Talking Action Spring 2016 by ActionAid

action Talking

SPRING 2016

THANK YOU. Your support gives Swe, a domestic violence survivor in Myanmar, vital training to make handicrafts to earn her living.

Inside this issue Kenyan women farmers; strong, skilled and proud Smiles of joy from Sharifa in Afghanistan Resilience, hope and women’s leadership in Nepal

3.8 million signatures for change in Uganda

Contents © ActionAid

03 Message from Executive Director 05 Kenyan women farmers; strong, skilled and proud 07 Smiles of joy from Sharifa 09 Resilience, hope and women’s leadership in Nepal

Your support provides training in Myanmar that teaches women and girls to sew, weave and knit items that can be sold at markets. Projects like this empower women to care for their families and work their way out of poverty.

11 Why women’s rights matter 13 Field Report from Kenya's Mukuru slums 15 Recovering from Fiji's Cyclone Winston 17 3.8 million signatures for change in Uganda 19 Enestina’s story

Thank you! You are giving women and girls the vital skills and support to fight poverty and injustice.

Because an end to poverty and injustice will be possible only when there is equality and rights for women and girls.

ActionAid Australia was first established in 1967 as a national association called Austcare. In June 2009 Austcare changed its name to ActionAid Australia, becoming a full affiliate of the global network. Today, ActionAid reaches 27 million people in over 45 countries worldwide and is committed to fighting poverty and injustice.

Thank you for your valuable support.

Because of you, more women and girls are receiving the vital skills and support they urgently need to fight poverty. To become independent and self-sufficient. To understand their rights and confront the injustices they face. This would not be possible without the help of passionate supporters like you. In Kenya and Afghanistan women are learning how to raise chickens, increase their income, as well as become empowered to be involved in decision-making. In Nepal, your support is helping women rebuild their livelihoods, find safety and find ways to recover in the devastating aftermath of the earthquakes. Thanks to your generosity, the women of the Mukuru slums in Kenya who have been sexually assaulted have support to recover and rebuild their lives. After Tropical Cyclone Winston lashed across Fiji earlier this year, your immediate support helped provide vital information to women in some of the most remote parts of the country, and platforms for them to make their needs heard. The work you helped fund continues to allow women to access information to claim their rights to safety and security in the long term. Women play a strong role to make change happen for themselves and their community. Yet 70% of those living in poverty — living on less than a dollar a day — are women. This is why ActionAid’s work focuses on women. ActionAid

I want to share with you the stories of Beatrice, Sharifa, Maiya and Christina in this issue of Talking Action.

Teams work with women and girls to provide training to rebuild livelihoods, to support women to become more empowered in their community and to challenge discriminatory laws, policies and decision making, as well as hidden forms of discrimination embedded in culture and tradition. Once again, Australia’s Federal Budget has hit hard for communities that are already struggling to cope. With more foreign aid cuts, a staggering $3 billion has been taken from countries that need it most. This is why your support has been critical more than ever before. There are so many stories, like the ones I have shared in this edition of Talking Action. Stories of resilience, stories of hope. Stories of change for a better future. These transformations are possible because of you. Thank you for your passion and commitment to end poverty and injustice.

Archie Law Executive Director, ActionAid Australia 3

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Thank you. Your support is giving women farmers like Beatrice vital skills and training to grow crops, raise animals and earn money to care for themselves and their family.

Kenyan women farmers; strong, skilled and proud

Today the women have very different lives, thanks to your support. Beatrice’s home includes a shed full of healthy chickens and a small field bursting with ripening maize cobs, fruit trees and vegetables. All three women are relaxed, smiling and quietly proud to share their stories. “When I joined the program, there was a drought here,” said Beatrice. “ActionAid staff told us we would learn about farming and how to be more independent – and how we could earn money to support our families.” “Now the farm is my responsibility. I learnt so much from the training. I grow vegetables and raise chickens. I even know how to manage if we have no rain. I have learnt how to care for my chickens and increase my crops,” said Beatrice. “I manage my time well. I am up at 5am for the farm before getting the children off to school. I can manage the children, my house work and the farm - I have a plan.” ActionAid

In 2012, three young women, Jane, Grace and Beatrice shyly introduced themselves to the project managers at ActionAid’s Community Led Change Plan in Kenya. While each woman had a different situation at home, they had much in common – a need for financial independence and greater confidence.

