International Women's Day

Monday 8th March 2010 is International Women’s Day and Children in Crisis joins all those organisations, groups and individuals who are working tirelessly to promote the rights of girls and women, and to achieve gender equality. There is a lot to be proud of and hopeful about when it comes to progress on women’s rights and empowerment but there is also a great deal still to be done. 

Children in Crisis works in post-conflict countries to provide education for some of the world’s most vulnerable children, especially girls and young women who too often miss out on an education or face abuses due to deeply entrenched gender inequality when they are able to access school. One of the countries we work in is DRC where the rights of girls and women are systematically violated. Vast abuses are currently taking place against civilians by armed forces in South Kivu where CIC works, with many women being raped and killed. In February 2010 our partner organisation AFEC was involved in research assessing the scale of the abuses. They interviewed 31 people in Minembwe who reported a range of violations including: looting of items such as animals and money; torture, sexual violence, beatings, attempted sexual violence, and attempted murder of themselves and their children. The report emphasizes the importance of dialogue and communication for reaching peaceful solutions to problems in the region.

CIC’s programme in DRC is contributing to this already through the focus on community engagement and awareness-raising through collaborative and participative approaches such as theatre in education that encourage open dialogue, expression and discussion.  This complements our teacher training module on peace education which is an important way of strengthening the capacity to use peaceful means to solve problems. It is crucial that the voices of local civil society organizations are heard and listened to since they are in the best position to know what is happening on the ground and to identify the needs to be addressed and how to go about doing this. CIC will continue to work in partnership with local organizations in DRC and in our other country programmes to enable girls and women to realize their right to education and to the opportunity to improve their lives.

Further reading and organisations working on sexual violence against women:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8524000/8524227.stm
http://www.theirc.org/special-reports/ending-violence-against-women
http://www.womankind.org.uk/reducing-violence.html