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September 2006
The tragedy of September 11, 2001, left an indelible mark on all Americans. For some, 9/11 was a catalyst to reach out to others who were hurt by conflict. The Beyond the 11th Foundation, founded by two American women who lost their husbands in the disaster, is working with CARE to help widows in Afghanistan work together to make a new life for themselves and their families after decades of war and oppression.
© 2006 CARE/Sarah Buchanan
 Since the fall of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan have struggled to regain their social status and rights. Sahera (shown left) knows this challenge all to well: In a culture where men are the decision-makers and bread winners, her quality of life fell sharply when her husband was killed by a mortar shell in one of the country's recent conflicts. On her own with five young children and her mother-in-law to support, Sahera had few options to feed her family. But through a project supported by the Beyond the 11th Foundation and several others, Sahera has joined more than 2,500 widows who have become self-sufficient by raising poultry.
The initiative, part of CARE's Humanitarian Assistance for the Women of Afghanistan program, provides women with chicks, feed and training to help them earn their own livelihood and care for their families. Since joining the program, Sahera has been able to earn income by selling eggs, and the diets of her children have improved as they are able to eat fresh eggs every day. The extra money means Sahera's daughters can attend school for the first time. Sahera also attends CARE-supported literacy classes and takes part in a savings and credit group. "Before I started in the program, I could not read," Sahera explains. "Now I can read the signs in the market and help my children with their schoolwork."
Sahera's success mirrors that of over 4,000 widows who have completed vocational training through the HAWA program. Offering courses in tailoring, carpet weaving, food processing, cosmetology, driving and leather making, among others, HAWA provides the neediest Afghan women with income-generating skills to support themselves and their families. Nine-month literacy courses are provided for illiterate women, who make up the majority of participants. Savings and credit groups allow the widows to pool their funds, giving them access to loans for small businesses and teaching them how to manage money. --CARE
 Help CARE empower women. Donate here.
3:53 PM - Sep. 27, 2006 - {0} -
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Copyright 2004 Evelyn Hockstein Polaris
These women are fighting the elements to draw water from a well in Sudan.
In many countries, collecting water is considered women’s work. Women are generally responsible for collecting water for their families – this can mean walking up to six hours each day to fetch water from the nearest source, or waiting for hours at a sporadic water source.
Constant carrying of heavy water containers (up to 40 pounds) on the head, hips, or back, has severe health implications and can cause deformities.
It is common for women to drink less water than the rest of the family so they can carry more back to their families. This is a particular problem during childbirth or menstruation when they are often unable to replenish the fluids they have lost, or clean themselves.
Help CARE bring safe drinking water to arid regions of the world. Donate here.
Tap the world's greatest natural resource to end poverty.
Help CARE end poverty! Donate here.
Copyright 2005 Evelyn Hockstein Polaris
One-year-old Badamassi Narauana of Niger and his mom have eaten nothing but bitter berries for two months. Lots of kids in Niger have bellyaches that make them cry.
Help CARE bring food to hungry children and make the bellyaches go away! Donate here.
2004 CARE/Evelyn Hockstein
"Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning....They have to play with what they know to be true in order to find out more, and then they can use what they learn in new forms of play."--Fred Rogers, children’s TV personality and author.
Hmmmmmmm.... I wonder what Mr. Rogers would say about children who don't have the word "play" in their daily lexicon.
Help CARE bring childhood dreams to children. Donate here.
© 2002 Dick Loek PhotoSensitive
This little girl may have to help her mother collect water. Carrying water may keep her out of school.
Involving women in a safe water and sanitation project improves the status of women, provides dignity, and improves the health of women and their families. Women have more time to participate in agriculture, family care, or income-generating work.
Help CARE bring safe drinking water to the rest of the world! Donate here.
9:54 AM - Sep. 20, 2006 - {0} -
View more entries tagged with: Poverty
© 2006 Phil Borges
 There's no question that female genital cutting is difficult to talk about. This is true not just in the United States, but even in the communities where it is practiced, in countries throughout Africa and parts of the Middle East and Asia. So when CARE began to work with communities in Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan to try to stop the practice, just opening the discussion was the hardest step — and the most important.
