WomEnergy

Last Thursday the ball was dropped on a major climate change bill intended to reduce carbon emissions seen as a cause of climate change. Convinced that he did not have enough votes, Senate majority leader Harry Reid tabled this long-time effort and instead chose to focus on a more contained approach to strengthen energy efficiency and respond to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The news is deeply disappointing.

In Thomas Friedman’s We’re Gonna Be Sorry Op-Ed, one of a slew of climate pieces in The New York Times last weekend, he quotes the environmentalist Rob Watson as saying, “Mother Nature is just chemistry, biology and physics. That’s all she is.” In Friedman’s own words, “You cannot sweet-talk her. You cannot spin her. You cannot tell her that the oil companies say climate change is a hoax. No, Mother Nature is going to do whatever chemistry, biology and physics dictate.”

The simplicity of Watson’s words are in stark contrast to the tit-for-tat hullabaloo of Washington. In Watson's world - our world - there are no gray areas. It’s hell or high water – or both. This is not a political issue like its being played out in Washington. Mother Nature does not care if the markets go up or down, if you’re a Democrat or a Republican – she does not care about your paycheck.

So what does this have to do with women?

It was at the June UNIFEM conference where I first heard about the Women’s Environment & Development Organization (WEDO), which, according to their website, is a women’s global advocacy organization based in New York City with a mission to empower women to achieve economic, social and gender justice, a healthy, peaceful planet, and human rights for all.

When I first heard about WEDO, I did not really “get it.” What do climate change and women have in common? It turns out – a lot.

Among the many helpful resources on the WEDO website is a Climate Connections booklet, which helps to explain why women are disproportionately affected by climate change. Here are some straight statistics from the booklet:

• Women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men during natural disasters.
• The 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh killed 140,000 people— the mortality rate of women over 40 was 31 per cent.
• More than 70% of the dead from the 2004 Asian tsunami were women.
• Hurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans in 2005, predominantly affected African American women—already the region’s poorest, most marginalized community.

The reasons are complicated and yet - surprisingly simple.

If you live in a society with gender inequality where you are already at a disadvantage and have minimal resources, then when disaster strikes you are going to be the least equipped to bounce back and rebuild your life.

According to the booklet, if women lack access to an education, then obtaining information on the weather and climate change is certainly not going to be a possibility, leaving them at a loss to take action. Further, in some societies women cannot leave their homes without a male companion, thereby potentially limiting their ability to respond to a natural disaster in the most effective way. Other potential impacts include women suffering at a greater rate due to lack of survival skills regularly taught to boys and finally – the fact that women are regularly excluded from disaster recovery decision-making – and that’s what WEDO is all about – ensuring that women are a crucial part in the climate change discussion.

And natural disasters are only one example. What about the women who rely on farming to bring in food for their children and families? What happens when there is limited rainfall and a low yield of crops?

Through researching the WEDO website, I learned that international development organization Oxfam is also taking a lead with women and climate change by spearheading a Sisters on the Planet initiative to bring together US women leaders to spread awareness about women and the changing climate, to ensure that vulnerable communities are able to cope with this impending environmental crisis.

I especially appreciated one particular Sisters on the Planet video, included on the WEDO website, documenting how women there are affected by low rainfall. It looks like the video was posted to You Tube in 2008 – but I’m hard pressed to think that much has changed for the better since then.

Grab a water bottle – you will get thirsty just watching.



I would strongly encourage you to check out the WEDO website and read more about their work and rich history dating back to the early 1990s (I know – I make it sound like that was so long ago!) with the likes of Bella Abzug and Gloria Steinem.

And if this blog post is not enough to whet your appetite, perhaps I can tempt you into a hypnosis session with Libana, a global women's music group I just discovered that sings the message loud and clear:

The Earth is our mother. We must take care of her.

Help Annie Bring Legal Support to the Women and Children of Haiti

Last week marked the six-month anniversary since an earthquake hit Haiti killing 230,000 people. To reflect on the past six months, media and non-profits reported on the progress made to date, and the enormous amount of work there is ahead of us. Also in the reports were people’s frustrations about the red tape that is hindering progress (who owns what land, getting items through customs) and observations that six months later, Port-au-Prince does not look much better ("It still looks like a bomb just dropped on this city," said CNN's Ivan Watson.)

