An unusual moment to catch such a glimpse of advocacy work undertaken by Good Shepherd around the same time around the world.
Cristina Durante and Catherine Mutindi were actively engaged in the OECD meeting in Paris. Director of Good Shepherd International Foundation , Cristina Duranti participated on April 17th together with Amnesty International and other panelists at #Cobalt session at #OECDminerals in Paris, to present our DRC program in Kolwezi and discuss abuses suffered by the most vulnerable in the cobalt mining communities. Catherine presented on community-based approaches to ending child labour in Kolwezi during an NGO sponsored side event. This side event was in collaboration with Care and Protection of Children – CPC Learning Network Photographs are from Facebook. Catherine is with the co-found of CPC Learning Network Mark Canavera. Read more See the documentary
Once again children to the fore – now from Indonesia! Congratulations to Maria Anggelina, who won Hermann Gmeiner Award 2018. Maria Anggelina is an Administrative staff, Kindergarten of Good Shepherd Sisters, Batam, Indonesia
Maria Anggelina is a champion for the cause of children and marginalised women in Indonesia. She is particularly active in trying to save children who have been trafficked to Batam, an island in Indonesia’s Riau Archipelago. As part of her work with the Good Shepherd Sisters, Ms Anggelina and a team cooperate with law enforcement, the military, social services and church organisations to combat human trafficking on the island. Thanks to their efforts, at least 40 victims have been rescued and returned to their home villages. Seeing many cases, especially ones where children from her own hometown have fallen victim, makes Ms Anggelina very grateful to have been cared for by SOS Children’s Villages Flores in Indonesia. She realises, if it were not for SOS Chlldren’s Villages, she could have been a victim of trafficking herself. By raising the awareness of parents and children, Ms Anggelina hopes to reduce the number of trafficking victims. Read more
The National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd are organizing a Human Trafficking Conference for Tuesday, May 15, 2008
In Santiago Chile, the regional preparatory meeting for the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) which will take place in New York, July 9-18, 2018 is presently happening. The High Level Political Forum meets annually to evaluate implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We have two members present at the meeting in Santiago – Marta Iris and Erika Sanchez. Hedwig Joehl attended a similar meeting in Geneva. Georgette hopes to attend in Beirut (April 24 to 26) and Donatus will attend with the Sisters from Senegal at Dakar (May 2 – 4) the meeting for Africa. Read more HERE
Click on – Video Clip
The Commission on the Status of Women – annually the most well attended event of the UN Calendar – with women for all walks of life coming to the United Nations, New York to advocate basically for the human rights of women and girls. I find a certain tension in the agreed conclusion between the need to address ‘all’ women and girl including those living in rural areas Paras 2, 3, 14, 25, 26, 32, 41, 42, (c) (l) (aa) (jj) and (ww) when in fact this year was specifically dedicated to ‘Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women girls.’ Maybe this is reflective of the dynamic tension, enthusiasm, and controversy concerning gender equality that is evoked from start to finish of the Commission. Is there a fear that some women and girls – ‘those furthest behind’ – might gain at the expense of the whole? This is impossible as the pre-ambular paragraphs only reference previously agreed, international law and frameworks from CEDAW to Beijing to the Sustainable Development Goals and the agreed conclusion are what they are ‘agreed conclusion’ and not legally binding.
We have a comprehensive, complex and eclectic agreed conclusions but where does one begin to implement and evaluate? Who is implementing what, where and how? Apart from the preamblur paragraphs and the closing paragraphs there are three main section:
Are the two weeks of CSW merely a time of playing around with words, engaging in political rhetoric, maintaining national sovereignty and entrenched cultural and religious positions, while being blind, deaf, and unmoved to action by the daily suffering caused by poverty, hunger, and violence that women and girls living in rural areas experience. The continual lack of food, threats to food security, no social protection, no land rights, scarcity of water, lack of provision of health care, education and decent work coupled with natural disasters and climate induced migration are features of the feminization of poverty. A concluding paragraph in Rev 1 of the agreed conclusion read ‘ The Commission call upon Governments to heed the urgent United Nations humanitarian appeal to assist counties facing drought, starvation and famine with emergency aid and urgent funding, and underlines that, if no immediate response is received, an estimated 20 million people, most of whom are women and children, risk losing their lives.’ This paragraph was not in the final document!