Published: August 19, 2008

Global: Water, Rights and Women

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Women's Feature Service
1,000 words

Vancouver (Women's Feature Service) - Worldwide, more than one billion people have no access to clean drinking water, 2.6 billion are without adequate sanitation and 1.8 million children die annually from diseases caused by dirty water and poor sanitation - equal to about 5,000 deaths a day.

No one would deny that the world is in the grip of a water crisis of mammoth proportions. The vast majority of these shortages and the resulting deaths are, of course, in the developing world.

This crisis is getting worse, not better. A number of factors contribute to this trend: global warming, population growth and, perhaps most disturbing of all, privatisation and the commodification of water. While water scarcity is at the heart of this crisis, the international community has failed in its responsibility to adequately and fairly manage the world's water resources and the provision of clean water to those who need it, regardless of their ability to pay.

Part of the struggle for worldwide justice regarding provision of clean water is the fight to get water universally recognised - and codified - and a human right. This struggle has been taken up by the UN and by movements in countries around the globe.

Although the movement for global water justice has forced the UN to address the right to water, water as a human right is not yet enshrined in a full UN covenant. To their shame, Canada, USA, Australia and China continue to vote against such a right, even in the face of endorsement from other world powers. In 2006, the European Parliament officially acknowledged the right to water and, responding to the UN Human Development Report on the worldwide water crisis, the UK reversed its opposing position and recognised water as a right.

In the meantime, many countries are moving beyond the UN efforts and are using their own domestic legislation to codify the right to water. In 2004, Uruguay became the first country in the world to vote for the right to water. Importantly, not only does the Uruguay constitutional amendment include water as fundamental human right, it also states that social considerations must take precedence over economic ones in the development of water policy.

There is enormous global economic pressure, including from the World Bank, to privatise many water services. In the face of such pressure, some countries that have passed right-to-water legislation - including incorporation of the right to water in their constitution - have not included the need for public delivery of water. These countries include South Africa, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Kenya, Belgium, and France.

Uruguay and the Netherlands serve as models for legislation that includes both the right to water and the need to retain public ownership and control of the means of delivery. If profits are to be made from the delivery of clean water from source to the public, issues of access, affordability, equality, and long-term sustainability will not necessarily be primary considerations.

Momentum is building for the universal recognition of water as a human right and the end of water privatisation in all in forms; and women - who are at the core of the water-as-a-human-right argument - must also be at the centre of its resolution.

The scarcity of water disproportionately affects women and their children. Women have, throughout history, been the custodians of water. They are the cooks and the ones who wash up. Women are the ones who need water for the care for their children, in health and in sickness. Women are the ones who walk miles each day to fetch the water, carrying often 20 litres of water on their heads, on their backs, or in their hands, often to the detriment of their health. Women are the ones who often have to walk through isolated territory, over unsafe terrain, in the dark of the early morning or the late evening, risking injury or sexual assault along the way, to fetch the water for their families. Women are the ones who spend hours of their already long working days at these tasks, often waiting hours in line-ups during the dry season to collect water from nearly dry wells. In many cultures, women have to wait until after dark to relieve themselves, suffering
discomfort, health impacts, loss of dignity, and often sexual harassment or sexual assault as a result.

Lack of water in the developing world also affects the education of girls. Girls' responsibilities for collecting water prevent many from going to school - held back by families who need their labour. In addition, girls are prevented from attending school, particularly when they are menstruating, because few schools have toilets. According to Britain's Department for International Development, the availability of sanitation increases school attendance for girls by 11 per cent.

For decades, international covenants and conferences have identified the key role played by women in terms of water supply and management. In 1992, the Dublin Resolution of the Water for Life Decade said: "Women play a central role in the provision, management and safeguarding of water and sanitation and must be involved in all water-related development efforts". In 2006, the Women's Caucus Declaration at the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico City opened with a quote from the UN Secretary General: "The [United Nations General] Assembly also stressed the need to involve women in all water-related development efforts. In many cultures, ...women are the guardians of water... they need to be able to participate more meaningfully in decision-making on how water is used and managed, so that their countries can make full use of their knowledge, skills and contributions."

