Tag Archives: women

My Travels in India

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Greetings from Nepal!

Currently I am in Kathmandu, and almost halfway through a three-week trip visiting Heifer’s work in India, Nepal, Thailand and Cambodia. My days have been packed with meetings and project visits – I am energized by the people and their stories!

As there is so much to tell, and I’ve only spent one day so far in Nepal, I’ll update you on my time in India.

Rameba Devi and her daughter Madhu, with a family goat in the Shitlapur village of India.

Until now, I had not had the opportunity to visit our work in India. It was a pleasure meeting all of our India staff! I am traveling with Dr. Mahendra Lohani, Vice President of Asia/South Pacific program and Avni Malhotra, Country Representative.  The range of partnership opportunities is incredibly diverse here.  We met with other NGOs, foundations, and government ministry representatives. There is a vast knowledge of development focused on animal husbandry that can contribute to Heifer’s work.

Locations in India where Heifer CEO, Pierre Ferrari, traveled.

We visited two project sites in Bikaner, a remote and desert like area. The first project involved about 250 original families. The project is 18 months old and is a classic Heifer project with goats as the livestock component. The results have been impressive – home gardens, rain harvesting systems and livestock training. Our next visit was deep in the desert to a project that has just begun. The women’s groups have started saving and are participating in Cornerstone Training.  Even though these women have lived in the same village they hardly knew one another because religion and caste kept them separated. Now, because of the project, they meet, eat together, work together, share their family stories and, ask their husbands to share the household work! Prior to my arrival, the women spoke on camera about the changes they have seen experienced. Can you believe these transformations have taken place in just three months? This is the first time I have met a group in its early stages and we had a very open dialogue and exchange on a range of issues from alcohol abuse to maternal health (too many die in childbirth) to water availability. You can feel that these women are committed to the process and are hopeful about the future. Being with these women was so inspiring because they recognized the need for changes in their lives. I promised to return in two years if they achieved certain goals they set for themselves – I’m looking forward to that!

In traveling through India, it is very apparent that the Indian political and economic conditions are truly unique with vast disparities in income and wealth. The government is quite active in development and they are increasing their attention to the rural sector.  During our visit we have already met with several local state legislators and other officials. They are very interested in collaboration given the demonstrable success of our approach. Integration and partnership with government at the national and state level will be key to scaling our efforts as strategically desired. In our various meetings with different ministries, they were very interested in our work in scaling up our impact, women’s empowerment, social capital, community building, and Passing on the Gift.

Koirganwa Village, East Champaron District, India

Our Heifer India staff is well connected and arranged for meetings with many NGOs such as GALVmed, Elanco, and Digital Green. We explored many subjects, including the issue of poultry and the economic value to small holder farmers (each chicken could potentially increase their income by $150) and technical and communication platforms and systems, Relationships such as these will be beneficial as we move forward.

We ended our time in India with a small reception with NGOs, mostly Indian.  We discussed a variety of issues centered on the role of INGOs five to 10 years from now.  I know that Heifer is taking steps in the right direction; there is much to learn and much to do!

All in all, my trip to India was a true eye-opening experience.  It allowed me to re-calibrate many beliefs and views.  I learned a lot.   Heifer’s future in India is in good hands – the needs are huge and the opportunity to do superb, values-led and impactful work is there for the doing.

Sumitra Devi with her daughter Anita and a family goat.

And now, my work begins in Nepal. More to come soon!

Improved Stoves Empower Women

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Cooking smoke kills women

In many societies, women are in charge of cooking. Day after day, and often throughout their lives, women spend many hours in the kitchen, often near a fire. Smoke, which deposits soot in the lungs, is responsible for 511,000 of the 1.3 million annual deaths of women caused by obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) around the world.

Improved stoves bring many benefits

A mother and daughter using their improved stove in Peru (photo by Darcy Kiefel)

Building improved stoves in rural areas decreases the need for firewood and reduces pollution caused by smoke fumes. This has been proven to improve the health of women, prevent respiratory diseases and reduce deforestation. Additionally, the World Health Organization has developed an interesting analysis on the contribution of this technology toward the Millennium Development Goal of “promoting equality between the sexes and the empowerment of women.” Similarly, at Heifer Peru we asked the question:  “In Heifer Peru’s work, how has the strategy of building improved stoves improved gender relations and women’s empowerment?” 

