It’s Blog Action Day 2008 today – this year bloggers all over the world are writing about poverty – most are calling us to action against poverty.
I’m most concerned about women and poverty – according to the United Nations, poverty among women worldwide is increasing, not decreasing, and “women’s poverty is a violation of their human rights to health and well-being, food, adequate housing, a safe and healthy living environment, social security, employment and development.”
Accordingly I want to introduce two of the groups I support.
The first is ‘MATCH International’ – “a Canadian women’s international organization guided by a feminist vision of sustainable development which recognizes the diverse realities of women and respects their efforts for self-determination.” Since the 1970’s , MATCH has been partnering with national and local agencies around the world. In Senegal, for instance, MATCH works with Centre Africain Pour Le Leadership Féminin (CALDU) to train women leaders to take places in local government and local community development.
The other group is KIVA – an innovative Internet organization that works with field partner groups around the world facilitating micro-lending to groups and individuals identified by the partners. At the KIVA website, you can search in a variety of ways to find a lending project you are interested in, perhaps, for instance, those associated with Pro Mujer Bolivia which for seventeen years has been assisting poor women entrepreneurs with small loans as well as with business training, health services for women and for children, and with literacy and other needed services. I’ve just this morning loaned a small amount to a women’s group in Mali who need to buy a variety of goods for resell, including smoked fish and firewood. This group is sponsored by Soro Yiriwaso, (a Save the Children partner) which assists rural women in Mali.
MATCH International: http://www.matchinternational.org/
KIVA: http://www.kiva.org/
‘Women and Poverty’, United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW): http://www.un-instraw.org/en/index.php?option=content&task=blogcategory&id=143&Itemid=171
Blog Action Day 08: http://blogactionday.org/
Here’s a post about Bolivia that’s just been published by an ‘Action Day’ blogger, Palegoldenrod: http://www.palegoldenrod.com/2008/10/15/blog-action-day-poverty-in-bolivia