A Complex Issue Female genital cutting, also called female circumcision, has affected more than 135 million women and girls worldwide. FGC includes to several different forms of cutting practiced for hundreds of years. Infibulation, the most severe, involves cutting some or all of the external genitalia, leaving only a very small opening for urination and menstruation.
Each ethnic group and community that practices FGC is unique, but some details are common across different cultures. In the communities where CARE works, girls are usually cut between the ages of 4 and 12. The cutting is performed by a circumciser, a woman who often is also a traditional birth attendant. The event is a rite of passage, celebrated by women in the community. Many communities see FGC as an important part of their heritage and cultural identity, and often believe it to be a religious obligation under Islam or Christianity. It also plays an important role in a girl's social standing: FGC is seen as ensuring her virginity until marriage, and thus her value as a bride.
But FGC can also cause serious health and social problems that follow a woman her whole life. The health complications from infibulation can include chronic and severe pain, infection, prolonged and difficult labor and difficulties with menstruation. Psychologically, cutting can cause tension between couples due to painful or difficult sexual relations. Socially, cutting makes it harder for girls to go to school or earn income by making them more likely to marry early.
Starting the Discussion When we began to work in communities in Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, the first step was to talk to a range of people in each village and find out what they felt about FGC. There were some people who wanted the practice to end or change, but most people felt it was important.
Many said FGC was required for religious reasons. "A woman who is not circumcised is not a Muslim," said one man in Kenya, while one woman in Sudan suggested that food prepared by an uncircumcised girl was haraam (unclean under Islamic law). FGC was also seen as an ancestral practice, passed down through generations; women in particular saw themselves as custodians of this cultural tradition. Many people spoke of sexuality, saying that FGC ensured the girl would remain a virgin until marriage, and that after marriage, the practice would ensure she remained faithful to her husband. Many believed that no one would marry an uncircumcised girl, and that such girls would be subjected to abuse and insults. Very few people, especially among the men, knew about the health consequences of FGC. What they did know was often limited to immediate problems after the procedure, rather than long-term effects like difficulty in childbirth or pain during sex.
CARE's Approach Listening to the communities and understanding how they valued FGC made it clear that any effective program would need to change deep-seated attitudes and assumptions. CARE decided to work with key members of the community, such as religious leaders, elders and traditional birth attendants. These leaders are highly respected and play an important role in upholding social customs. Working closely with these key people, CARE provided training and educational sessions to talk about the health problems caused by FGC and discuss some of the justifications for the practice.
It was especially important to convince community leaders that there was no religious obligation to perform FGC. In Ethiopia, CARE organized a four-day seminar for 12 religious leaders to study the Quran and other Islamic scripture for references to female circumcision. At the end of the meeting, the leaders agreed that Islam did not require communities to perform FGC. Their outreach following the seminar led to more than 50 other imams speaking out in favor of abandoning FGC.
CARE worked with these community leaders to start a community dialogue about FGC, in some cases organizing large public discussions where community members could talk about the issue in a safe environment. Just getting communities to talk about the practice at all was a huge first step, giving people a chance to learn about the consequences of FGC and voice their opinions and concerns. The discussions also helped people to consider how the practice affected the rights and social status of women and girls in the community. More and more people learned about the harmful effects of the practice and began to question its value.
Changing from Within Change has not been easy. As one CARE staff member recalled: "At the beginning, it was difficult, even risky to talk about FGC. One Ethiopian man was so fearful that CARE staff were coming to prevent him from circumcising his daughter that he pointed a gun at two field workers and held them hostage inside their car. The CARE staff rolled down their window and talked to the man for an hour. They then got out of the car and talked for another two to three hours. Finally, the man gave them afu, a ceremony asking for forgiveness."
Despite the difficulties, however, CARE's work has shown that, with a respectful approach, it is possible to break the silence and start an effective community dialogue about abandoning female genital cutting. For the thousands of girls who risk undergoing the painful procedure every day, it's a discussion that can make a world of difference. --CARE
Help CARE end FGC! Donate here.
