Isn’t it a blessing when you get to see the end of yet another year? It is important to appreciate yourself, where you have come from and the achievements you have made no matter how small they may seem. APPRECIATE! In every start of year, people make different resolutions. For us, our resolution each year is to change the lives and make an impact in young women’s lives. This we believe we have given our very best to achieve this year and that through our work, we have not only made an impact in young women’s lives, but that we have inspired them and many of our readers out there to move from their comfort zones and motivate themselves to be better and do better.
I have definitely been inspired by my work this year. Not only have I learnt to appreciate what I have and the person I have become, but I have also learnt to be more patient and resilient. I have gained exposure through women and girls’ stories and experiences and most of all I have had fun!
Hello December, Time Flies! I finally got my undergraduate degree this year. I was very angry and disappointed last year December for not graduating with my class because of a mistake within my faculty. But, somethings have a way of working themselves out. I am really grateful for the tremendous support I have gotten from my SISTERS because going through my school life would have been so much difficult had they not have been part of my support system. Going through university is not easy, especially when you have to work to pay your own school fees, but it is not impossible.
I hope this post inspires all the young women who are pursuing their education and are facing all sorts of challenges along the way, or are stuck in the process of it all. Do not give up! Open up to your sisters and let them be part of your journey, because they are a hot bed of ideas, solutions and just basic support…which, believe me you will need along the way!
That being said, happy Holidays to our Readers and the entire Resource Center for Women and Girls Fraternity
Love and Love!
Ivy Nyawira
Showing posts with label RCWG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RCWG. Show all posts
Monday, 7 December 2015
Monday, 26 October 2015
SEX SLAVERY IN THE 21st CENTURY
WHEN readers hear about “modern slavery” in America or abroad, they may roll their eyes and assume that’s an exaggeration. Slavery? Really? Modern slavery?
If you’re one of the doubters, then listen to Poonam Thapa, a teenage girl I met here in Nepal, where she is putting her life back together after being sold to a brothel.
And if you think, as Amnesty International suggested recently, that the solution is to decriminalize the commercial sex trade around the world, then pay special heed.
Poonam was poor and uneducated when a woman offered an escape in the form of a well-paying job. “You can have a better life,” Poonam remembers the woman saying. “And if you make good money, you will be respected by your father. You can help your family.”
So Poonam, then age 12, ran off with the woman. When Poonam was eventually deposited in a brothel in Mumbai, India, she was puzzled. “I didn’t even know what a brothel was,” she recalls.
The brothel owner, a woman, dolled her up in a skimpy dress, equipped her with falsies, and gave her heels. Then the owner sold Poonam’s virginity to an older man.
“The man raped me,” Poonam says. “I didn’t know what he was doing. But I was bleeding and hurting and crying.”
The brothel owner sternly told Poonam to buck up — she had paid $1,700 for Poonam and needed to recover her investment. So Poonam was locked inside the brothel, forced to have sex with 20 to 25 men a day, and more on Sundays and holidays. There were no days off, no trips outside the brothel, and, of course, no pay.
One day Poonam was hurting and refused a customer. She says the brothel-owner beat her and burned her with cigarettes; she showed me the scars.
Poonam thus became one of 20.9 million people worldwide — a quarter of them children — subjected to forced labor, according to the U.N.’s International Labor Organization. In the United States, tens of thousands of children are trafficked into the sex trade each year.
Men visiting Poonam’s brothel paid $2.50 for sex and were sometimes oblivious to the brutality, flattering themselves that the girls liked their work. They see girls who often smile; no one is holding a gun to their heads.
Poonam responded with what so many others have said: The smiles are on the outside, even as girls are crying inside.
“We were told to smile, because a smile is money and will pull in customers,” Poonam said. The girls were also ordered to say that they were over 18 and working voluntarily.
Then one day police raided the brothel. Warned by the brothel owner that the police would torture her if they found she was a child or trafficked, Poonam claimed that she was 23 and working voluntarily, but the police could see that she was a child and took her to a shelter.
What makes me sick is that there are "customers" who relish this sort of thing. Surely that man who paid for her virginity knew what he was...