Heifer Peru has been working in field of improved stoves for more than 15 years.  In 2008, a study was conducted to examine the impact of using improved stoves in our projects. A “Systemization of Experiences” was developed to document Heifer Peru’s extensive experience in various regions and in various contexts throughout the country.

Women must be the decision makers

At first, field visits revealed that very sophisticated and perfectly built kitchens in Heifer Projects were simply not being used. In households where the improved stoves were being used, it became clear that those households were where the women were originally consulted prior to constructing the new stoves.  They were consulted throughout the entire process:  Did they want a new kitchen?  Where did they want it built?  Were they willing to attend training to understand stove handling and maintenance?  Involving the women from start to finish was a key aspect to the success of the project.  The women felt valued to know that their voice and decision had been taken into account. For Heifer Peru, this helped confirm a key component: the active participation of women in decision-making.

Improved stoves give women more time outside the kitchen

Given the gender perspective, it was initially discussed and assumed that the presence of improved stoves would reinforce the unique role of women in the home and make the women more comfortable in their own kitchen. In the testimonies we captured, many women noted the value that the improved stove brought for them was that they were more comfortable in their kitchen, and that they could cook more quickly and more efficiently, which freed the women up for other activities in the home and for themselves.  The latter point was noted as being most significant:  The women had more time for themselves.  It allowed them to have more time to leave their home and participate in life – community and family activities. This last was an indirect effect and revealed that the new stoves addressed a strategic necessity for many women: their own time management.

Petronila Valdez and her daughter in their improved kitchen in Morropon, Piura.

The third aspect analyzed was the approach of the technical field work.  Having to construct the new and improved stoves meant that field technicians had to enter the homes of the women to determine dimensions and to build the stoves. Entering the home, a private space, for an extended period of time to construct the stoves offered the technician the opportunity to understand the sensitivities around gender and observe the real behaviors and exercises of power that occurred in the local rural households.  The technicians had to understand the complexity of gender relations within these rural families.  This approach facilitated the technicians and families learning from each other. After multiple visits and exchanges, the women’s behavior and activities began to slowly change. The women became more involved in project activities but also went through personal change, the family dynamics began to change and the women became more involved in social roles. This meant that the women were not just passive recipients, but active agents of change.  This dynamic resulted in women and their homes serving a public role in the community.

Using these reflections, we can recognize the relationship between improved stoves and women’s empowerment. Strategies and processes for women’s empowerment are not framed in a single space, or with a single player.  In this case, it involved not only women, but also other members in the home, and even the technical officer and the organization. The kitchen ceased to be perceived as the sole domain of women and became a place for family decision-making and empowerment.  Empowerment was one of the indirect results, though. Over time, there was a steady improvement of gender relations at home.  This allowed women to actively participate in the community and receive education and training on issues of leadership, citizenship and organizational development, all of which provided them a new level of empowerment beyond the domestic sphere.

With all these reflections, we are reminded of the real dimension of Heifer’s and Heifer Peru’s work.  Stoves were improved for better food and health, but the stoves were also used to develop our strategy to improve gender relations, family power dynamics and the position of women to facilitate their active participation in family and communal decision making.

Improved stoves must be incorporated into healthy home and healthy family strategies

There were areas where the presence of new, improved stoves did not have the same impact – mostly where women were not part of the decision making and design. It was often the case that when the men of the community were the primary participants involved in the project, arguing that success for the project was the actual construction of the stoves, the masonry work, and the number of stoves built without seeing the profound impact that the stove’s footprint could have in changing attitudes and family values, especially for women. From this we were convinced that to achieve the most effective impact, the strategy of using improved stoves should be integrated into a larger strategy of healthy housing. This would create improvements in the rest of their home environment (cleanliness and order) but above all, the improved gender relations within the home and among the family fosters a healthy family.

Heifer invests in women

It is important to recognize that gender equity is embedded in every activity and component of our work, and its presence will typically determine the success of a project.  Initially, with the improved stoves projects, we did not have the explicit intention of generating changes in the lives of women.  We must continue to seek to alleviate the heavy workload of women in the home and consider how much better off we and the women are when they are fully participating, fully informed and recognize their capacity to decide, enabling the development of further participation for them outside the home.