And yet, most of the decisions about water - whether in local communities or in the global arena - continue to be made by men. Few women are at the table when decisions are made about strategies on how to ensure clean water, how to slow global warming, how to maintain water as a public resource, or how to ensure that the delivery of water is a government responsibility rather than a profit-making enterprise.

(Courtesy: Women's Feature Service)

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USA: Smart CEO Women

By Elsa Sherin Mathews

Women's Feature Service
1,000 words

California (Women's Feature Service) - When Chitra Darke came to the US from India as a 19-year-old bride, setting up a business was the last thing on her mind. But 11 years and three children later, when she did start her own enterprise - Oakland Printer and Copy - Darke was in for a shock. Her lack of English speaking skills proved to be a major obstacle while conducting daily business. "I had a tough time maintaining a break-even and handling competition," she recalls. At that time, things were not easy and business growth was out of the question.

The turning point, however, came when, on a chance visit to a flea market, someone handed her a leaflet of C.E.O. Women.

C.E.O. Women - Creating Economic Opportunities for Women - for is a California-based organisation dedicated to creating economic opportunities for low-income immigrant and refugee women by teaching them English, communication and entrepreneurship skills, so that they can establish successful livelihoods. In addition, it also provides women with intensive mentoring, coaching and access to capital needed to start a small business.

Darke lost no time in enrolling herself in their programme. "My English language skills improved. I picked up computer skills as well. I now understood how to deal with customers and serve their needs and how to do the inventory and profit and loss calculations. I feel much more comfortable doing my business now," she reveals.

Darke is just one of the numerous immigrant women who, despite living in the land of opportunity, are unable to carve out a career for themselves as they are intimidated by a different culture and language. And this is exactly where C.E.O. Women steps in.

The organisation was set up by Farhana Huq, to address the unique needs of immigrant and refugee women struggling to become self-sufficient. "I started C.E.O. Women in 2000. At the time I was working for a women's entrepreneurship training programme that I had helped start up in California. After the programme had to shut down because of a resource crunch, I didn't want to just give up. When I reached out for help, a philanthropist friend suggested I start my own organisation. She offered to give me $1,000 for a start. That's how we began," says Huq, who is greatly inspired by Nobel laureate Muhammed Yunus' work with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, her father's birth country.

Though it had modest beginnings, the NGO has been attracting a lot of attention ever since it became the recipient of the Isabel Allende Espiritu Award for empowerment of women in 2004. Last year, Huq was conferred the Ashoka Fellowship, one of the most prestigious fellowships for leading social entrepreneurs in the world.

C.E.O. Women has helped about 1,000 women so far. Over 60 per cent of those who approach the organisation are Hispanics, while only 30 per cent are South Asians - Indians comprise only one per cent of the total strength undergoing training. This, Huq believes, is not because South Asians are not enterprising but because the headquarters of C.E.O. Women is located in the Bay Area, where the concentration of South Asian women is low. "However, we will soon be opening an office in the Silicon Valley, where South Asian women will be able to better access our services," she says.

C.E.O. Women offers a variety of programmes that impart computer skills, English language training, and give tips on the legal aspects of business, marketing, networking and public speaking. The organisation has a women-friendly study environment and on-site babysitting facilities. Course fees for 16-week programmes range between $50 and $500 depending upon the income of the women. But, most usually pay between $50 and $125 for a full year of services, which includes training, curriculum materials, baby sitting, and access to ongoing support services.

"For those unable to pay, we also have a work/study option wherein they can volunteer their time to the organisation in lieu of payment for the course," explains Huq.

In an effort to reach out to more women, besides the existing classroom-based training curriculum, the organisation has started an educational soap opera, 'Grand Café', which is the story of four women and their experiences of starting a business in the US. Each lesson is followed by English language building skills and an application of business concepts introduced in the lesson via workbook material. "We just sent out the first episode. By using this method we hope to reach out to women in their homes," says Huq.