To top it off, the U.N. estimates 1.5 million, almost one in nine Haitians, are still homeless.

Really? What about the billions of dollars that our country donated to this relief effort? Where did that go – and was it properly allocated? Why should I donate more when it seems to be getting lost in bureaucratic gridlock and political instability? I want to help the effort, but I need to hear firsthand from people that they are going there to do “x,” or else how do I know that my money is really making a difference?

Enter Annie Gell. This fall, Annie will bring something to Haiti that is desperately needed – accountability and oversight. She has been accepted as a Lawyers’ Earthquake Response Network (LERN) Fellow with organizations Bureau Des Avocats Internationaux and the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti.

But she needs your help. Annie needs to raise $15,000 to support her work for six months in Haiti and is asking people to please provide her with a tax-deductible contribution.

So, if like me, you want to know where your money is going – look no further than Annie. Her cause is a great one to support. Click here to donate.

Annie’s name came to me via my boyfriend who heard about her work and need for funding. Annie currently represents immigrant victims of domestic violence in the New York area, working to regularize their immigration status and bring over their children from abroad to reunite the family on U.S. soil. Her organization is called Sanctuary for Families.

I spoke to Annie on the phone a few days ago and asked her about the need for lawyers in Haiti, specifically for women and children. Annie explained that, for the most part, supporting women’s legal rights in Haiti is low down on the list of priorities.

“In Haiti right now, what we’re seeing is a society in a country that has so many human rights challenges, and women tend to be particularly vulnerable to these human rights abuses, whether its sexual abuse, or access to food and health services,” she says.



Annie’s words of human rights failures against women are echoed by that of others, including a special envoy to Haiti I heard at the June UNIFEM conference, and an article that appeared about a month ago in The New York Times titled Sexual Assaults Add to Miseries of Haiti’s Ruins. The article tells the horrific story of a twenty-two year old woman who was kidnapped and repeatedly raped by two men under the rubble of a destroyed home.

The article says that, “So many cases of rape go unrecorded here that statistics tell only a piece of the story. But existing numbers, from the police or women’s groups, indicate that violence against women has escalated in the months after the Jan. 12 earthquake.”

Beyond a police investigation, the article did not discuss the legal ramifications for rape or how these men would be dealt with if and when caught.

Annie has also learned that in the area of food distribution, it is not unheard of for women to be asked to give men sexual favors to secure food for their family.

This is evidenced by a video posted on the BAI website, which speaks to the victims of rape themselves who provide details of their horrifying ordeals:



While Annie is not sure of her specific charge while in Haiti (yes, the plan right now is to do a follow-up), Annie’s work with BAI will focus on four core pillars: litigation (persecuting those accountable in courts), documentation (going to the source of a crime and gathering irrefutable evidence – “name and shame” – to put international pressure on people), grassroots advocacy (bringing together women from different communities to combine forces to create change) and capacity building (as an example, BAI trains Haitian lawyers, specifically women, to be human rights advocates for the people in their country).

Annie’s particular work, she expects, will be on the documentation part, partnering with Haitian Women’s Rights advocates to serve as witness to what is happening on the ground. She says she will also certainly be involved in litigation and hopes to come up with strategies that will bring abuses against women to international forums and courts.

On another note, Annie and I also discussed the concern of a Haiti fatigue among the public – and why the money that we have put forth is only going so far.

Annie discussed how some organizations are more effective than others because of a low operating budget and high levels of accountability, such as Partners in Health, which Annie called “really effective.” IJDH and BAI, with whom Annie will work, are other organizations making a huge difference. Of them Annie says, “First and foremost, they are looking to do the work and do it well.” They are more accountable and have a small budget, says Annie. The leaders of these organizations “have focused their lives on helping the poor people of Haiti. There is nothing cushy or luxurious about what they do. They are in the trenches.”



And soon, so will Annie. But she needs our help to get there.

Help Annie give women a voice in the legal system and bring greater security and accountability to the people of Haiti who need it most.

Donate here today – and please pass the link along to your friends and family. On the donation page, you can read more about Annie’s work and follow a link to read her full fellowship proposal.

