In honor of International Women’s Day all of my post in the month of  March will be focused on Women Rights and Women Issues.

 

When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
Audre Lorde

According to the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, women living in poverty are often denied access to critical resources such as credit, land and inheritance. Their labour goes unrewarded and unrecognized.

Women perform 66 percent of the world’s work, produce 50 percent of the food, but earn 10 percent of the income and own 1 percent of the property.

That is an astounding statistic. The next time you are in the grocery store buying  your fresh organic  vegetables, know that statistically the odds say that a woman living in poverty  helped produce it. The gap between men and women caught in the cycle of poverty has continued to widen in recent years. This alarming trend is referred to as ‘the feminization of poverty’.

  What Causes the Feminization of Poverty?

Ending world poverty begins with women. Research and experience have shown that women in poor countries are more likely to spend their income on food, education, and health care for their children – a long-term investment that lifts entire families and communities out of poverty. Economic opportunity for women is so important to ending the extreme poverty that cripples communities in the developing world: because when you teach a woman to fish, everybody eats.

Unfortunately unequal barriers are keeping women in developing countries from earning the income they need to provide for their families. When a mother in Kenya is not allowed to own property, for instance, she and her children will become homeless should her husband ever die. When a seamstress in the Philippines is not able to sell the clothing she makes to other countries (where people have the money to buy them), she may never be able to earn enough income to send her children to school.

UNDP Water and Development report breaks it down in startling clarity:

If the average distance to the moon is 394,400 km, South African women together walk the equivalent of a trip to the moon and back 16 times a day to supply their households with water.

Hard to stay in school, go to work and provide for your family when you are walking to the moon and back—daily. On top of  all the reasons I have already mention, the current economic crisis has had a particularly hard impact on women. Women globally are concentrated in insecure jobs in the informal sector with low income and few rights; they tend to have few skills and only basic education. They are the first to be fired. Lets look at the numbers:

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 America is the land of the second chance – and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.
George W. Bush    

The path  after prison should lead to a better life. There are many socio-economic reasons why that’s not a true statement. This week my 32 year old cousin went to jail. He made some bad choices and those choices will lead to some long term  jail time. My family is devastated and the majority of my family is focused on the past trying to figure out what went wrong with this young man who had such promise.  

I am not looking backward…I am focused on the future.  I am trying to learn as much as possible about what he can expect once he is inside. How can he make the best of his time in prison…how can he do the work necessary so that  his path leads to a better life and not right back to another  prison cell. In doing my research, I remembered a program a good friend of mine supports. She is a board member and an advocate to the Insight Prison Project. 

Since 1997, the Insight Prison Project has been dedicated to reducing recidivism rates and improving public safety by conducting  in-prison rehabilitation programs that provide prisoners with the tools and life skills necessary to create durable change. Working in partnership with San Quentin State Prison, IPP conducts 19 weekly classes involving more than 200 prisoners. The classes focus on preparing the men to become responsible and productive members of the community when they leave prison.  From IPP’s web site:

The Need   

More than 25 years ago, California enacted legislation [Penal code 1170 (a) (1)] stating that “the purpose of imprisonment for crime is punishment,” essentially banning rehabilitation from the state’s penal system. Since that time, the number of inmates in California’s prisons has increased by 554 percent and the average annual cost to house, feed and guard a prisoner in a state prison is over $43,000/year. As of April 2008, California houses 174.000 prisoners. In addition, a whopping 70% of those who leave prison return within eighteen months of release. Though officially California has added rehabilitation to the correctional department’s title, in reality it spends only 5% of its 10 billion dollar budget on rehabilitation programs.  IPP’s contribution is to develop and conduct innovative in-prison programs – and train others to conduct these programs. There are four kinds of prisoner rehabilitation categories.  Academic, vocational, arts and recreation and behavioral. IPP’s programs sit within the behavioral category. Within that category, our methodology hones in on addressing the entrenched habit patterns that trip up a prisoner regardless of his academic or vocational achievements.  Our motto?  “Leaving prison…before you get out.”   

 Although IPP concentrates on in-prison rehabilitation, They actively collaborate with organizations which provide post-release services and programs. Let’s look at some of the programs they offer:  

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Letting go of Fear,History and Pain.

February 28, 2010

Are we REALLY counting, what matters? I think that only one thing matters in the end, and that is that we leave communities EMPOWERED.

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Haiti Mon Amour, Shelter is Key.

February 24, 2010

Shelter is an immediate need. The rains are coming.

Families need supplies and help to make immediate repairs and constructing temporary shelter. Most families would prefer to stay close to their homes to discourage looting, maintain their sources of employment and seek lost relatives, and help to support friends and neighbors.

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Volunteering During Disasters

January 17, 2010

As the emergency in Haiti is brought under control, the focus will be aimed at restoring lives and the infrastructure that supports them. There is no distinct point at which immediate relief changes into recovery and then into long-term sustainable development. Haiti needs long term sustainable development.

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Lead with Leverage

January 10, 2010

Sometimes volunteer opportunities are not challenging enough. There. I said it. Volunteers are looking for challenges and meaningful ways to utilize their talents. We all want this professionally as well as to be a core component to our volunteer experiences. Corporate America is an important partner is helping NGO’s leverage social capital. They just are not really sure how. So let’s help them.

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Politically, Socially, Morally and Religiously Unacceptable

January 6, 2010

My original blog post was going to be about the key components necessary to design a strong effective volunteer program. Then I went outside….and changed my mind. It’s cold outside. Not just a little cold, and not just cold in a few places. It’s freezing in over 80% of the country. While the cold made me uncomfortable as I ran from my car to my house, It made me think of the people sleeping either outside or in inadequate shelter tonight.

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Say Thank You….. And mean it.

January 3, 2010

This post is not for you. It’s REALLY for the organization you will be volunteering with or maybe it’s for the organization you work for. You may want to print a copy and take with you, post it on a bulletin board in the kitchen. Over the next few weeks I will spend time discussing Strategies for Moving Volunteers from Success to Significance.

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A Foundation and Framework for 2010

December 26, 2009

I am going to say it-I am glad Christmas is over. I love the traditions that I have created for my daughters and the sense of love and kindness that seems to permeate the air. Yet, it’s just so stressful for so many people.

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And it all starts in a community….

December 20, 2009

How different would your life be if you lived in a land that has been war torn by civil unrest and social upheaval for years? Weapons were everywhere and easily accessible, but food and opportunity were not.

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