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| Volume 4, Issue 2 -- March 2007 |
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Women In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, we have chosen Women as our theme for this month’s newsletter. We will look at migration, water scarcity, free-trade agreements and efforts to promote peace and reconciliation through a gendered lens. In my own life, women were always respected and honored. Growing up, I was told that I could accomplish anything I set out to do. I was continually encouraged to create my own path and explore new directions. For me gender was not an issue. It wasn’t until I went to Chile and worked with the women at a community center that I saw the routine discrimination and hardships women can experience. For many of the women who came to the center, it was a major triumph to be able to leave the house once a week for a couple of hours to pursue something solely for their own enjoyment. Whether it was learning to knit or bake or cut hair, as the women streamed into the center each day, you could see their spirits lift for they knew that as long as they were in the Center they could really relax and discover themselves. It was an honor to work side-by-side with these women. Their personal triumphs towards independence and self-growth were hard won. As is often the case in times of service, I received much more from the women at the Center than anything I gave of myself. I have been given two special gifts in my life. One was the gift of unconditional love and support by my family which has allowed me to be impervious to gender discrimination. The second gift was the opportunity to share in the everyday lives of women who overcame significant obstacles to achieve a sense of self-worth. International Women’s Day took on real meaning for me while I was in Chile. On March 8, I will remember the women at the Center and continue to be inspired by their strength and perseverance. I also will remember the women in my own life who have been inspiring examples of what it means to be strong, intelligent, compassionate, peaceful and committed to justice. May their lives be constant reminders of what it means to be a woman. I ask for many blessings to you and the women in your life. In peace, Amy Woolam Echeverria Peace & Reconciliation: Celebrating Women Peace-Makers The famous Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, once said of peace, “Every day we do things, we are things that have to do with peace. If we are aware of our life..., our way of looking at things, we will know how to make peace right in the moment, we are alive.” Columban Sister Mary Neylon is a peacemaker every day in her community of Huaycan, Peru, a sprawling shantytown on the outskirts of Lima, Peru’s capital city. Seeing vulnerable women, many of them indigenous Quechua or Aymara who neither speak nor read Spanish, migrating to the city from the Andean mountains, Sr. Mary started a women’s center called Warmi Huasi seven years ago, a place of welcome and personal development for these displaced women. These women were forced to leave their homes and way of life because of extreme poverty and political violence, limited by language and education, geographical barriers, sexual discrimination and abuse. When they arrive at Warmi Huasi, they look for friendship and a safe place to share their feelings of being lost and alone, ridiculed and humiliated as they search for a place to settle and adapt to their new way of life. Once they arrive at the center, they are welcomed, and little by little, the women form friendships, build trust among themselves and gain confidence and self-esteem. In addition to the emotional and psychological support the women receive at the center, they also participate in a variety of programs including reading and writing, a series of educational and income-generating activities and occupational therapy. Inspired by their inherited love of the Pachamama (Mother Earth), they use ancient skills and natural materials to create arts and crafts. The women at Warmi Huasi will celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day with the theme “Women of Huaycan Promoting Our Rights.” A volleyball tournament and cultural event are planned for March 3 when the dignity, talents and rights of women are celebrated. We celebrate Sr. Mary Neylon and the women at Warmi Huasi for their courage to speak out for women’s rights and the hope they bring to countless women in the community of Huaycan, Peru. Economic Justice: Women say "No" to U.S. - Peru FTA The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiated between the United States and Peru last year continues to lie in wait, as the U.S. Trade Representative and Congress negotiate the minimum of changes necessary for it to be approved. Unfortunately, many fear that only a few quick fixes to the labor provisions will be enough for the agreement to pass. As the following letter elaborates, this is far short of what will make a fair-trade pact, particularly for women. The International Gender & Trade Network raises the particular concerns and experiences of women in regards to international trade policies. For more information, please see www.igtn.org/page/1/.
A Statement of Opposition to the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement We write to you as representatives of organizations and social movements in the United States to express our opposition to the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement (US-Peru) because of its negative impact on large numbers of women, men and children in the U.S. and Peru. We support fair trade and sustainable development policies. If trade is to succeed in reducing poverty, it must benefit women in particular, who are the vast majority of the poor throughout the region, and enable them to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. US-Peru does not do this. Experience with NAFTA, CAFTA, and other free trade agreements have demonstrated that this model of free trade does not benefit poor women. A recent study showed that in Mexico, poverty for female-headed households increased by 50 percent since NAFTA was implemented. In a country like Peru with 50% of the population living below the poverty line, the results of an FTA could be devastating. Furthermore, the process for negotiating US-Peru was undemocratic with no meaningful national debate on this agreement in the United States or in Peru. The agreement was passed in Peru during a lame-duck session when elected officials are least accountable to the citizens—a move Republican leaders have indicated will happen during the 2006 lame-duck session. Furthermore, if passed the U.S. Peru FTA will:
• Decrease access to essential public goods and services.
• Increase unemployment, especially that of women.
• Destroy local farm economies.
• Push many workers, especially women, into exploitive work conditions.