Investment in Women Farmers IS Priority for Heifer

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I recently read an article from the World Watch Institute that said there are “low investments in women farmers, despite their important contributions to global food security.”

Dharam Shila Panday is member of Lakshmi Women'€™s group.

Photograph by Geoff Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International

I’m familiar with the general facts –

Women have limited access to land.

Women have limited access to credit.

Women have limited access to education.

And yet, “[women] produce as much as 50 percent of the agricultural output,” according to World Watch Institute.

Heifer has continually recognized the importance of empowering women, especially women working in agriculture. In a previous post, The Role of Social Capital in Heifer’s Work, I mentioned Heifer’s Theory of Change, which is a process that Heifer developed to support families and individuals move from vulnerability to sustainability.

A Nepal project participant shares her story.

Photograph by Geoff Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International

Our Theory of Change recognizes that in order for women farmers to fully maximize their capacity to feed the world, we need to ensure that we provide them with opportunities to empower them. Women need access to and control over their income and assets, they need to participate in the decision making at household and community levels (this is one of our 12 Cornerstones), and they need to hold roles of leadership.

To achieve these objectives, Heifer has developed measures implemented in ALL of our projects.

But it isn’t just about saying what we are going to do; it’s about seeing that work in action. In Nepal, the Women Group Coordination Committee (WGCC) is an organization that has been working with Heifer. In 1993, before the WGCC was formed, 25 women came together and approached a bank for a loan. Not surprisingly, they were denied. These women had the desire and the drive, but they lacked support. Through connections, they were introduced to Heifer. Fast forward, and the WGCC established themself as a non-governmental organization and serve as an implementing project

Documenting project progress.

Photograph by Geoff Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International

partner with Heifer. To date, WGCC has helped implement more than eight projects and assisted more than 7,000 families and continues to play a key role in Heifer’s work. These advances have been possible because we are working with incredibly energetic women (and men) and because we have developed monitoring and measuring tools that open a pathway for women project participants to make decisions and define the outcomes they want for themselves and their families.

I met with many women during my last trip to Nepal and spoke about empowering women from within in a previous blog post. These women are incredible, and they understand how they are capable of transformation. It is my conversations with these women that have helped Heifer use our model to increase our impact, which you can read about in Heifer Nepal: How Far Can We Go to End Hunger and Poverty.

Heifer International's CEO Pierre Ferrari listens to a group meeting of the Pooja women's group.

Photography by Geoff Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International

There is still much work to be done, but as I read this article from World Watch Institute, I know that Heifer is making the investment – with excellent results.

Movin and Shakin in Bihar, India

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Singing and dancing. Two things people everywhere should do a lot more of. My visits to Heifer projects in various communities have been educational and training-centered. Of course, that doesn’t mean all business and no fun, and what is more fun then Maggie trying to learn traditional village dances!

Well, the video of me stumbling around has accidentally been deleted from my camera, computer, hard drive and anywhere else it could possibly be. Fortunately, all video clips of the seasoned professionals remain in tact and ready for sharing.

The drumbeats, collection of voices, hand clapping, and specific footwork are integral parts of this experience. As far as how it connects to Heifer’s mission, Anjani, Bihar field officer, explains, “if they are dancing, if they are singing…harmony is flowing”.

Check out this medley of traditional dancers and a quick comment by Heifer field officer, Anjani Harsh:

Movin and Shakin in Bihar! from Maggie Carroll on Vimeo.

 

Heifer Cooperatives in Nepal Bring Lasting Changes

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Nepal celebrates the United Nations International Day of Cooperatives with the rest of the developing world. In Heifer communities throughout Nepal a new wave of cooperatives is promising lasting impacts in battling hunger and poverty and caring for the Earth.

Why cooperatives?

Cooperatives have been marked as one of the pillars for Nepal’s economic transformation after it was declared a people’s republic; the other two being the state and the private sector. Recent development discourse has also shown keen interest in promotion of community based cooperatives focused on production and market establishment.

How are Heifer Cooperatives different?

