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MADRE News
Happy International Women's Day!
Posted on: Tuesday, March 8, 2011
For 100 years, women worldwide have demonstrated for their rights every March 8.
In honor of this 100th International Women’s Day, MADRE is mobilizing 100 people to each give $100 to help secure the rights that women have won over the last century.
We want you to be a part of this campaign to celebrate the past and shape the future by propelling the gains of the global women’s movement into the next century.
Despite our many achievements, women’s voices are still too often ignored by world leaders.
We want women like Malya Villard-Appolon of our sister organization in Haiti to be heard when she denounces the epidemic of rape in the displacement camps. We want women like Sandra Gonzalez of our sister organization in Guatemala to be heard when she condemns violations of women’s labor rights in sweatshops. We want women like Yanar Mohammed of our sister organization in Iraq to be heard when she sounds the call for democracy and women’s rights in her country.
You can help Malya, Sandra, Yanar and other MADRE partners raise their voices as they work for justice and human rights.
Click here to donate.
The $100 you raise or donate helps MADRE to:
- Give women community-based activists the training they need to participate effectively in political processes—from local government all the way to the United Nations.
- Create popular versions of legal texts so that international law can be a powerful tool in the hands of women at the community level.
- Advocate at the United Nations and within governments for local women’s organizations to have a seat at the table when policies are being made that impact their lives.
As we amplify our sisters’ voices, we want to amplify your voice, too.
When you raise or donate $100 this month, you will have the opportunity to send a message of support and connect directly with one of our partners: Malya Villard-Appolon in Haiti, Sandra Gonzalez in Guatemala, Yanar Mohammed in Iraq or Fatima Ahmed in Sudan. These are women who, with MADRE’s support, have helped change the course of international debate on women’s human rights issues.
There is no better time to help amplify their voices than this 100th International Women’s Day.
In June 2010, Malya Villard-Appolon, MADRE partner and women's rights activist from Haiti testified before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. She spoke about her experience as a woman living in a camp for displaced people and about the devastating levels of sexual violence she has witnessed in the camp. She spoke about the life-saving work she helped lead through KOFAVIV, a grassroots women’s group that provides urgent care to rape survivors. Malya’s courageous testimony helped galvanize support for a groundbreaking legal decision upholding the rights of women in Haiti.
In December 2009, the UN launched a Latin American regional initiative, to combat violence against women. MADRE partner Sandra Gonzalez of Guatemala spoke at the launch of this campaign about violence against women sweatshop workers. Sandra has done more than just document labor and human rights violations. Her organization, the Women Workers Committee, has built a community for women workers and provides them with opportunities for empowerment through literacy classes, health fairs and sexual rights trainings.
Yanar Mohammed co-founded the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) after the US invasion in 2003. She set up a series of shelters that served as an underground railroad for women escaping the violence and death threats that escalated dramatically during the occupation. In March 2010, she traveled to UN headquarters for a major gathering on women’s human rights to demand global action to protect women. Now, she is a leading voice among the protestors demanding real democracy in Iraq.
In December 2009, Fatima Ahmed, the head of our partner organization in Sudan, Zenab for Women in Development, attended the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen. She told hundreds of government representatives and civil society activists that smallholder women farmers must be an integral part of our global response to climate change. Then she went home to continue to lead the first ever women farmers union in Sudan, and make sure that the women have the training and resources they need to adapt to climate change.
These are some of the voices you support by being part of our campaign to raise $100 from 100 people in honor of 100 years of International Women’s Day.
Join the campaign today.
