Girls share from Nolawi Services, Ethiopia

Nolawi 2

Because I am a Girl…(Tshay,)

I can do great things …  I have potential and a bright future … I will overcome any obstacle

Because I am a Girl…(Webalem,)

I will work hard to attain goal in life  … I  fight for my dreams … I empower other girls around me-learning from others and my experiences

Because I am a Girl…(Selam,)

I can achieve my way in life … I have the power to change the world around me … I have great insight and understanding..

Because I am a Girl…(Mulu,)

I can be active in my village through education …  I will teach my daughters the value that girls should  have in society

Because I am a Girl… 

I can be strong and compassionate at the same time  … I have the capacity to care …I will help the people around me and help myself.

Good Shepherd       wgg sticker_final jpg

A survey of services provided globally by Good Shepherd Sisters in 24 countries

In summary, the data presented in this paper serves to support evidence of the widespread prevalence of VAWG and illustrates practical measures that have been taken, with success to combat such violence.   Ending Violence Against Girls and Women Web Version

Good Shepherd will present a side event during CSW 57

Flyer for Side Event during CSW 57

Congratulations on a great initiative undertaken by Sr Therese Thong and her staff in Taiwan.  They registered for a side event during  CSW 57 .  Two staff are coming for the Commission – HUNG-SHIN  LIU and  WANCHING  CHEN.  Hung-Shin is the Deputy Executive Director who will present on Aboriginal Effort to Stop Domestic Violence.   He will be joined on the panel by Ferew Lemma, Executive Director of Nolawi Services, Ethiopia presenting on networking with Government and NGO’s on issues of violence against women.  Maureen McGowan, Director of Handcrafting Justice will address the role of economic justice projects in preventing violence against women and girls.  This side event is a truly international effort to ‘Stop Violence Against Women and Children’ reflecting multidimensional approaches used by good Shepherd Around the World.  The event will take place on Wednesday March 6, 2013 at 10.30 a.m.  If you click on the flyer it will enlarge.   Coming soon the results of the survey you contributed to in August 2012.

UNICEF Executive Director Mr. Anthony Lake visists in Tigray, Ethiopia.

UNICEF Image

UNICEF

In Ethiopia, UNICEF Executive Director sees equity strategy accelerating development

TIGRAY, Ethiopia, 1 April 2011 – UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake has been in northern Ethiopia this week, witnessing first-hand the progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals through an equity-based strategy that reaches out to the poorest and most vulnerable communities.
You can read the full article by clicking on the title above.  In the article it states that an estimated 2.8 million Ethiopian children do not attend primary school.  I wonder how many of these children are girls?  I would like if Mr. Lake had  mentioned what ratio of the children attending school were girls?  Has the community an awareness of a girl’s right to attend school?   ‘Teberh wants to be a teacher when she grows up and Goitom wants to be a pilot…’ I am happy to read that Teberh, a girl is one of the facilitators in the child to child strategy but the replies to the questions about what they want to do in the future indicates gender stereotyping exists.  There are many positives to recommend these sorts of programs – community based, needs based, and flexible.   I would have liked to read a little more about the education of girls.

CSW 55 Online Discussion – Response to Question 3

I lived in Ethiopia for 16 years – what we are talking about here is irrelevant for girls and young women who live in the countryside.  Undoubtedly, what I am going to say is true not just for Ethiopia but many African Countries.  We are not merely talking of restricted access to education for girls or poor quality education but of survival.  How talk of education when there is no food, minimal shelter and no health care.  How deal with gender stereotypes and gender violence in such situations?  The cycle of poverty is vicious.  We need resources at national level and we need those resources to be equitably distributed to all the citizens particularly those who live in extreme poverty and don’t have access to basic needs.  I am aware of many UN documents addressing this situation – 2nd Decade for Poverty Eradication, Resolution on the Right to Food, Resolution on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor, the Millennium Development Goals to name but a few.  A strategy with adequate resource allocation for the implementation of basic human rights – food, shelter, health, education with GIRLS, BOYS, WOMEN AND MEN’S PARTICIPATION from inception through planning and execution is critical for bringing about change in discriminatory practices, gender inequality and poverty eradication.  I agree with MareeAnn that change is incremental and ‘generational’.  I have seen this in Ethiopia where girls and women, who were illiterate and unskilled, initially became skilled, then literate but their children completed secondary education and their children in turn today are aiming for tertiary education.   This was achieved through NGO school sponsorship from KG to University but girls and women in the countryside are left behind, ignored, are non-persons.