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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Dec. 7, 2006
Copyright 2006 CARE
as told to Myat Lwin Lwin Aung
In late 2002, I was not well and had to go to hospital. There I found out I had HIV. After about three months, I was bedridden. I didn't get well for a long time
AIDS: In my village, people call it simply "A." They say only bad people, immoral people, have it. There is no cure. I was going to die. I didn't dare tell anyone. How could I tell my family?
Finally, the headmistress of the primary school in Inn Ywar New Village had a talk with my mother. She told my mother I had AIDS, and offered to introduce me to some groups that could help. Mother told her to do whatever seemed right. That was how I came into contact with CARE, where I got medicine and treatment.
Now my whole family knew I had HIV. They didn't know anything about it and were frightened. They told me, "Don't touch this!" and "Don't touch that!" After I had taken a drink, they washed the cup at once. I sat somewhere and they washed the place. Eating together was out of the question.
I earned a living for this family. I earned money to send my younger sisters and brothers to school, for them to graduate and live like other young people do. Now I was the one bringing shame on the family, humiliating my younger sisters. Why did I get this? Was it my fault? Whatever it was, they called me "the AIDS woman." And they said it like a new swear word. Read the rest of "The Aids Woman" here.
 Support more AIDS women here!. Donate here.
Sep. 16, 2006
© 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.
Sep. 11, 2006
© 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.
Sep. 10, 2006
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.
Sep. 4, 2006
© 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.
Sep. 4, 2006
© 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.
Sep. 2, 2006
© 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.
Aug. 28, 2006
© 2002 CARE/ A John Watston
Did You Know?
$50 can send an Afghan girl to school for a year
$125 can train a woman in Nepal to teach health in her community
$600 can keep 10 girls in Sudan in school and teach AIDS prevention
$1,000 can provide a day's supply of emergency rations to 330 families
How much can you spare? Donate here.
Aug. 24, 2006
© 2005 Evelyn Hockstein Polaris, shot for LA Times shared with CARE
We will help them
...or we will not.
Help us make a better life for these kids. Donate here.
Aug. 19, 2006
©2006 Daemon Baizan
 TORONTO (August 18, 2006) - "As the 16th international AIDS conference closes in Toronto today, we must commit ourselves to addressing the underlying causes of vulnerability to HIV," said Helene D. Gayle, president and CEO of CARE, the international poverty-fighting organization, and co-chair of the conference. "We must change the existing social paradigm if we are going to keep pace with the virus. Otherwise, all the scientific advances in the world will not be enough. Looking to the 2008 international AIDS conference in Mexico City, we have a clear responsibility to do the hard work ahead and fulfill our responsibilities to the 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS and the millions more who risk acquiring HIV every year."
Every year 4 million people contract HIV. It is projected that 60 million new infections will occur over the next decade. Prevention strategies already exist that could cut the number of new infections by at least 50 percent. However, less than one in five people currently at risk for HIV have access to those strategies. In addition to scaling up proven existing prevention techniques, it is critical to expand prevention options with new tools such as microbicides, diaphragms, oral preventive therapy, circumcision, herpes treatment and ultimately a vaccine. These measures are central to reducing the spread of HIV. However, neither these technologies nor anti-retroviral treatment can stop the spread of HIV and AIDS on their own. It is clear that we must go further and address the factors that increase risk to HIV, such as gender inequality and economic insecurity.
This means developing more HIV programs that address underlying social factors. In Zimbabwe, for instance, CARE uses savings-based microfinance and basic business management skills to reduce the economic insecurity of vulnerable groups, including orphans, youth, widows, sex workers and people living with HIV and AIDS. This program, called SIMBA, has shown that community-managed financial systems can facilitate credit for highly vulnerable people. This access to credit (on favorable and flexible terms) can protect assets, send children to school, and pay for medical expenses. These small loans bring a certain financial stability to the household, decrease the chances that family members will be forced to migrate to find work or engage in transactional sex, which places family members at higher risk for HIV.
