empowerment

IESA was barely formed when WELDD’s peace building training helped them to jump start activities in Sri Lanka. IESA is a coalition of six organisations. Four of these are women-led and focus on women’s rights, one is for men and women working on fishermans’ rights, while the other is a trade union promoting workers’ rights with a focus on women’s leadership. IESA’s approach is based on rights, justice and peace. Since we believe that peace cannot be built in a vacuum; we strive to locate people’s problems at the centre of our work.

Somali girls suffer unique difficulties in their early childhoods. More than two decades of chaos and political instability have made their lives difficult. Sexual violence and harmful traditional practices have made their situation even more miserable. However, despite the challenges, Somali girls play an active role in their communities in general and in their families in particular.

Codou Bop, the GREFELS Coordinator, seized the opportunity offered by a WELDD training to interview a young woman leader whose experience could serve as a model for young Senegalese and Africans. This young woman, Sokhna Seynabou Mbacké, became councilor following the mayoral elections in June 2014

Shirkat Gah has given women new understanding of their situations and their rights, and has empowered them to challenge the injustices around them. Here, three women say what Shirkat Gah has done for them.

Shirkat Gah, in collaboration with the Anjuman-e-Mazarin Punjab, organized a two-day convention on the rights of peasant women in Okara, Punjab. For the first time in Pakistan, over 500 peasant women representatives in the presence of 500 other peasant women came together to endorse their Charter of Demands. The Charter calls for recognition of women’s work as farmers and demands equal land and labor rights for women, as well as demanding women’s representation in consultations regarding agricultural policy and in political institutions from the local to national level. The convention was a show of strength in numbers for peasant women, and a huge step in drawing attention to their desire to be recognized as agricultural workers on the same terms as their male counterparts.