© 2001 CARE/Josh Estey
I see a statuesque female form...a woman who is regal and august...athletic and sinewy...and she is carrying her family's daily water needs on her head!
The least we can do is help people develop safe water supplies. It just takes a little bit from many people. Have you shared with someone who needs you a lot this month? Donate to CARE here.
2005 REUTERS/Darren Whiteside, courtesy of www.alertnet.org
These people are waiting in line for safe drinking water in Indonesia.
What is your monthly budget for bottled water? You can make a difference by sharing that amount of money with people who have to stand in line. Donate here.
© 2002 Dan White/CARE
CARE provides training in small economic activities that enable poor people, especially women, to earn money to support their families.
Help us help CARE to provide more microdevelopment aid. Donate here.
The crisis in Darfur, Sudan, has rightly captured the world's attention. But another emergency is taking place in Uganda, Sudan's southern neighbor, where a forgotten war has been raging for more than two decades. In camps like Tetugu, in northern Uganda, CARE's work with women is helping to ensure the health and livelihoods of families displaced by conflict.
© 2003 Ami Vitale/CARE
 As if reading off a ledger, Anna Okot can rattle off every crop she has planted recently, how much she earned on the harvest and how she spent the income. "When CARE gave us bean seed, I was able to sell the harvest for 50,000 shillings (approximately $30) and buy household items. I also got tomato seeds; that harvest brought me 20,000 shillings and I bought a goat. I sold my cabbage harvest for 15,000 shillings and bought a small radio. I have planted cowpeas, as well; with that money I paid school fees for the children."
This 47-year-old mother of six arrived in Tetugu camp three years ago. "When I came from my home, I had nothing," Anna says. Like millions of others in northern Uganda, Anna and her family fled their home because of fighting between government troops and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). It's a battle that had been raging for nearly 20 years, and the toll of the feud is heaviest on families of poor, rural farmers — families like Anna's. With land their greatest asset, being forced off it leaves these families with scarce opportunities to feed themselves or earn enough cash to buy items such as clothing, soap or school supplies.
Anna certainly felt the burden of meeting her family's needs when she arrived in Tetugu. She was not alone. "When families were displaced by the war, we realized women could not rebuild all by ourselves. We needed to work together to earn some money," says Anna.
Anna helped form and now chairs a 40-member group called Lacan Kwitte, "A Poor Person Struggles." When CARE began working in Tetugu, we sought the support of groups like Anna's; we believed these women had the most to gain from projects to increase food production, and they had clearly demonstrated an interest in working together to improve life for their families. CARE worked with several women's associations in Tetugu to distribute seeds and tools, and cows for plowing fields more efficiently. The women also got training in small-scale savings and loan management and general leadership skills. -- Gretchen Lyons for CARE
Help us so that we can write more success stories! Donate here.
© 2002 Andrea Blum/CARE
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A little food is nice every now and then, too. Just ask this little boy in Bangladesh.
You can share love and food at the same time! Donate here.
© 2005 CARE/ Jesse Moore
...if you told her that you had a chance to feed hungry children and make a difference in their lives? ...and you could do that by sacrificing just a couple of Starbucks coffees? She would be proud of you!
It just so happens your opportunity to make a difference is right now! CARE provides food for hungry children. Donate here.
© 2005 Evelyn Hockstein Polaris
...but there is still no pediatric version of easy-to-take AIDS drugs and more than half of HIV-positive infants die before their second birthday. So much for technology, huh?
Instead of downloading a couple of new songs today, how about helping some kids? Donate here.
6:12 AM - Sep. 4, 2006 - {0} -
View more entries tagged with: Aids, Africa, Children, Hiv, Medicine
© 2002 Valenda Campbell/CARE (Sierra Leone)
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"Poverty is the worst form of violence." Mohandas Gandhi
Let' stop it in its tracks for some kids today! Donate here.
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The Web Women Giving Circle is presently raising money and donations for CARE, a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. We place special focus on working with poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty.--Joeann Fossland, Web Women Giving Circle Leader
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