Indian authorities returned Poonam to the care of Maiti Nepal, a leading anti-trafficking organization. Now Poonam is studying to be a social worker in hopes of helping other trafficked girls. A new study suggests that post-traumatic stress disorder is frequent among those who have been trafficked.
Anuradha Koirala, founder of Maiti Nepal, notes that there has been a bit of progress against sex trafficking of Nepali girls. A crucial step, whether in Nepal or the United States, is ending the impunity for pimps and traffickers, and Koirala says that Maiti Nepal has helped prosecute 800 people for involvement in trafficking. In America as well, we need to prosecute traffickers rather than their victims.
Plenty of well-meaning people back Amnesty International’s proposal for full decriminalization of the sex trade, including of pimps and brothels, and it’s certainly true that some women (and men) work in the sex trade voluntarily. Yet in practice, approaches similar to Amnesty’s have ended up simply empowering pimps. And while under these proposals human trafficking would remain illegal, the police would no longer have a reason to raid brothels to search for girls like Poonam. Both Poonam and Koirala think that full decriminalization is a catastrophic idea; if it were in place, Poonam might still be enslaved.
“There is no protection to the powerless,” Koirala said of full decriminalization. “All the benefits go to the perpetrators and exploiters.”
The blunt truth is that no strategy works all that well against trafficking. But maybe the most successful has been Sweden’s, cracking down on traffickers and customers while providing social services and exit ramps for women in the sex trade.
That’s what human trafficking is, an ugly form of exploitation that at its worst amounts to modern slavery. In the 21st century, isn’t it finally time to abolish slavery forever?
If you’re one of the doubters, then listen to Poonam Thapa, a teenage girl I met here in Nepal, where she is putting her life back together after being sold to a brothel.
And if you think, as Amnesty International suggested recently, that the solution is to decriminalize the commercial sex trade around the world, then pay special heed.
Poonam was poor and uneducated when a woman offered an escape in the form of a well-paying job. “You can have a better life,” Poonam remembers the woman saying. “And if you make good money, you will be respected by your father. You can help your family.”
So Poonam, then age 12, ran off with the woman. When Poonam was eventually deposited in a brothel in Mumbai, India, she was puzzled. “I didn’t even know what a brothel was,” she recalls.
The brothel owner, a woman, dolled her up in a skimpy dress, equipped her with falsies, and gave her heels. Then the owner sold Poonam’s virginity to an older man.
“The man raped me,” Poonam says. “I didn’t know what he was doing. But I was bleeding and hurting and crying.”
The brothel owner sternly told Poonam to buck up — she had paid $1,700 for Poonam and needed to recover her investment. So Poonam was locked inside the brothel, forced to have sex with 20 to 25 men a day, and more on Sundays and holidays. There were no days off, no trips outside the brothel, and, of course, no pay.
One day Poonam was hurting and refused a customer. She says the brothel-owner beat her and burned her with cigarettes; she showed me the scars.
Poonam thus became one of 20.9 million people worldwide — a quarter of them children — subjected to forced labor, according to the U.N.’s International Labor Organization. In the United States, tens of thousands of children are trafficked into the sex trade each year.
Men visiting Poonam’s brothel paid $2.50 for sex and were sometimes oblivious to the brutality, flattering themselves that the girls liked their work. They see girls who often smile; no one is holding a gun to their heads.
Poonam responded with what so many others have said: The smiles are on the outside, even as girls are crying inside.
“We were told to smile, because a smile is money and will pull in customers,” Poonam said. The girls were also ordered to say that they were over 18 and working voluntarily.
Then one day police raided the brothel. Warned by the brothel owner that the police would torture her if they found she was a child or trafficked, Poonam claimed that she was 23 and working voluntarily, but the police could see that she was a child and took her to a shelter.
What makes me sick is that there are "customers" who relish this sort of thing. Surely that man who paid for her virginity knew what he was...
Indian authorities returned Poonam to the care of Maiti Nepal, a leading anti-trafficking organization. Now Poonam is studying to be a social worker in hopes of helping other trafficked girls. A new study suggests that post-traumatic stress disorder is frequent among those who have been trafficked.