“Our farms are our businesses. We feel proud of our work – we are stronger and more skilled. We are active in the village and helping other women, too. ActionAid has helped us to change our lives,” says Jane. The Community Led Change Plan has had a massive impact for the local community. Before, decisions were made by a select few. Now the whole community helps to decide on matters such as spending funds for the secondary school. Women like Beatrice, Jane and Grace are using new knowledge and confidence to reach out to women in the community who are isolated or less involved in the project. Educating women about their rights has led to social change, too. Women’s opinions are heard and valued. From deciding on how to spend their savings, planning their children’s education and saving for their future, women are slowly but surely becoming valued and equal individuals in their family and community. Your support is empowering the lives of women like Beatrice in Kenya. 5

Sharifa’s daughter holds a bowl filled with money earned from the eggs the family sells at the local market. Thank you for your support to build women’s empowerment and leadership in Afghanistan.

Smiles of joy from Sharifa Empowered with poultry care training, 11 hens, a 50kg feeder and a chicken coop, Sharifa has changed her family’s lives forever. Before ActionAid came to her village, in the north of Balkh Dawlatabad District of Afghanistan, Sharifa struggled to care for her family. Life was hard. Her husband was often out of work. They had to move in with her husband’s cousin, simply to have a roof over their heads. The majority of the villagers work with livestock, in agriculture or do household chores and the women are dependent on their husbands. But the women are eager to learn new skills to contribute to the family income and be valued for doing so. Sharifa says, “ActionAid staff told me of the program to support women like me, to provide chickens to vulnerable families. I would have poultry care training and the support I needed to start a small business. “I was so thankful. I wanted to learn and to have the chickens to help us earn more income.

“ActionAid has helped me with everything I needed. The chickens are also very healthy because they have all had their vaccinations.” The smiles from Sharifa and her children, especially her daughter who proudly carries a bowl filled to the brim with the day’s earnings from selling eggs, shows how their lives have been transformed. Every day, Sharifa collects up to 8 eggs from her 11 hens and sells them at the neighbourhood bazaar. “I can earn 64 Afgani some days, [approximately $1.30]. I feel so happy. Now I can buy oil, soup, beans, washing powder and other things I need for the house. “I can also support my children with their schooling. I can buy books, notebooks and pens for my children,” she said. “We are no longer hungry. Now I can give my family three meals a day. When my husband asks me to cook eggs for him and the children I get such a happy feeling. And now if we do not have any food at home, I can always cook eggs for my children.”

Sharifa, (extreme right), with her children outside their home.

These 11 hens and the empowerment they have bought to Sharifa’s life is extraordinary. Now, she wants to expand the number of chickens in her coop.

ActionAid

“I want to thank the people in Australia for their support. I hope they see our picture and see how happy we are.” Thank you for your support – to empower Sharifa and more women like her in Afghanistan. 7

Resilience, hope and women’s leadership in Nepal

“My goats, they were all buried under their shed. My goats were my income. My home was completely destroyed. We had nowhere to sleep and we had to live under a sheet of metal. There was death and

Laxmi with women in her community mushroom farming group.

destruction all around us. It was difficult to imagine what the future would hold for us,” says Maiya. Thank you for your vital gift to support women like Maiya, Kanchhi, Parvati and Laxmi to rebuild their lives following the earthquakes in Nepal last year. One of the key projects was to create a community led reconstruction program to build temporary shelters. Community members played a crucial role in taking ownership of the situation and in deciding the type of support that was

“It was just a normal day. I was walking to the field from our village when suddenly the earth started to shake under my feet and there were screams everywhere. We all started running. I rushed back to my home but everything was gone,” says Maiya.

urgently needed. This included providing the most vulnerable women like Maiya, Kanchhi, Parvati and Laxmi with critical support to rebuild their lives. Maiya and Kanchhi were given the tools and training to build their own temporary shelter. Maiya received goats and Kanchhi an ox. Parvati received materials and the help she needed to construct her tea shop again.

Parvati runs a tea shop to support her family. Women who have received support following the earthquakes. Many of whom are now helping lead the rebuilding work in their community. © Jo Harrison/ActionAid

Your gift is also helping women who've lost their previous source of income start new businesses together. Women like Laxmi and nine other women in her village received training and support to set up a community mushroom farm.

Thanks to your support, ActionAid will continue to work with women like Maiya to support the long-term development of her village.

Thanks to your support: 120,000 people have received vital support following the earthquakes. Immediately after the first quake, communities received food and cooking supplies and sanitary kits were provided to women. Since then, your support helped build 23 mother and baby centres, over 7,000 temporary shelters for families, and over 50 temporary learning centres. ActionAid has set up 16 permanent safe spaces for women. These spaces act as a safe place for women to meet, learn and share ideas and discuss issues that are important to them, such as gender-based violence, and the changes they want to see in their community. ActionAid

Maiya depends on the dairy from her goats to make ends meet. 9

Women are paid on average 60-75% less than menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wages. In rural areas, women receive only a fraction of the land, agricultural training and information that men receive.

Empowering and investing in rural women increases productivity, reduces hunger and malnutrition and improves rural livelihoods.