C.E.O. Women's training methods have received a thumbs-up from many outgoing students. "Those who have successfully completed a stint with us commend us on the quality of the programmes we offer. The only downside is that while there are many women who need our services, we do not have the resources to tackle large numbers. For example, last year we identified over 127,000 women in the San Francisco Bay area itself who could benefit from C.E.O. Women, but were able to reach out to only 500," says Huq.

Once trained, the women confidently step into the world of big business. Maythe Oliveros migrated to the States in 1994 from Mexico in the hope for securing a better life for her 11 children. Though she began working as a housekeeper she never abandoned her dream of opening a beauty salon. She joined C.E.O. Women, brushed up her English, learnt the basics of starting a business, and today is the proud owner of a home-based salon - Bella Mia Salon - with an impressive customer base. In fact, her success prompted a $1,500 grant from the C.E.O. Women Venture Fund to help her expand. "Now, I feel I can do anything. C.E.O. Women has opened our minds and shown us what we have within," she says.
The impressive alumni include owners of restaurants and catering services, child day-care centres, and on-line retail businesses. "In the past year we've had a lot of businesses with sustainable themes. One woman is importing jewellery from the Brazilian rainforest; another is starting a 'green' salon," Huq says with satisfaction.

(Courtesy: Women's Feature Service)

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India: Picking up the Strands

By Surekha Kadapa-Bose

Women's Feature Service
1,080 words

Mumbai (Women's Feature Service) - When Sanjida Ishak Malik, a metric-fail and mother of three, walked out of her husband's home in 1996, she had no idea of how she would fend for herself. She certainly hadn't imagined that she would one day be the proprietor of a firm with an annual turnover of more than Rs 800,000 (US$1=Rs39.3).

The reason Sanjida left the 'security' of her marital home was that her husband and his family wanted her to abandon her third child, a daughter. "She is my daughter, God's beautiful gift to me. Why should I abandon her just because she is a girl?" she says vehemently.

As the eldest of five children of a helper in a factory, Sanjida was married off to a 'zari' worker as soon as she came of age, in 1991. The marriage was fraught with problems from the very beginning. Dowry demands and the misbehaviour of the in-laws were part of everyday life.

When her first son was born, her husband's family didn't allow her to breastfeed the child and kept him away from her. Despite the mental torture, physical abuse and harassment, she decided to stick it out, hoping that things would eventually improve after the birth of her second son.

Her parents and siblings stood by her through the trying times and kept urging her to return home with the children. "But I was very obstinate. I told my parents that as they had got me married I would stick to it even if I end up killing myself," recalls the 30-plus Sanjida.

But when her in-laws came to know that their third grandchild was a girl and threatened Sanjida with dire consequences if she brought her home from hospital, she decided to end it all. "My daughter is beautiful. Even at the hospital when the nurses heard my in-laws' ultimatum they offered to look after my baby in case I wanted to leave her behind," she says.

Sanjida's parents welcomed her and her two children with open arms. The elder son, unfortunately, remained with his father. Once home, she wasn't one to burden her parents any further. So, she joined the NGO, Nav Nirman Samaj Vikas Kendra, located close to her home in 1997. Here she learnt tailoring and was eventually even paid a stipend. Rewarding her dedication and skill, she was promoted as junior supervisor with a salary of Rs 1,800 a month. Three years later, when she quit due to an altercation with one of the supervisors, Sanjida was drawing a monthly income of around Rs 2,200.

She was lucky to immediately get another job, this time as a helper at an AIDS awareness and rehabilitation centre in Dahisar, the outermost suburb of Mumbai, with a slight jump in her monthly pay packet - Rs 3,300.

Then, about a year-and-half later she learnt that the tailoring section of Nav Nirman Vikas Kendra had closed down. "I started wondering about the fate women who were in the same situation as me. I was lucky to have the complete support of my parents and siblings. But most women don't," says Sanjida.

