Posts Tagged ‘partner visits’
Katherine Zavala – IDEX’s Program Manager, Grassroots Alliances – recently journeyed to South Africa on a site visit to our partners. She reports from Johannesburg.
Women's Net provided technical training to teenage girls in order to provide a new outlet for advancing women's rights.
Driving into Johannesburg, on the other side of the hemisphere from San Francisco, it is easy to embrace the warm sunny weather. The Jacaranda trees are blooming this month, giving a purple flair to the lush, green environment.
Along the highway, I see the Nelson Mandela Bridge and central “Jozi” as some local people refer to the South African city.
I start my learning journey with Women’s Net, an IDEX Catalyst Grantee.
The goal of Women’s Net is to strengthen women and girls movements for social change through the use of information communication tools and advocacy that promotes access, the right to information and freedom of expression.
Katherine Zavala – IDEX’s Program Manager, Grassroots Alliances – is in South Africa on a site visit to our partners. She reports from Cape Town.
"We talk about our commonalities and differences. We get to know each other’s history, where we come from, and our struggles as women."- Mary Tal, WWWA's Founder and Director. Photo by Eric Miller.
Mary Tal, Founder and Director of Whole World Women Assocation
Today I’ve been invited to observe a training at the wonderful Community House in Salt River, Cape Town, a unique building where lots of NGOs share a communal space including IDEX Partner Whole World Women Association (WWWA).
The training is for peer educators. The goal is that these new peer educators, who come from different countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Rwanda, and Cameroon, will educate and build awareness among other refugees on HIV/AIDS literacy.
WWWA has been working with migrant and refugee communities in the surrounding areas of Cape Town since 2002, particularly focusing on women.
Refugees from the most conflicted areas around the African continent have been attracted to South Africa because it offers the best economic opportunities on this continent.
Unfortunately, refugees are still not welcomed or integrated into South African society.
Katherine Zavala – IDEX’s Program Manager, Grassroots Alliances – is in South Africa on a site visit to our partners. She reports from the Eastern Cape province.
IDEX Program Director Katherine Zavala with AGF staff (in red) and Positive Health Champions
Today I went to visit IDEX Partner Angus Gillis Foundation (AGF) and accompany them on a community visit to Glenmore, a township in the Eastern Cape province.
Eastern Cape is known as the poorest province in South Africa, where two-thirds of the people are living in rural areas and lack access to available resources.
It is the final day of activities before the communities start their Christmas vacation. Many of them will travel far to visit extended family. Some will stay home.
But today is a day for reflecting on what was learned in 2011 and what their dreams are for 2012.
Katherine Zavala – IDEX’s Program Manager, Grassroots Alliances – reports from South Africa where she is on a site visit to our partners.
Herschelle Milford, Director, IDEX partner Surplus People's Project
Today I’m driving up north through the Western Cape with IDEX Catalyst Grantee Surplus People’s Project (SPP) to visit several farm workers and farm dwellers.
As soon as we leave the urban areas of Cape Town, I find myself in a semi-arid deserted landscape.
We are on our way to the Cederberg area where there are large white commercial farmers monocropping citrus fruits, particularly oranges. Known as the first place in the Western Cape to be colonized, the region was the starting point of the genocide of the indigenous Khoisan communities, known more popularly in the West as the Bushman.
The people I’m meeting today are descendants of these indigenous communities who, during apartheid, were classified as “coloured.”
Today, white farmers own most of the land. Even the land reform that came into place after 1994 did not produce any significant changes; only 5% of the land has been transferred over to the farm workers.
Nov
30A Visit with Positive Women’s Network in South Africa: “I wish to learn more so that I can then teach others.”
2011
Posted by IDEX
Katherine Zavala – IDEX’s Program Manager, Grassroots Alliances – is in South Africa on a site visit to our partners. She reports from Johannesburg.
Today I visited IDEX’s longest partner in South Africa, Positive Women’s Network (PWN), in their new office in Johannesburg.
I was pleasantly surprised to arrive at a room full of women, as Prudence Mabele, PWN’s Director, introduced me to her office team and women participating in support groups from different townships around Johannesburg.
- Katherine with Positive Women’s Network in Johannesburg.
The Power of Support Groups
PWN’s core ongoing program has been the support group model, where women living with or impacted HIV/AIDS come and engage in a safe space with other women to share their experiences and feelings on issues prevalent in their lives.
Today there are 5 outreach coordinators and 10 support group members.
They have come to start planning their activities for 16 Days of Activism. Activities will include HIV/AIDS treatment literacy, awareness around the link between HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer, and awareness on violence against women.
Quality Health Care Remain a Challenge
Each outreach coordinator (key community liaison and facilitator of the support group) shared with me the different challenges they’ve seen in their communities.
The common theme? A lack of support from the health clinics towards women.
The following was written by Katherine Zavala, Program Manager of Grassroots Alliances, after her recent site visit to Mexico.
I’ve just returned from Hidalgo, Mexico and I’m reflecting on my visit with the incredible indigenous women I met through IDEX partner Ñepi Behña.
Ñepi Behña (“Women with Dignity” in the indigenous otomi language) was founded to support indigenous women who live in the Valle de Mezquital area of Hidalgo. Read the rest of this entry »
Elvira Sanchez Toscano helped to found Institute for Overcoming Urban Poverty (ISMU) – an IDEX partner in Guatemala – over a decade ago together with community groups in the urban shantytowns of Guatemala City. Through ISMU, Elvira has helped develop housing improvement projects, youth leadership and women’s empowerment programs, educational scholarships as well as participating in a regional movement on climate change.
In July, Elvira came to the United States to present the work of ISMU at the International Human Rights Funders Conference in New York and meet with ally organizations in New York, Washington D.C. and Seattle. IDEX Program Manager Katherine Zavala conducted this interview with Elvira below.
Desmond D’Sa, a key leader in the South African climate justice movement and chairperson of IDEX Partner South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), came to the Bay Area, Seattle, and New York as to share his findings of pollution left by major oil refineries in south Durban, and participate in the ongoing discussion of getting large oil companies to change their destructive ways.
May
27Indigenous Communities on Frontlines of Climate Change Share Learnings at Conference
2011
Posted by IDEX
IDEX Executive Director Vini Bhansali reports from the 10th Annual Conference of the International Funders for Indigenous Peoples (IFIP) currently wrapping up in Haudenosaunee territory in upstate New York. IFIP creates a bridge where the philanthropic and Indigenous worlds meet to understand and collaborate with each other. Vini is there with Heera Lal Sharma from IDEX Partner Sahyog Sansthan in India.
IDEX is pleased to announce that in June, Desmond D’Sa of South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) – an IDEX partner since 2009 – will be visiting the United States. Desmond will be sharing the work of his organization at events in the Bay Area, Seattle, and New York- visit our calendar soon for more details. Read the rest of this entry »
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