SIMBA has also shown that peer groups can provide a much-needed social support system for marginalized people — and help instill the self-confidence to earn a living with dignity. In addition, women who are more economically independent can better negotiate when, how and with whom they have sex. These kinds of efforts are critical to prevent the spread of HIV.
"Prevention must be at the forefront of the battle against HIV and AIDS like never before. We must offer prevention methods that are relevant to the real needs of people at risk for HIV, especially women, who are increasingly the face of HIV and AIDS. We must strive for concrete solutions to social inequities and unequal power relationships. These solutions, together with new tools, will help empower communities to make a difference in the pandemic."
CARE fights poverty in more than 70 countries. The organization's first HIV and AIDS program began in 1987. CARE now has more than 150 programs in approximately 40 countries that address the causes and consequences of HIV and AIDS. These programs reach over seven million people. The CARE delegation at the conference includes nearly 70 staff from Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe and the United States with expertise in HIV and AIDS.
You can help CARE fight AIDS. Donate here.
Aug. 16, 2006
 TORONTO - The fight against AIDS cannot be won without reducing poverty, the humanitarian organization agency CARE said this week. CARE calls upon policymakers and practitioners meeting at the upcoming International AIDS Conference in Toronto to include food and income security — which are critical means of addressing poverty and the spread of the disease — in their HIV and AIDS strategies.
"Poverty exacerbates the pandemic, while the pandemic contributes to poverty and inequality. If we are going to succeed in fighting AIDS, something has to change," said CARE Canada's President A. John Watson. "Nutritious foods and a steady income are critical to the health of those living with HIV. If people stay healthy, they can continue working and contributing to their families and their communities. At the same time, if non-infected people are hungry and penniless, they often engage in risky behavior for day to day survival; and this contributes to the spread of AIDS."
CARE works with communities on prevention, treatment, care and support through 150 HIV and AIDS programmes in 40 countries. Communities are ravaged by the vicious cycle created when secure access to nutritious foods and a steady income is denied to people living with, affected by and vulnerable to HIV and AIDS.
Women and girls must be at the center of an effective response to HIV and AIDS. Issues related to gender are inextricably linked with food and income security and HIV and AIDS. By and large, it is women who are responsible for food production and preparation, and caring for families affected by AIDS, yet they have limited earning or negotiation power.
"Ignoring the critical role of women further exacerbates their vulnerability and weakens the fight against AIDS," said Dr. Helene Gayle, CARE USA president and International AIDS Society president and conference co-chair. CARE representatives from 16 countries are participating in the conference, sharing successes and outlining challenges in developing countries.
You can help provide medicine for children with AIDS. Donate here.
Jul. 25, 2006
 President Bush's ABC approach to AIDS promotes Abstinence, Being faithful, and correct and consistent use of Condoms. Restrictions passed by Congress require that at least one third of HIV prevention be spend on abstinence-until-marriage programs.
Tell that to Mpolokeng in South Africa:
" In 1984, she married her high school sweetheart. Her husband left to work as a miner in South Africa and was seldom home. He returned for good when he became too ill to work, and Mpolokeng took care of him. In 2005 her husband died, and Mpolokeng started to feel sick as well. She went to be tested and found out she was HIV-positive." [CARE]
Tell that to Gatrude in Uganda::
"Every day she remains in the sex trade is another day she puts herself at risk of contracting HIV. She knows the risk, but she has no other options to put food on the table for her children. 'It's not by choice I do this work,' Gatrude says. 'If I had an alternative, I would stop this work immediately'." [CARE]
Tell that to Fauster in Rwanda:
"Her husband died when she was six months pregnant; people told her he died from AIDS, but she didn't understand, and thought he had been poisoned. Before she gave birth, she went in for pre-natal care and tested positive for HIV." [CARE]
It's not too late to challenge the arbitrary restrictions that current policy places on U.S. funding for HIV prevention. CARE supports recent legislation introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, to strengthen HIV prevention efforts by providing greater flexibility to organizations like CARE that confront the AIDS pandemic every day. Help us build momentum for this important initiative by asking your senators to co-sponsor the HIV Prevention for Youth Act today.
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