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International Women's Day celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women around the globe. We feature women living in some of the world's poorest and challenging circumstances to show how they cope with the daily struggle life throws at them.
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For Christian Aid, poverty is not simply about financial hardship: it is about having no say in how you live your life, no power to change conditions that keep you hungry, miserable or insecure. And in these cases of gender-based violence, poverty is endured at its most brutal.
http://nightingalesangatwcc.typepad.com/podcast/2009/03/safe-from-harm.html
Christian Aid / Sian Curry
'There is a flower in all of us'
===============================
Before she made this flower mirror in
women's issues & reading class, Gloria (
21) had never seen her own face before.
She said: 'I felt very proud, because I
knew I could be beautiful.' Gloria's
mother Reyes, who is also taking the
class, said: 'There's a flower in all of
us and we can grow. We are worth
something and we can blossom, like a
flower.'
The indigenous Chorti people of
Guatemala's eastern highlands are among
the poorest in the country.
Christian Aid's local partner Bethania
is helping women here to forge a better
future by running these classes in order
to build their self esteem.
Guatemala
REF:
Christian Aid/Hannah Richards
Selling veggies to go to school
===============================
Adela, 15, in her kitchen in Norte
Potosi, Bolivia. Before the family
couldn't afford to buy vegetables. Now
thanks to better farming techniques they
have enough to eat and to sell for a
small profit, which helps with things
like school books, oil, salt and pasta.
The numbers of girls like Adela
attending school in rural areas has also
gone up because of a grant for primary
school children thanks to higher taxes
on multinational companies.
Bolivia
REF:
Christian Aid / Caroline Wood
Almost 40% of Sudan's population can't
read or write
===============================
This image is from a literacy class for
women supported by Christian Aid partner
organisation SOLO in Khartoum, Sudan.
Asha Abakar Rameden (56), one of the
students, said: 'Before I joined the
circle I would have to ask my children
to read me things because I didn't
understand. I would think, yes I am
illiterate but I have experiences and
ideas but I couldn't express myself. Now
I can discuss these things openly. I can
read and write. I feel that my children
respect me. My community respects me.'
Sudan
REF:
Christian Aid / Sarah Malian
The proud owner of two cows and a donkey
designs a revolutionary sloping stable
===============================
Waghda Kamal, 35, is mother to four
children and owner of two cows and a
donkey. Her life used to be blighted by
the hours spent cleaning the manure from
her livestock until she and her cousin
designed a sloping stable.
The design was perfected and sixty
stables converted in the village, thanks
to loans from the Coptic Evangelical
Organisation for Social Service (CEOSS).
Egypt
REF:
Christian Aid / Felicia Webb
Education of women was illegal under the
Taliban, a crime punishable by death.
===============================
Women still receive death threats today
if they are involved in education.
Ferishta Ghafour (18, holding her 1-year-
old daughter Geeta) was educated in Iran
and compelled to move to Khanghozak
village in northwest Afghanistan. She is
now a literacy teacher and much loved by
her students.
Ferishta said: 'I am full of hope about
the literacy classes. I have 25 students
and I hope they will have a bright
future and will be able to read books
and say their prayers. I hope that
through my involvement with the students
I can improve myself and continue
learning'.
Afghanistan
REF:
Christian Aid / Alex Klaushofer
Non-violent resistance to the occupation
of the West Bank
===============================
Israeli nurse Ilana Rathouse takes the
blood pressure of Rahtim Mahmoud, a
Palestinian resident of the West Bank,
which has been illegally occupied by
Israel since 1967.
Illana is a volunteer with Physicians
for Human Rights, an Israeli
organisation supported by Christian Aid
which takes mobile health clinics to
Palestinian villages with reduced access
to healthcare.
Illana said: 'For an Israeli to think
about coming to the West Bank is seen as
a death wish. But for me, it is a form
of non-violent resistance to the
occupation. My friends think I’m crazy.
But I've never experienced any fear'.
IOPT
REF:
Christian Aid / Mohammadur Rahman
The right to water, the right to a voice
===============================
Minu Basar (left) has learned how to
safely harvest rainwater so that she
doesn't have to travel for a day at a
time across a dangerous river to fetch
water.
She is now passing on the knowledge and
information to other people in the
community to help them learn about their
rights and how to collect and store
rainwater safely. Minu said: ‘My friends
are now becoming more active too. It
makes me feel so proud. In my heart, I
now have weight.'
Minu is an executive members of the
Water Council (Pani Parishad) set up to
help poor people understand about their
right to water.
Bangladesh
REF:
Christian Aid / Harriet Logan
Say 'no' to violence against women
===============================
Sheelu Francis, Director of the Women's
Collective, is dressed in black in
readiness to join a protest on violence
against women.
The aim of the collective is to help
women improve their socio-economic
status, increase their participation in
decision-making structures to attain
gender equality. Sheelu is a keen
campaigner on issues of domestic
violence and the adverse effects of
globalisation.
India
REF:
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