“At the end of the day,” says Annie of Haiti, “it’s about who have you helped and what have you done to make the situation better. A woman who is raped doesn’t care who helps her – she just wants help.”

My Sister in the Congo

Yesterday I returned from my vacation in Ireland to some very exciting news!

I have been matched with a sister through Women for Women International!

I said in an earlier entry that I would talk more about Women for Women International – so here goes: This organization helps women survivors of war rebuild their lives. For just $27 a month ($162 semi-annually, $324 annually), you can support a “sister” overseas in the organization’s year-long educational program in which women learn their rights, and gain leadership, vocational and technical skills training. You can choose to support a woman with “the greatest need” or support a woman from a specific country, including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Iraq, to name several (a complete listing is on the organization’s website).

I received my sister's name and her picture in the mail, know that she is from the Congo, is married and has four kids. I am told that when she attends her first WFW class she will provide more detailed information about her life and her circumstances.

To everyone who wants to make a difference in the life of a woman, I urge you to sign up as a sponsor today. It's so easy. Two of my colleagues are sponsors (one recommended it to me) and after hearing the founder of the organization - Zainab Salbi - speak, you know that helping women on a global level is her life cause and passion and that your money is going to help transform lives for the better.

In my welcome packet I also received information on 'a day in the life' for women in the DRC, what I can expect on this journey, FAQs, and tips on how to connect with my sister. Beyond sending a check to your sister, the program encourages you to exchange letters, pictures and cards. We are told that many sisters are illiterate, so visual correspondence (pictures, drawings) are specifically valued. We are also told that even if sisters do not write back (though most sponsors do receive letters), we should keep writing. Sometimes sisters are depressed or too traumatized to write back.

But between you and me - I really hope my sister writes back (after I introduce myself, of course).

I'm really excited to begin but do have the same concern as many sponsors, that is, what exactly can I tell this woman whose life is so drastically different from mine? We are instructed to tell about our home and family life, but I'm thinking that "Hi, my name is Carly. I am 25, unmarried, and live with my boyfriend in Brooklyn," may not go over that well. Or how about, "Hi, my name is Carly. I work in NYC in healthcare public relations." To a woman who is getting trained in something along the lines of textile producing or livestock rearing, what in the world is public relations? So there are definitely barriers, but hopefully the differences will make the relationship more interesting. Above all, I really just want to hear her story and make a difference in her life. I'm sure she will make a difference in mine.

Please join me in helping these women.

Baby Steps (On a Long Road Ahead)

One week ago, on July 2nd, the U.N. General Assembly voted unanimously to create a new agency dedicated to championing the rights of women and girls across the globe – UN Women.

In my opinion, this is great news - and long overdue!

While UN Women is not a completely new animal – it merges existing UN gender issue entities, it has been hailed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a “major step forward.”

Most notably, it provides increased funding to women with a budget projected at $500 million (according to Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS Free World and interviewee on Voice of America, this is double what UN agencies focused on women have been given in the past). The other notable difference is that the head of UN Women will be an undersecretary-general – a much higher rank than the head of UNIFEM – which sent out a celebratory note announcing this step forward to members of its Say No - UNiTE to End Violence Against Women” campaign this week.

According to an article in The New York Times (which mostly focuses on the poor choice of the group’s moniker), “the basic idea behind U.N. Women is to pull together four small, fragmented agencies that worked on women’s issues, with much duplication. By reconstituting the agencies into a single entity, member nations are hoping the organization will provide the United Nations with more clout in addressing women’s problems.”

I really hope that this organization is able to move beyond policy measures to affect action on the ground. I also hope it sheds greater light on the grave issues affecting women around the world (limited rights, no access to education, genital mutilation, child marriage, sex-trafficking - need I go on?). Not enough people are aware of these issues. Case in point: I was recently at a party and told someone I had a women's rights blog and was met with "women already have enough rights!" as a response. I understood this response too. As women gain a stronger foothold in the US job market, "women's rights" seems like a played out cause - but it's not. Just read The New York Times, Human Rights Watch, Women's eNews - there are women out there that need our help attaining very basic rights - and the first step is awareness of their plight. I hope UN Women brings awareness to this issue.

What do you think?