So, on one weekly off day, she decided to meet up with some of her former colleagues and realised that most of them were in dire straits financially. "If nothing was done, many of them would have had resort to work that they didn't want to do or work as maidservants. This was when I decided to start an organisation on my own."

Sure of her expertise in needlework and also of her managerial capabilities, Sanjida approached Nav Nirman to give her the contact numbers of some of the NGO's overseas clients, especially those based in Switzerland, who were supplied finished embroidered products.

However, not being conversant in written and spoken English and lacking computer skills was a major drawback for Sanjida, especially while courting foreign clients. But here too fortune favoured her. Her youngest sister, Shanaaz, who was then studying for B.Com, offered to help. The sisters contacted potential clients through e-mails and then Sanjida managed to secure her first order.

She hired a room in the Malawani slums in Malad, a Mumbai suburb, bought some sewing machines and set up SM "Creative" in 2001 with just six members. "With the help of a Rs 25,000 loan from Nav Nirman, we started out. And once the first batch of products - embroidered home furnishings - was approved, there was no looking back," recalls Shanaaz.

Today, this all-woman outfit - the strength has increased to 10 - manufactures and exports to a Swiss company. Their annual turnover is over Rs 800,000. The women are paid according to the amount of embroidery work they do in a day - about Rs 15 per 150 embroidered cross-stitches. Though Sanjida is looking out for domestic clients, she cannot set up a retail outlet, as the real estate prices in Mumbai are sky-high.

With the profits earned, Sanjida bought and added a floor to her workshop and also took a loan to buy a small flat in a MHADA (Maharastra Housing and Development Association) colony, near her workshop, where her entire family stays.

Her business plan attracted a lot of attention when it was selected from thousand such proposals by a panel comprising experts from the Mumbai-based S. P. Jain Institute of Management and eminent personalities from the corporate and social sector - a process that is managed by Citibank every year. Her sister, Shanaaz and she sent the application for Citigroup's micro-financial award. And she was conferred with the West zone's Micro-credit award in 2005 for Social Responsibility.

It is not just providing employment for downtrodden women that makes Sanjida's venture stand out from others, but her dedication and innovative ideas to really uplift women in her locality. From last year, on the ground floor of her workshop, she has started a free three-month tailoring class for poor women. "Many of these women, who largely belong to the minority community, are illiterate. We teach them tailoring hoping that if ever a need arises they could eke a living with dignity," hopes Sanjida.

Then Sanjida also has health volunteers from hospitals coming in once a month to talk to the slum women about the importance of hygiene, cleanliness, health, sex, and family planning. These sessions have become very popular with the women of the slum. Says and employee, Sanjida aapa's (elder sister) has taught us so many things about life. I didn't know how to read and write. Now I can sign my own name."

(Courtesy: Women's Feature Service)

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Israel: Tourist Itinerary: Hunger and HIV

By Noa Cohen

Women's Feature Service
1,020 words

Tel Aviv (Women's Feature Service) - When Irit Rabinovich was 22, she came face-to-face with the reality of hunger. On a vacation in Cape MaClear, Malawi, right after she finished army service, Rabinovich encountered a hungry child for the first time in her life.

Cape MaClear is a small fishing village on extensive Lake Malawi. A country in east Africa - bordered by Mozambique on its south and east, Tanzania to its north, Zambia to the west, and the Lake Malawai along most of its eastern border - Malawi is said to be the 'Warm Heart of Africa'.

However, taking over the pleasure of her scenic holiday was the expression of the starving child. The disturbing experience steered the course of Rabinovich's holiday. "The experience was so painful that I had to bring my holiday to an end. I stayed on to help. In the beginning, I fed 30 orphans - giving them bread rolls and cups of tea. However, within a month, the group around me grew to 1,500 hungry, most of whom had lost their mothers to AIDS," she recalls. She stayed on at a local hostel for the next two years to help out the children.