Anuradha Koirala, founder of Maiti Nepal, notes that there has been a bit of progress against sex trafficking of Nepali girls. A crucial step, whether in Nepal or the United States, is ending the impunity for pimps and traffickers, and Koirala says that Maiti Nepal has helped prosecute 800 people for involvement in trafficking. In America as well, we need to prosecute traffickers rather than their victims.
Plenty of well-meaning people back Amnesty International’s proposal for full decriminalization of the sex trade, including of pimps and brothels, and it’s certainly true that some women (and men) work in the sex trade voluntarily. Yet in practice, approaches similar to Amnesty’s have ended up simply empowering pimps. And while under these proposals human trafficking would remain illegal, the police would no longer have a reason to raid brothels to search for girls like Poonam. Both Poonam and Koirala think that full decriminalization is a catastrophic idea; if it were in place, Poonam might still be enslaved.
“There is no protection to the powerless,” Koirala said of full decriminalization. “All the benefits go to the perpetrators and exploiters.”
The blunt truth is that no strategy works all that well against trafficking. But maybe the most successful has been Sweden’s, cracking down on traffickers and customers while providing social services and exit ramps for women in the sex trade.
That’s what human trafficking is, an ugly form of exploitation that at its worst amounts to modern slavery. In the 21st century, isn’t it finally time to abolish slavery forever?
Thursday, 28 May 2015
MENSTRUATION HYGIENE DAY- WOMEN'S HEALTH MATTERS-#MENSTRUATIONMATTERS
Menstrual Hygiene Day serves as a neutral platform to bring together individuals, organisations, social businesses and the media to create a united and strong voice for women and girls around the world, helping to break the silence around menstrual hygiene management.
Menstrual Hygiene Day will help to address the challenges and hardships many women and girls face during their menstruation, but also to highlight the positive and innovative solutions being taken to address these challenges.
The day catalyses a growing, global movement that recognizes and supports girl’s and women’s rights and build partnerships among those partners on national and local level.
It is an opportunity to engage in policy dialogue and actively advocate for the integration of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) into global, national and local policies, programmes and projects. It creates an occasion for media work, including social media.
(http://menstrualhygieneday.org/)
Working With young girls, the menstrual hygiene day is an important day for us. This is a day that not only raises awareness on issues surrounding menstruation, but also shows that we are a step ahead in the right direction in ensuring that we work towards addressing menstruation challenges that girls have during this period, Literally!!
Menstrual Hygiene Day will help to address the challenges and hardships many women and girls face during their menstruation, but also to highlight the positive and innovative solutions being taken to address these challenges.
The day catalyses a growing, global movement that recognizes and supports girl’s and women’s rights and build partnerships among those partners on national and local level.
It is an opportunity to engage in policy dialogue and actively advocate for the integration of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) into global, national and local policies, programmes and projects. It creates an occasion for media work, including social media.
(http://menstrualhygieneday.org/)
Working With young girls, the menstrual hygiene day is an important day for us. This is a day that not only raises awareness on issues surrounding menstruation, but also shows that we are a step ahead in the right direction in ensuring that we work towards addressing menstruation challenges that girls have during this period, Literally!!
Wednesday, 6 August 2014
'I want you to make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures'
Below is a story of a young girl who was tired of seeing male lego toys in stores. She made sure her voice was heard. She criticized the manufacturer of the toys through a handwritten letter that she sent to them saying that she wanted to see more lego girls. Please see more below on how this young girl influenced the lego toy store to manufacture female toys which sold out in three days!!!
A Lego toy set that shows female scientists hard at work was released by the toy company on Friday and is out of stock.
'The Research Institute' includes three female minifigures: a chemist, an astrologer, and a paleontologist.
Included in the set are pieces that form a telescope, a map of constellations, a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, a microscope, and a laboratory station.
Sold out: 'The Research Institute' includes an astronomer, a paleontologist and a chemist
In January of this year, a letter shared on Sociological Images revealed that a girl named Charlotte Benjamin criticized Lego for its female-oriented toy options.
'[...] I don't like that there are more Lego boy people and barely any Lego girls,' the 7-year-old wrote. 'Today I went to a store and saw Legos in two sections. The pink (girls) and the boys (blue).
'All the girls did was sit at home, go to the beach, and shop, and they had no jobs but the boys went on adventures, worked, saved people, and had jobs, even swam with sharks.
