being made to feel more and more powerless. One of the damaging ways in which the regime is reducing female power in Afghanistan has been through withholding education from girls by trying to close down schools and threatening teachers and although 2001 saw increased numbers of girls in school, the attacks on school are ever present. (2) The dangers in seeking or providing education for young women has evidently meant that many are illiterate which has had a knock-on effect on their ability to get out of abusive marriages, as in some cases it reduces their chances and confidence in finding work to support themselves.
Afghanistan's jailed womenIn addition to this, increased amounts of sexual violence, child marriages and imprisonments based on 'moral crimes' have both emotionally and physically affected women in several regions but those imprisoned see prison as an escape and a form protection from those who would kill them for having made their own decisions, such as marrying a man of their choice.(3) The abuse that these women face is so intense that for many self-immolation is seen as the only escape and unfortunately many have made the ultimate sacrifice to end the abuse but there are still Afghani women there who are surviving and need the support and opportunity to be independent rather than dependent.
Women at a concert in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. Under the Taliban, they would have been banned. Photograph: Majid Saeedi/Getty ImagesWomen for Women International (WfWI) seeks to help these women and has been in Afghanistan since 2002 and in those few years has been supporting women through initiatives and programmes such as the one-year program. This programme, developed for Afghanistan, includes job-skills training that helps women earn an income and in turn support themselves. Some of the courses include: Gem-cutting, which utilises Afghanistan's rich natural resources and provides women with a skill to help them earn an income by cutting gems for jewellery and Greenhouse cultivation: give women an access to a source of food, as well as produce to be sold at market. Also training in Jam and pickle production, Tailoring, Poultry and Beekeeping all with the aim of giving women skills that they can make a living from and in turn become independent. The participants and graduates of the one year programme have been able to improved their lives with 94% reporting improvements in their physical health, 88% are actively participating in key household decisions and 94% train and mentor other women in their community and 83% are earning an income.(4)

Despite the successes of the programme there is still more than can be done and new initiatives and programmes such as the Afghanistan Men's Leadership Programme which trains male community leaders so that they understand the negative implications of restricting women's participation in the social and economical realms to their region and how it ultimately effects the Afghanistan's development as a whole. 'The leadership roles that these men hold in their communities allow them to reach out to other men, spread awareness and mobilize men to actively advocate for greater respect for women's rights, thereby facilitating community development by engaging both men and women as partners.'(5)

Even with these initiatives and programs, continued pressure must be applied on the international community in order to avoid a situation whereby allies leave Afghanistan without insisting on guarantees for women's rights(6) which would most definitely take many of these women back to square one.

By Amanda Armoogum.

These Links are Associated with the text above.

Please check with the numbers above. Also, the images came from the links.
(1) Aljazeera, (2009), Timeline: Taliban in Afghanistan, Aljazeera English ,available here
Image of the Taliban taken from Aljazeera
(2) Stocking, B., (2010), Women in Afghanistan need our support, The guardian, available here
Barbara Stocking: The lot of Afghan women has improved since 2001, but they still struggle to be heard
(3) Khodr, Z., (2007), Afghanistan's jailed women, Aljazeera English, available here
Afghanistan's jailed women - Zeina Khodr looks at how Afghanistan's women still face discrimination and abuse.
(4) Women for Women International, (2010), Why do we work in Afghanistan?, available here
Help the women of Afghanistan by donating or sponsoring a woman today. You can make the difference in an Afghan woman's life.
(5) Women for Women International, (2010), Engaging Men to Protect and Empower Women, available here
Engaging Men to Protect and Empower Women - Women for Women Intl - PDF
(6) Khaleeli, H., (2011), Afghan women fear for the future, available here
Homa Khaleeli - Life for many Afghan women improved dramatically with the fall of the Taliban. But as the west prepares to pull out, fears are growing for the future

Report on Repressive Laws pertaining to women in Afghanistan

They are the teachers of the next generation...So doesn't it make sense to help them?

In Afghanistan, 22 percent of the women they work with are under age 25In August 2009 the Afghanistan Parliament ratified a spate of oppressive laws pertaining to the women of the country's minority but powerful Shiite community. The legislation, for instance, prohibits a woman leaving her house without her husband's permission even for routine tasks such as seeing a doctor, the only exception being an emergency. Under the same laws Shia women cannot refuse their husbands sex unless they are unwell or there is some other 'reasonable excuse'. The penalties for a woman's 'disobedience' include a husband's right to withhold sustenance from his wife.

Afghan MP Ustad Akbari justified the legislation, stating 'Men and women have equal rights under Islam but there are differences in the way men and women are created. Men are stronger and women are a little bit weaker; even in the west you do not see women working as firefighters.'

Meanwhile the UN has accused the Afghan parliament of 'legalising rape'.
Women protesters against 'marital rape' law spat on and stoned in KabulCertain western observers believe the legislation was an attempt for unpopular premier Hamid Karzai to curry favours with the Shia community in advance of the 2009 election. Prior to this U-turn Karzai's views were said to have been moderate.

In April 2009, fully aware of the worrying implications of the legislation, many Afghan women bravely took part in public protests against the laws, having stones and verbal abuse hurled at them in the process.

The laws, described by one Afghan senator as 'worse than during the Taliban' were not thoroughly debated at the initial stage as is due course, according to many female parliamentarians. Influential Shiite leaders wanted them to be pushed through quickly. Due to international pressure some modifications were made in May 2009 following a consultation period with civil society groups.
Help for Afghan Women Politicians - Dr. Husn Banu GhazanfarOn the ground female parliamentarians were fighting their own battles and having to be content with minor victories. In the lower of the two houses that make up Afghanistan's parliament, thanks to the efforts of these female politicians, the proposed minimum age that a Shiite girl could marry was increased from a mere nine years old to 15. The women admit that the laws are far from ideal but without their intervention, it could have been a lot worse.

Various Human Rights agencies such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) have been very vocal about the extremely disadvantageous nature of the legislation. However it has been argued by Soraya Sobhrang of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, that western governments did not do enough at the outset to prevent the laws being passed altogether.

By Tolita Alexander.

Local Craftwomen, making beautiful items...

Why not buy something exotic for yourself, while giving something back?

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March 8th 2011 - Follow Up

This year - 464 - Join Me on the Bridge events took place around the world.

Women stood strong and called for peace and an end to violence and injustice in Afghanistan, and other war-torn countries. Thousands stood in solidarity on bridges across Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific and America.

55 events took place in the UK alone and an unbelievable 2,000 women, men and children marched together on Millennium Bridge in London. None of this could have been accomplished without your help.

So, I thank you all!

*Email Message from Women for Women.

Please click through to Sign the Petition above - it might not be Women's Day, but your support is still important! Thanks Again to everyone :) x

Please feel free to leave your comments below...

  • AddaptAbilities Mar 8, 2011 @ 3:06 pm | delete
    Thanks for putting this together! IWD is barely noticed in the US, but I think that's changing.
  • millyjones Mar 11, 2011 @ 4:57 am | delete
    Thanx for the feedback! I was really nervous about messing it up and not doing it justice, as this is something I really believe in and wanted to do some good! Your lenses are great btw - Thanx Again!
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millyjones

Trying to make a difference, even if it means just making someones day! :) xxx

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