8 Projects Supported by Mama Cash

South Africa: education on AIDS by comic book
The Transformative Human Rights Unit (THRU), uses comic books to fight social prejudice on hiv infected women. THRU also uses comic books to inform women about the Equality Courts. Women that need legal advice because of gender related discrimination they face, can turn to these easily accessible ‘courts’, where they get assistence at very low cost.

Israel: a voice for lesbian women
Aswat, which means voice in Arabic, was formed in 2003 by a group of women who wanted to add a Palestinian lesbian voice to the Israeli gay movement. They are a dynamic and brave group of women who want to break with the taboo around homosexuality. Aswat members fight for the rights of lesbian women who face triple discrimination in a country where they’re discriminated against as Palestinians living under Israeli rule, as women in a male-dominated society, and as lesbians in an Arab community where there’s no official word for ‘gay’.

Thailand/Birma: refugee camps along the border
Karen Women's Organisation (KWO) in Thailand, with membership of more than 30,000 women from Karen, a district in Burma, supports and organises Burmese women in the struggle for democracy and equality in Burma. The country's civil war has led to overflowing refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border. This is where KWO is active. KWO Women's Protection Programme empowers refugee women, raises awareness of their rights, and supports victims of violence through education and facilitating the exchange of experiences. KWO's Safe House Project provides a temporary refuge for victims of domestic violence, rape and trafficking.

Ecuador: struggle for sexual rights
Although over the last years access to information about contraceptives has grown in Latin America, many women, particularly young women, lack knowledge and access to contraceptive methods. Many conservative groups in society inhibit awareness raising efforts to reach women, particularly young women., allthough the use of (emergency) contraception is legal in Ecuador. Fundacion Desafio (meaning Challenge) is a courageous group which promotes and protects the right to access emergency contraception (which. Their health centre provides services for a minimal, or no, charge and treats all women regardless of their age, economic means or marital status.

Poland: education on sexual behaviour for high school students
Volunteers of the Ponton organization teach high school students on sexual behaviour and birth control.
Ponton works in the Warschau region, where the lessons are given at school to students between 14 and 20 years old. ‘We get questions like “I took one of my mother’s birth control pills and then had sex. Is this bad for my health?”, says Anka Grzywacz of Ponton. The questions from young people illustrate how poorly informed they are about sexuality. As a result teenage pregnancy in Poland is a serious problem.

Azerbeidzjan: Femina: monthly supplement to the newspaper
Former Soviet Union (FSU) women appear in the press mostly as fashion or entertainment figures and rarely as professionals, experts in their fields or as participants in political and social processes. The image of a woman as mother and keeper of the hearth prevails. Nothing is said about women’s unemployment, domestic violence, problems of women’s entrepreneurs or self-realisation. The Azeri organisation, Azerbaijan Young Lawyers’ Union (AYLU), published a monthly supplement to the Russian-Azeri newspaper Zerkalo. This supplement is called Femina and is devoted to gender equality in society: equal rights and opportunities.

Bolivia: Campana 28 de Septiembre
Campana 28 de Septiembre por la despenalizacion del Aborto en Bolivia aims to reanimate the somewhat dormant Bolivian women’s movement. Campana 28 de Septiembre organised a national congress around the theme of legalising abortion. The event lasted from the 15th through the 17th of June 2006, and one of its accomplishments was the creation of a ‘platform of demands’ for women’s reproductive rights.
The goal of the platform is to influence the Morales government which is in the process of drafting a new constitution. The Bolivian women’s rights activists argue in the platform of demands not only for a constitutional right to reproductive freedom, but also for the separation of church and state and for broadening the definition of the family beyond the traditional family. Women held a demonstration and presented the document on September 28th to the government in front of the national parliament.

Central Europe: fighting trafficking
The Anti Trafficking Centre is a feminist non-governmental organisation working to eradicate trafficking in human beings, with the special emphasis on women and girls. The work of ATC focuses on the causes of the problem of trafficking, such as gender-based violence, poverty, unemployment, and the lack of safe migration. ATC organises public advocacy, media campaigns, provides information to women and girls, and includes men as allies in the struggle for stopping violence against women, which is one of the root causes of trafficking in human beings.

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