28 million girls in African countries will never go to school.

2% of women experience sexual violence in public spaces. 88% experience verbal sexual harassment.

ÂŠ ActionAid

Over 250 million women were married before they were 15.

1 in 3 women are at risk of domestic or sexual violence.

1 in 10 girls have experienced sexual violence.

133 million girls have experienced female genital mutilation.

100 countries have laws that restrict the types of jobs that women can do, and in 18 countries, husbands can prevent their wives from accepting jobs.

Women farmers control less land than men. Less than 20% of landholders are women.

Why womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rights matter Source â&#x20AC;&#x201C; UN, World Bank, London School of Economics. ActionAid

FIELD REPORT SUBJECT:

Women survivors of rape in Mukuru slums, Kenya Alex Otieno, Support Worker

Thank you for your response to help women who have been raped, receive safety, support and justice. Your valuable gift is providing women with skills and support to change their lives around. One in three women are at risk of being raped here in the slums. Yet social prejudice, a lack of social welfare and support has prevented women from reporting the rape, seeking help or counselling. I am a support worker here in the slums, providing women with counselling, referrals for medical care, support for legal action as well as conducting education and awareness programs to end rape in the slums. I’ve included a photo of 28-year-old Christina. Her smiling face is very different from the expression she wore when she approached ActionAid for support. Christina was one of the many women raped in the slums. Many women suffer in silence, unable to talk about what happened to them.

FROM:

Survivors deal with severe depression, post-traumatic stress and long term mental health issues. But your support is changing this. Thanks to your kindness and generosity, women like Christina have access to counselling and support. The centre is also giving women more independence and confidence through work at the peanut butter factory. Here women learn how to make peanut butter, which they sell at the markets. Being able to earn money independently is a huge step. It empowers these women and gives them confidence. They can make plans for the future, save money for things that they would like. Now there is hope for a better life for themselves and their children. Christina tells me, “Today I can make my own money at the peanut butter factory. It makes me feel good!” It makes me happy to hear that.

We are also now able to afford a trial of mobile phone technology to enable women and girls who have experienced sexual and physical violence to be connected with legal, medical and psychosocial support.

We are piloting mobile SMS system for reporting and follow-up of incidents of violence against women and girls in Mukuru. We are increasing awareness of the rights of women and girls, to ensure there are support services available and survivors can access justice.

Christina has come a long way from the trauma of her attack. Today her work at the peanut factory helps her to earn money to support herself and her family.

Women are finding a voice, have a place to come and talk and a way to earn an income. There is still a long way to go but there is also new hope for the future. I want to pass on our thanks to the generous Australian people for helping women and girls fight this injustice.

At the factory, women are taught how to make peanut butter to sell at the markets. The women who work here are all survivors of rape.

Eight system operators and 26 volunteers have been trained to monitor the dedicated SMS short code and respond by directing callers to relevant services.

ActionAid

Recovering from Cyclone Winston

ÂŠ ActionAid

Tropical Cyclone Winston was recorded as the most powerful storm on record in the Southern Hemisphere when it hit Fiji in February this year. The Category 5 cyclone devastated communities, killing 44 people, destroying entire villages, damaging crops and buildings.

An estimated 350,000 people – 40% of the country’s population – have been affected. More than 60,000 people remain homeless and 100,000 are living in badly damaged homes. One hundred schools and education centres were destroyed. Thank you for your immediate response to this emergency. Addressing the safety and welfare of women and girls is ActionAid’s first priority in times of emergency. We know from extensive experience and research that women and girls feel the greatest impact and are at greater risk of violence following disasters. In Fiji, women were not being included in the planning and coordination of relief efforts following the cyclone. Despite this, women were often the first to respond to the emergency. They were often the last to leave the home, making sure everyone

else is out safely, and preparing the house to protect it as best they can and taking what they can to the evacuation centres. ActionAid’s partner during the response has been FemLINKPACIFIC, a feminist community-based communications and advocacy organisation in Fiji. The organisation coordinates a network of 54 women leaders in outlying islands who form Women Weather Watch. This is a model for monitoring approaching storms and disaster management in communities, providing real-time information. Women Weather Watch is extremely proactive and now focuses on lifting the voices of women from rural and vulnerable communities who are most impacted by disasters. ActionAid built a shared vision and partnership – to promote a gender inclusive, humanitarian response as a part of the emergency relief efforts in Fiji. Thank you for your kind support that is now helping women across the most remote islands in Fiji have access to information and empowering them, their families and communities. There has also been a particular emphasis on supporting women experiencing domestic violence.

Thank you for your vital gift to Fiji’s Cyclone Winston emergency appeal. Your support is providing women across the remote islands of Fiji with vital support and information to rebuild their lives and to become more resilient and empowered.