Successful cooperatives depict strong cohesion, mutual prosperity and a strong ability to capture social capital. The values-based foundation that Heifer lays through intensive social mobilization has resulted in strong social capital induced sustainability. Under the flagship of Social Entrepreneurial Women’s Cooperative Limited, Heifer’s cooperatives aim to be value positive, power negative and politically neutral with strong emphasis in capacity building for production and marketing as per market signals and value addition while building institutional capacity and ensuring effective and efficient management. The services provided by the cooperatives will benefit farmers who don’t have easy access to formal financial services and lead investment in income generation activities and micro enterprises. The cooperatives will also be in a better positioned to advocate for effective services from the government to small farmers, benefitting more farmers in the longer run. Managed and led by women, the cooperative will create opportunities for other women like them.

How are we doing this?

Fifty-five such cooperatives have been formed throughout Nepal incorporating Heifer families and other farmers in the community who are exploring different agricultural enterprising avenues. One such cooperative is the Laganshil Social Entrepreneurial Women’s Cooperative in Shaktikhor. With close to 300 members in and around the area, the cooperative specializes in goat farming. Goats are the most preferred meat in Nepal with the country importing a major chunk of its consumption from India. Smallholder farmers, although capable of ramping-up production to meet growing market demands, are limited from commercial markets and necessary capital. Laganshil cooperative has ventured to strategically increase production from individual farmers and sell to consumers directly and indirectly acting as a marketing entity, hence bridging the gap between producers and consumers and ensuring the producers a decent share of the profit.

What are the ripple effects?

Now Laganshil cooperative is incorporating smallholder farmers from surrounding villages like Siddhi, which is cut-off from any market, to ensure they have a channel to sell their produce. The cooperative will partner with private and public banks to assure the flow of capital, will have a stake in channeling the various factors of production, in their case, feed and fodder for the goats and will liaison with government and non-government development partners. “We are doing what each goat farmer in every household spent a decent amount of time engaging in. It benefits all when these things (market access and access to factors of production) are managed by one entity. Our aim is to make Laganshil cooperative the go-to place for meat goats in the region,” said Chammi Magar, the President of the cooperative.

How will this be sustainable?

When farmers get a fair share in market profits, it not only ensures food security but also encourages small enterprises that are paramount to a healthy economy. With its strong values-base foundations, these cooperatives will put social values into commercial enterprises making it both socially responsible economically viable. Cooperatives in Chitwan and Nawalparasi have already been united into district unions who are influencing district level policies and coordination that favor smallholder farmers. These district unions are already voicing the needs of small holder farmers and shaping the landscape so that they are not left behind when the country moves forward economically. This is crucial to battling poverty in Nepal where 80 percent of the population are directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture in the country. “I hope someday we will have good profits from goat farming so my children don’t have to leave the country to get jobs,” said Ganga Magar. Her hopes are similar to the hope of thousands in Nepal.

Cooperatives in Nepal

Cooperative members hold a meeting in the shade to escape the grueling summer heat. Photo courtesy of Heifer Nepal.

Nepal Cooperatives

The village of Shakitkhor sits at the heart of a radical cooperative movement. Photo courtesy of Heifer Nepal.

Read more about how Heifer International uses cooperatives in our work around the world.

Heifer Around the Web: Investing in Women, Blessing Animals, Youth Fundraising

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Every Sunday we will highlight some of the people who are funding our work creatively or helping us spread the word of our mission online. If you spot Heifer International while you’re surfing the web or know of a fun or creative fundraising effort, please share it with us here in the comments.

St. Bernadette 3rd-graders collected money for Heifer International as part of their class Lenten Service Project. The hoped to earn enough money to buy chickens through Heifer, and also incubated their own chicken eggs to learn all they could as well. What a great classroom activity!

If you are a pet lover in the Boston area you’ll want to check out the Blessing of the Animals at St. Matthew’s United Methodist church on Sunday afternoon, June 24th. To top it off, a free will offering will be donated to the Buddy Dog Humane Society and Heifer International.

The Case for Investing in Women is a very thoughtful article written by 2013 Presidio Gradate Schol MBA candidate Liz Vyas on investing in women, increasing household incomes, and the concept of sustainability. Several institutions and non-profits are mentioned for empowering women, including Heifer International.