'I want you to make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun ok!?!'
Lego's website says its recently-released set was '[c]reated by real-life geoscientist Ellen Kooijman.'
Elite Daily pointed out that Lego said Kooijman's idea was under review before Sociological Images published Benjamin's letter.
Science rules! The astronomer is seen next to a telescope with a chart of constellations behind her
Charlotte Benjamin's letter criticized Lego for its female-oriented toy options
Kooijman tweeted on Friday 'Just bought #LEGO Research Institute set at LEGO Store CPH. So awesome to see your own idea on the shelves!'
The scientist also positively reviewed the Lego set, which was based off of her original designs, on her blog.
Though only five reviews are currently on Lego's product page, those customers also gave the product top marks.
A parent wrote, 'I made my first visit to a Lego store just for this set. It is great to see my daughter really enjoying this set.'
Another customer said 'I would love to see a second scientist set in the future from Ellen Koojiman, she did a beautiful job designing this one. I loved sharing a set with my daughter that focused on women in fields of science.'
Story from the MailOnline News
Story from the MailOnline News
Sunday, 16 December 2012
...Of Hugs and Kisses...
Public
displays of affection are physical acts of intimacy the view of others. PDAs vary
from one culture to another as well as time and context. I can involve
handlidding, hugging, kissing, touching etc. What determines PDAs has to do
with personal taste, cultural and religious beliefs. And any laws applying to a
specific religion. There is a wide variance in what gestured are considered
PDAs, and whether they are acceptable, tasteful or legal.
In
western countries, it’s very common to see people holding hands, hugging and
kissing in public. In Latin America, the practise of teenagers gathering in
public parks to kiss, caress, or even have oral sex is common. In some
countries, in south Asia, Africa and India, such acts are tantamount to serving
a jail term because they are considered obscene. However, relaxation of
previous generations’ social norms has made public displays of affection more
common among the younger generations demographic.
The
kiss on the cheek has to be one of the greatest mysteries of all times. One or
two, on either cheek. We have those enthusiastic kisses which will go for more
and will be intend on getting them. Why not one? Surely one can deliver the
message fully. If you are of the one routine, you pull away after the first
kiss and you leave your poor greeter with her or his lips pursed. You place
your head back awkwardly and endure the rest.
Just
when you’re thinking ‘thank God it’s over’ you see their face still leaning toward
yours. You should be on high alert. He or she is going for the lips. If you’ve
been caught in such a situation, you should be informed, because before you
know it you’re locked in a mouth to mouth kiss.
The
most peculiar thing about this segment of greeting is that you’ll normally get
it from the most unbelievable sources. E.g. school mates, family, and friends.
It’s even worse and awful since most people insist on talking during the greetings;
it makes the counting and head co-ordination even the harder. Why do people
have to kiss on the lips? The words add, unlikely and unnerving cannot aptly
describe this behaviour of women and men with no gayish tendencies to insist on
kissing each other on the lips. What’s worse, say in a public place, you only need
to see the works of disgust and shock of the people around you especially
conservative one’s to know what I mean.
Here
goes my best group equation, for every five they knows, they’ll hug ten and
here is how it works; A and B are friends. A meets B, hugs and kisses him or
her, stands back, is introduced to C and promptly hugs her. They are especialhttp://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3268839074628486953#editor/target=post;postID=1894801607510439230ly
good at accompanying every greeting with sweet lies like ‘oh¦ my God, I missed
you so much’ or ‘hey, bro, what’s up?’’ these people are just great to watch.
If it’s not you they are embarrassing that is.
Another
group that’s weird, you meet them today and within a week, you graduate from
simple handshakes to those tight hugs that leave you barely breathing. It’s
really taxing to wait until they’re done. Apparently, they call it showing
affection. But seriously, seeing and knowing that adults of today were not
brought up on a lot of touches, hugs and kisses. It’s understandable why the
whole PDA thing is slowly cropping up in our society through the youths.
Unless
you know what you’re doing, aim for the hand; stay away from hugs and kisses.
Stick to the handshakes, you can never go wrong there.
Article by
Carol Mbinda
Camp alumni and Graduate
Thursday, 7 July 2011
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