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Water Tanks Sustain, Empower Women
At a training with the Global Women’s Water Initiative in East Africa, in 2011, 175 Women received training on how to build new water tanks for their communities, and how to tackle water, hygiene and sanitation issues in their neighborhoods. Prior to the tanks, women sustained injuries from carrying extremely heavy water loads over long…
The SDGs: Landmark achievment, or a step backward?
…The objectives of Beijing were consistent with a recognition of the deeply structural nature of the inequalities experienced by women. By openly challenging austerity programmes and the impact of macroeconomic policies on women, the platform acknowledged that the neoliberal, “trade not aid” model of development was – and is – failing the majority of the…
Recognizing and Uniting Women Leaders in Assam
By: Katie Douglas, WEA Intern All her life Sinumoni Bora has been an advocate on behalf of women’s rights. Sinumoni was born to an impoverished tribal family in the city of Jorhat, India. From an early age she was supporting her family and tutoring other youth. By the time she was an adult, Sinumoni had…
Protecting Forest Livelihoods and Biodiversity in the Face of Climate Change
By: Katie Douglas, WEA Intern “Each time I plant a tree I realize that I am not only contributing in a small way to sustain the livelihood of forest dependents like me, but also toward [addressing] global warming.” In the northeastern state of Manipur, India, Sangpui is a mother of three, and raises her children…
How Climate Change Impacts Women the Most
Read more about the differentiated impacts of climate change, and how the UN hopes to address this with it’s Sustainable Development Goals in this great article from VICE News. “Climate change directly impacts the ability of women to achieve their own human rights and increases gender inequalities,” Eleanor Blomstrom, program director for the Women’s Environment…
NASA Sheds New Light on India’s Water Crisis
A recent National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) report says that the groundwater throughout India has been disappearing, owing to the rate that water is being pumped out and consumed, which is faster than aquifers can be replenished through rainwater. The report also says that Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, all farming states in the northern…
A Gendered Perspective: Reflections on the MDG and the potential of the SDG
By: Katie Douglas, WEA Intern A woman closes the door behind her and sets off into the early light of dawn. It’s the pre-monsoon season in India, and the air is thick with heat as she walks to her small kitchen garden. What began as a grant of seeds, has transformed into fertile beds of…
Everything Connnected to the Land is Connected to our Bodies
The links between land and body have never been more apparent than in recent years, with extractive industries drilling, mining and fracking lands on or near traditional Indigenous territories, providing economic benefits to transnational corporations and national economies at a cost impacted communities are still grappling to understand. A cost most deeply felt by Indigenous…
Teaching Girls to Farm in West Bengal
In West Bengal, India, 1 in 5 girls is married by age 15. However, a nonprofit based in Seattle, Landesa, is focused on securing land rights for impoverished families all over the world and has found a key to ensuring girls are able to help bring their families out of poverty and learn valuable skills through gardening.…
Sowing Seeds, Supporting Women Farmers in India
By: Katie Douglas, WEA Intern “Seeds have no caste, creed, religion, or gender. They are universal and secular. We nurture this sentiment strongly in our work with various communities,” says Manorama Joshi, a farmer in the Malnad region of Karnataka, India. A mother and wife, Manorama has also gone on to become the spirit of…