Gradually, Rabinovich, who communicated with the locals in English and later even learnt the local dialect, became acquainted with the women in the village who developed enough faith in the young woman to share their problems with her. She learnt that most of the impoverished women were compelled to have sex with strangers for food; and while they had heard terms such as HIV and AIDS, they were content to believe in the misconceptions and superstitions around the virus.

"It was so difficult for them to face the naked truth so they invented their own explanation," she elaborates. "People in Cape MaClear said that the people were ailing because of the 'bad spirit' and not because of HIV/AIDS. In fact, the condom was also suspect, with the locals arguing that it was invented by the 'mazongo' (white man) in order to spread the malady all across Africa." According to the locals, the lubricating substance of the condom was the HIV.

Troubled by the sight of the hunger and the level of ignorance amongst the locals, Rabinovich established a formal AIDS programme with the support of her local friends and funds garnered from some UK-based NGOs. With the main objective of the programme being advocacy, Rabinovich set out to educate the population on the subject of HIV/AIDS prevention and facilitate care and support of those infected. She also resolved to eradicate hunger. In 2001, the former tourist registered her NGO, the Chembe Aids Project (CAP) with the Government of Malawi.

"The first months were terribly difficult," admits Rabinovich. "It was almost impossible to talk about AIDS openly. The villagers even tried to expel me just because I stated that HIV is prevalent in Cape MaClear." However, she gradually began to win their trust.

Explains Rabinovich, "Some of my local friends and I created study groups for different age groups. The study groups were like master-trainer sessions. It was intended that the participants of the study group would later on become instructors themselves. Each group was exposed to a variety of concepts and issues such as human rights; the causes, symptoms and prevention of HIV/AIDS; clinical manifestations of HIV/AIDS; care of the sick; positive living with HIV/AIDS, teenagers and AIDS; hygiene; and contraception."

The results of the training sessions can be gauged from the example of Sofina, a former participant, who now instructs a group of 170 women about HIV/AIDS at the local church twice a month.

Today, CAP organises monthly lectures on a Sunday, once a month. The project has also taken on the singular responsibility of distributing condoms in the village. Every week CAP directly distributes 5,000 condoms donated by the district hospital to the community and in bars and at entertainment facilities.

The effectiveness of CAP activities can also be attributed to its strategic involvement of the local church. Members of the HIV/AIDS group have formed a choir and drama troupe that performs after the Sunday service. The audience, which comprises villagers, is invited to take part. There too, the CAP workers distribute condoms. Members of the group receive food rations once a month as remuneration.

In addition to advocacy, CAP workers provide medical assistance to HIV-positive villagers by funding treatment and organising transport to the clinic. CAP also provides food such as 'likuni pala' (porridge), maize flour, beans and vitamins to the ailing. In cases where the individual is too ill to tend to his or her crop, CAP arranges for local farmers.

"The major aim of CAP is to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS among the population of Cape MaClear. The other aims are to develop awareness to human rights; provide for the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS; supply food relief; and develop awareness of sanitation and hygiene," lists Rabinovich.

Rabinovich explains that the passivity of the villagers was an initial hindrance. "I don't blame them for being passive - they encounter death everyday and everywhere. However, today you can see condoms being distributed in the village. The young look to the future and are no longer reluctant to talk about AIDS. CAP students have become HIV/AIDS teachers, disseminating information."

Another achievement of the CAP project is its food-for-work programme, started in 2001, for the benefit of the locals. On the basis of a CAP survey, the most deserving families of the village are selected for the programme and provided with community work such as construction of a secondary school, road renovation, lakefront clean-up, graveyard maintenance, and English teaching. The programme participants take pride in their work and are recognised by the community as well.

Rabinovich, who now lives in Israel and has recently got married, admits that her heart lies in Cape MaClear. "I left the project to volunteers because I did not want to become 'the woman who saved the village'. I taught them the tools. It is now up to the villagers to choose whether or not to use them. Of course, I keep in touch with the locals."

(Courtesy: Women's Feature Service)

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