ActionAid

Members of the community Women’s Weather Watch in Fiji share messages of weather warnings, what to do in case of an emergency, raise awareness on women’s rights, as well as empowering women across the most remote islands in Fiji. Thanks to your support, women are receiving support to be more empowered and resilient to future emergencies. 15

As part of the campaign, people took to the streets with brooms in a symbolic demand to the government to clean up the taxation system and remove all forms of unfairness.

3.8 million signatures for change in Uganda For years, ActionAid has been campaigning for better taxation systems; challenging the practices of tax havens, tax holidays for multinational corporations and other legal loopholes exploited by those with an imbalance of power. The latest campaign in Uganda has been one of our most outstanding successes. ActionAid Uganda alerted citizens to an insertion in a new bill by parliament members that would, if passed, exempt MPs from paying taxes on their allowances. This was an abhorrent proposal that would have had a devastating impact. It’s estimated that Ugandans would have lost more than 41.58 billion Ugandan Shillings in additional revenue every year, which is around 16.5 billion Australian dollars. That’s billions of dollars that could be spent on public services like education - a crucial element in the fight against poverty and inequality - as well as healthcare, public safety, public services that protect women’s rights and a range of other services. The same tax regime imposes taxation on the salaries and benefits of all other public servants and low income earners. To fight against this proposal, in April this year ActionAid Uganda launched a 5 million citizens’ campaign to petition the President to reject the new insertion. The campaign gained overwhelming support in a short space of time and was joined by the community.

ActionAid

“We mobilized citizens to add their signatures to this petition and in a period of one week, 2,821,909 citizens – Ugandans from 88 districts – signed the petition,” said Harriet Gimbo, Program Director at ActionAid Uganda. “Signatories of this petition were not only joining our national campaign, but a global movement calling for the clean-up of taxation systems that the people and the entire world economy rely upon.” The petition was then forwarded to the President to show that he has the support of the people to make the right decision and reject these amendments. This campaign was an exceptional success. The President of Uganda responded to the demands of the people. The bill was rejected. This success is such a powerful affirmation for the work on tax justice and a great example of fighting inequality with people power. ActionAid will continue to insist that no one is too important to have to pay their fair share. ActionAid’s campaign for tax justice in Uganda means better healthcare, better education, better public services for women and a better standard of living for the people of Uganda. 17

Please, will you help more women like Enestina?

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Enestina was falsely accused of witchcraft and chased away from her village, because relatives wanted her land. Your gift today could stop this injustice from happening.

Enestina Awino is 56 years old and lives in a small village in the Oyam district of Uganda. Enestina’s gentle nature hides a tragic story of abandonment and isolation, when she was falsely accused of practising witchcraft. Sadly this is a common practice. This is why I am asking for your help today. In places like Uganda, women are often falsely accused of things like witchcraft and kicked out of their own land. This often happens when husbands die and greedy relatives want more land. In rural communities, where women have little education or little understanding of their rights and the law, this is a devastating issue. With no land of their own, women like Enestina become trapped in poverty – unable to grow crops to feed themselves, at risk of violence as they have no place to stay and robbed of what is rightfully theirs. “When my mother died, she gave me and other family members five acres of land each. Not long after this, I got married to a man in the next village. I was married for close to 30 years and suddenly my in-laws started accusing me of practicing witchcraft,” says Enestina. “I was completely alone and falsely accused. My own family made me feel unsafe and I was worried and grieving. One day, I decided I could not stand it and would abandon my marriage and go back to my ancestral home. After all, my mother had left me five acres of land.” Her brother did not welcome Enestina back home. He convinced the clan members to

chase her away from the village, before she brought bad spells with her witchcraft. “I never practiced witchcraft. But my brother made all these allegations to possess my land. I was totally alone and did not know what to do.” Through a mediation exercise arranged by ActionAid, Enestina was able to get her land back. ActionAid also gave Enestina some chickens and a goat to help her earn her own income. But there are many women like Enestina, who are at risk. Your gift today could help women, falsely accused of witchcraft and cheated out of their land, to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. Please will you help? Funding is urgently needed to continue programs to support more women like Enestina. Your gift could provide: Community awareness and education programs Support for women who have been falsely accused to reclaim their land Livelihood training and support for women to earn their own money and provide for themselves and their children. There are many women like Enestina, unjustly accused of witchcraft and robbed of their land. Your gift could help fight this injustice.

Please will you help? Your gift today will be life changing. ActionAid

Thank you

for empowering women and girls to fight poverty and injustice.

Weaving skills are giving women financial independence and freedom.

ActionAid Suite 2, Level 2 10 Mallett Street Camperdown NSW 2050 1300 66 66 72 www.actionaid.org/australia supporter.au@actionaid.org ABN 87 001 251 930

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