Saint Joseph Parish of Shelburne Falls, MA blogs about the youth’s fundraising efforts for Heifer International, which allowed them to send us a check for $1,500 recently. Thanks so much, we really appreciate the support.

In Clergy Family Confidential, this post called Top Ten Reasons NOT to Go to Church this Summer, Heifer International is listed in #7 (There’s No Church School), as a reason TO GO, at least to his church. At St. John’s, they are offering Heifer’s Animal Crackers as a summer offering.

In Context: Spotlight on Gender Inequality

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According to the 2012 Social Institutions and Gender Index, a new tool developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) measuring gender equality, Bangladesh is ranked 63 out of 88 countries surveyed. A slight improvement from 2009, where Bangladesh came in at 90 out of 102 countries surveyed.

The SIGI introduces 12 innovative indicators on social institutions, which are grouped into 5 categories: Family Code, Physical Integrity, Son Preference, Civil Liberties and Ownership Rights. Each of the SIGI indicators is coded between 0 and 1; 0 meaning no or very low inequality, and 1, indicating very high inequality.

The SIGI results indicate that many of the world’s worst performers are located in the belt that stretches from Mali to Pakistan. The women of sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa region, face the highest discrimination. Sudan, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone came in at last place on the SIGI rankings.

UN data shows that nearly half of the women in Bangladesh between 15 and 19 years of age have been married, divorced or widowed; a UNICEF study discovered that 33% of women between 15 and 49 were married before their 15th birthday.

In recent years, the Bangladeshi government has outlawed early marriages and raised the age for legal marriage to 18 for women and 21 for men. All persons must report a legal marriage, failure to do so results in a two year prison sentence.

Wedding in Dhaka, photo courtesy of Monjurul Hoque, Creative Commons

So, while it looks like these new rulings have played a positive role in the SIGI rankings, there are still outdated practices and cultural norms that negatively impact women’s opportunities.

Even though 83% of women surveyed disagreed or disagreed strongly with the statement, “It is acceptable for a man to have more than one wife,” Polygamy is still legal. According to both Islamic law and Hindu custom, mother’s are regarded as “custodians” of their children and cannot ever be a legal guardian. In the event that a woman is widowed, and her sons are over 7 and her daughters have reached puberty, the husband’s family has the right to take the children away from the mother. Same goes in the case of divorce.

A 2010 CEDAW report found that divorced and widowed women are more likely to be living under the poverty line than married and single, never-married women.

Photo courtesy of Ahron de Leeuw, Creative Commons

Traditionally, daughters inherit only half as much as sons. In the absence of sons, daughters can only collect their inheritance once all family debt and obligations have been taken care of. In Hindu and polygamist households, a widow or widows can only inherit as much as one son.

In 2011, the government of Bangladesh drafted the National Women Development Policy which will guarantee equal inheritance for both sons and daughters. The law has not yet been passed as there is debate as to how it will be enforced as it conflicts with local Islamic laws.

Bangladesh has also taken a step forward in the case of domestic and physical abuse towards women. The Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Act became law in 2010, giving women temporary to permanent protection and guaranteeing imprisonment of abusers.

However, there is still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to land rights and agriculture. While it is legal for a women to own land in Bangladesh, they are often limited in what they are allowed to do with their land.

In the eastern provinces, 30% of households in Bangladesh are headed by women and are more likely to suffer from extreme poverty and landlessness. Despite their growing role in agriculture, social practices effectively exclude women from direct access to land. It is customary for a woman not to claim her share of the family property unless it is given willingly. Women often surrender their right to property in exchange for the right to visit their parental home and seek their brothers’ assistance in cases of marital conflict.

To learn more about the SIGI, take a moment and check out their slideshow:

SIGI 2009

 

 

Reflections on the Women of My Childhood

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Mother’s Day is approaching, and I’d like to share some stories with you about women that have shaped my life and my world views.

