Heroes for Today – Women for Women International

“Changing the world one woman at a time.”

“In Southern Sudan survivors tell stories of militias storming villages in the dead of night, setting homes on fire and shooting family and friends. Rebels commonly rape women, kidnap boys to become soldiers and take girls as slaves. Today, a lucky few Sudanese women are able to return home, but the obstacles they face are daunting. Most are illiterate, emotionally wounded and physically exhausted.^1” “Women for Women International is working with those few to turn their lives around.

It is the mission of Women for Women International to provide women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency. In helping the women, they believe they improve their entire society.

Women accepted in the program are matched with “sisters” who are encouraged to write to them monthly and who also provide a monthly donation. The letters provide their sisters with an emotional lifeline and a chance to tell their survival stories. The direct financial aid helps them deal with the immediate effects of war. With the money they can buy food, medicine and other necessities. As the situations in their countries stabilize, sponsored women participate in a program that teaches them awareness of their rights, leadership education, and vocational and technical skills training. Many women begin their own cottage industries or use their new skills to find employment following the Women for Women program.

An open letter of to then President-Elect Obama crafted by a number of women heads of global and domestic women's organizations, including Zainab Salbi, President of Women for Women International called on Obama to become “the President who ushers in the time of women.”

The letter stated:

Long-term investments in women's education, health and leadership development are … critical. Economic structures continue to marginalize women. Consider this: women represent two-thirds of the world's labor yet we own less than 1% of the world's assets.

 

In addition, more than 500,000 women die each year because of inadequate medical and reproductive care. Violence against women is a pandemic that determines women's realities, impeding their access to education and economic self-sufficiency. This global epidemic is undermining the future of the world, as women are at the heart of all communities and families; we literally carry the future in our bodies.

 

Yet these are not "women's issues." In fact, such investments are vital to economic growth and the well-being of all individuals, communities, societies and nations.²

 

Women for Women currently helps women in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, Rwanda and Sudan.

 

1. http://www.womenforwomen.org/global-initiatives-helping-women/help-women-sudan.php

2. Eve Ensler, Kavita Ramdas and Zainab Salbi, Open Letter to President-Elect Obama, The Huffingtonpost, 1/29/09,http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler-kavita-ramdas-and-zainab-salbi/open-letter-to-president_b_157705.html

For more information please see ttp://www.womenforwomen.org

 

Survey Results: Our thanks to the 65 people who responded to our survey. The issues you said were of most importance were Universal Health Care and Affordable Housing. We are working to set up programs on these topics soon. Topic order of interest was: Universal Health Care, Affordable Housing, Sustainable Food & Food Justice, The Global Marshall Plan, Nuclear Weapons, and Women’s History Month. We will address the other issues on these pages and possibly with programs later in the year.  

                                                                                             3/01/09 Issue 9