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A Glimpse at Women-Led Movements
Dayamani Barla, the Indian journalist who led an extraordinary movement in an effort to stop ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company from displacing thousands of indigenous people in Jharkhand. She discusses her views on development and explains them from an indigenous world-view: “We want development, but not at our cost. We want development of our…
The Aftermath of Booming Oil and Fracking Industries: Acknowledging The Impacts on Women and Indigenous Groups.
By some accounts, the oil boom in the Bakken region of North Dakota is slowing. According to this article in The New York Times, “as oil prices have skidded to $30 a barrel, new drilling has dried up here, and the flood of wealth and workers is ebbing.” The article goes on to describe the ways…
Lack of access to water and toilets has untold effects
According to UNICEF, about 157 million people in the Eastern and Southern Africa region (ESAR) do not have access to a clean and safe water distribution system, and therefore rely on external water sources. This is compounded by an additional lack of reliable and improved sanitation. Additionally, as WEA has seen in our own work in communities in Sub-Saharan…
Starting the Year Off With the Malnad Mela
At the end of January 2016, WEA’s Planting Seeds of Resilience Project partner Vanastree organized their 9th Malnad Mela. The Mela — featured in the Times of India — provides an opportunity for Sirsi women to showcase their seeds, soil, tubers, cotton, clothing, and food, increasing their recognition, honoring their knowledge, and providing and opportunity to learn more. At this year’s…
Biodiversity’s Impact on Women
For many women, biodiversity is the cornerstone of their work, their belief systems and their basic survival. Apart from the ecological services that biodiversity provides, there is the collection and use of natural resources. For indigenous and local communities in particular, direct links with the land are fundamental The United Nations Environmental Programme, has a…
Passing the Knowledge of Seeds and Ancient Farming from Mother to Daughter
In the northeastern mountain state of Meghalaya, is the Khasi tribe, a matrilineal people, where the women own the land, and harvest numerous crops from their fields. Indeed, women are quick to note that by farming in the modern, monoculture way is ineffective, instead create jhum fields, following an ancient shifting cultivation method. Karamela Khonglam grows 35 different…
WEA not alone
“As a young child, barefoot women and girls carrying heavy containers of water on their heads, walking long distances under the searing sun were a common sight. The reality of this stayed with me, and I knew I would do something about it someday.” Meet Olanike Olugboji, a WEA founding mother, who participated in…
Wishing you peace this holiday season
The Peace of Wild Things By Wendell Berry When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and…
Women Climate Warriors
“I’ve got a 25-year-old son named Abe. I’ve got a 20-year-old daughter named Jessie. I would throw myself in front of a bus if it was coming at them. We all need to throw ourselves in front of this bus called climate change.” — Mindy Lubber, one of Vogue’s 13 Climate Warriors Have you…
An Anthem of Climate Action and Hope
This inspirational music video from 1 Million Women, calling women from around the world to speak up about climate change and hope, is out-of-this-world amazing! As we all look over the Paris Agreement, adopted just two days ago at COP21, and consider the message of hope it brings, this anthem is being spread around the…