My mother is an incredible woman who instilled in me to care for others. My mother is a twin, and she and her sister have always been very close.  As very young girls (maybe 4 or 5)  they made a pact that when they grew older they would become nuns in the Catholic church.  When they were older, they kept their promise; but soon after joining the novitiate, my mother decided on a different life path and she left, married and had me and my sister. Her sister stayed a while longer, taking her vows; but ultimately left, married and had four children.

Because of my mother and aunt, my early childhood allowed me to be very close and involved with a convent of nuns whose mission was to help the very poor in Africa (Elizabethville, Katanga, Congo). Most of their work was in a small hospital and as teachers, but they also helped through farming. The convent was very active and productive, always joyous about their work.  While my aunt was still in the convent, my mother visited often, volunteering and supporting them financially as best she and my father could. My sister and I came along and were totally spoiled by this sea of nuns, delighted to be able to be with children, a pleasure they had intentionally forgone to help others with no distraction.

Another woman who was impactful in my life was my paternal grandmother. She was a very traditional Italian matriarch, made of very stern stuff, yet she was as loving toward the poor as the nuns we spent time with at the convent.  She founded a vegetable and fruit wholesale and retail business in Elizabethville (Congo).  She worked with a local village teaching them to farm the vegetables and fruits.  My grandmother would buy the products from the small farmers to then sell to the local hotels, restaurants and the more affluent clientele in the town (mostly European families).

I remember riding with her in her pickup to visit the farmers for their produce. They would lay out the crop of the week, washed and ready. She bought what she felt she could sell, spreading her buying to as many families as possible. She was but one market for the farmers, but she paid the best price and got the best produce. There was always time for some laughs, teasing and gossiping, as all this trading was done by the women.  My grandmother cared so much for these women, and if there was ever a sick woman or child, she would take them to the convent for care and healing.

Photograph by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International

My mother and grandmother were wonderful women, and I am who I am today in large part due to the ideas and beliefs they instilled in me. It was important for them to help take care of others and provide opportunities to families.

Working with Heifer, I have had the opportunity to travel to our country programs and meet incredible women–many of them mothers. When I see them and their dedication to their families and communities, I feel connected to them. These women are impacting the world around them. I am in awe of their passion and desire to do for others.

I am forever grateful for the love and care that my mother and grandmother gave to me and for the lessons they taught me. My grandmother is no longer living, but my mother is still kicking in high gear and helping take care of others.

Mothers all over the world give so selflessly. And what do they ask in return? For us to be happy and to help others. Brooke wrote a post earlier this week about passing on your mother’s generosity. As she mentioned, mothers come in many forms – friends, aunts, sisters, grandmothers. This mother’s day, let us honor these women in our lives by helping others.

A Certain Style

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World Ark senior editor Austin Bailey and photographer Russ Powell are visiting Malawi this week to report on projects there.

In cities and villages, among old and young, the women of Malawi honor tradition by wearing the chitenje. This brightly colored swath of cotton comes in countless colors and patterns, but is worn in only two ways. Practically all women wrap them around their waists, with two magical tucks that keep them in place without buttons, zippers or snaps. Mothers in rural areas use a second chitenje to tie babies on their backs, freeing hands for hauling, cooking and other work.

In the capitol city of Lilongwe, professional women wear skirts and high-heeled shoes, but wrap zitenje over their suits when they leave the office. (Zitenje is the plural form for chitenje in the Chichewa language spoken in Central and Southern parts of the country.) Not only is the chitenje traditional, it’s also considered by many to be the only moral way for women in Malawi to dress, explained Grace Phili, a field officer for Heifer who often wears a chitenje over jeans when she travels over bumpy dirt roads to project sites by motorbike. Although Malawi is becoming more modern in terms of gender issues, many still believe women who shirk the traditional dress also shirk their morals. “In the villages, if you wear pants, people say, ‘She is a woman, but she wears the clothes of a man,’” Phili said.

Giving zitenje is considered very respectful and generous, and they’re the common gift at rural weddings. Many women in Malawi complement zitenge with a matching head wrap called a mpango. On special occasions, women wear the chitenje with matching mpango and blouse all made from the same cloth. Malawi’s new president, Joyce Banda, always wears a chitenge outfit with a matching wrap over her shoulder and mpango.

 

 

Watch Heifer Malawi field officer Grace Phili demonstrate wrapping the chitenje in the video below.