• Threaten public health. We are not against trade or against development in Peru. However, the conditions and rules presented by US-Peru would, however, generate far-reaching negative impacts on economies and societies in both regions and further threaten the well being of women, families and communities across the region. We urge you to oppose this agreement should it come before Congress for approval. Sincerely, The following members of the U.S. Gender and Trade Network:
ActionAid International USA Imigration: Women Migrants at Greater Risk
Women Face Additional Hardship when Crossing U.S.-Mexico Border
United States immigration policy cannot be understood or worked out in isolation from the worldwide movement of people and the driving economic forces behind this movement. The number of international migrants has doubled to 200 million since 1980. Increasingly, women’s international migration is a growing and complex phenomenon raising human rights concerns. True reform of immigration policy must broaden to include the root causes of migration. Here in the United States, demand for Mexican labor is not new and is well-documented as far back as the 1890s with Texas cotton growers. Yet, today’s demand is distinctly marked by two new aspects: 1) the intensified demand for labor brought on by the forces of globalization, and 2) the associated growing presence of women crossing the border. It is hard to know in real numbers how many unauthorized people are coming into the United States, but it is known that women are increasingly choosing to cross the U.S.-Mexico border despite the many risks involved to them and their children. In 2003, the Department of Homeland Security reported that women constituted 55 percent of immigrants to the United States. Today, of the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, it is estimated that 3 million, or 29 percent, are women between the ages of 18-39 years. Women crossing the U.S.-Mexico border have to worry about more than the harsh physical demands of crossing a vast desert. With the increase in women attempting to cross there has come an increase in women’s physical and sexual assaults, deaths and murder. It is believed that one in three women crossing the border is physically and sexually assaulted. It is harder to know the number of women murdered, as this is not a category investigated or counted by the U.S. Border Patrol. However, a composite picture pieced together through county coroner reports, local newspapers, and nonprofit organizations like “No More Deaths” is providing clearer information on the fate of many women. Likewise, women who survive their attempt to cross are slowly coming forward to tell their traumatic experiences.
Accounts of these ordeals are being told to U.S. Border Patrol officers, detention staff, humanitarian aid and service providers, and relatives. Perpetrators are most likely to be gangs on either side of the border, U.S. vigilantes, or “coyotes” whom migrants pay to help them cross. Women migrants do not report crimes against them as often as crimes happen. Current immigration law and policies are not adequate, making vulnerable people, especially women, more vulnerable. Lawmakers must consider what the personal and economic pressures are that push people to take such risks in crossing a border without the protection of governments. Lawmakers are morally obligated to ask what the effects of their laws will be on the most vulnerable.
CARE For CREATION: Scarcity of Water Is a Burden on Women When I arrived in the Ixcán region of Guatemala in February 2005, the dry season was just heating up. By May, when the rains traditionally begin and fields are planted, the heat was suffocating, dust covered everything, wells were bone dry and there was no rain in sight. As more and more of the jungle is cut down each year, the heat becomes more intense, the rains less predictable and as we turned the corner into June, there was great fear that the entire harvest of corn would be lost, leading to increased hunger and hardship. As school let out each day around midday, the girls would begin a long afternoon of trekking back and forth from the stream that crossed through the community, balancing large containers of water on their heads and hips. First they would carry enough water for the school’s daily needs, then for their own household’s. Once the stream ran dry from lack of rain, they had to go farther and farther in search of water for cooking, drinking, washing, even walking one to two hours each way. As climate change is making its effects felt more strongly each day, it is the world’s poor who will bare the brunt of its fury, particularly those living in rural areas. They are dependent on the predictable turn of the seasons and established patterns of rainfall in order to grow basic food crops to survive. As water is intricately tied up in many daily household chores, water shortages and the burden of securing adequate water most directly impact women and children. But as water resources become ever more polluted and scarce, poor rural women are forced to go farther and farther in search of an adequate supply, while urban women must wait sometimes all night for their turn at the pump. The direct impact on the welfare of women in turn has profound consequences for the lives of their children. Girls must devote more time to carrying water and less to educational possibilities. As well, much of the water that families depend on is neither clean nor safe. According to UNICEF, about 21 percent of children in developing countries are severely water deprived, with a direct correlation to high child mortality rates. As the impacts of climate change begin to manifest themselves—from melting glaciers in Peru, to droughts in Africa, to rising waters threatening small island nations in the Pacific and Caribbean—water is a devastating connecting thread. Yet while it is becoming increasingly clear that the world’s poorest peoples will be profoundly affected, women and children bear an even greater burden. For more information, please see Church World Service’s publication, “Twice as Thirsty: Women, Children and Water” at www.churchworldservice.org/pdf_files/EA/womenwater.pdf Take Action: World Water Day Access to water is a fundamental human right and essential to all life on this planet. Yet, more than 1 billion people, a sixth of the world’s population, lack access to safe, clean drinking water. Factors including climate change, privatization, and pollution make this situation direr by the day. At the same time, our faith tradition holds water to be sacred, a life-sustaining and life-renewing gift from God. March 22 is World Water Day. The theme of this year’s observance will be “Coping with Water Scarcity.” Find out how you and your congregation can be better water stewards by checking out the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice program’s resources at www.nccecojustice.org/index.htm Columban News: Update from the Border The Annunciation House Remembers On February 22, we had the annual memorial Mass for Juan Patricio at Annunciation House. He was a 19-year old kid, cornered while putting out the trash at Annunciation House, when Border Patrol agents illegally entered the parking lot and began to question him. Fear of getting deported caused him to run. More agents came and surrounded him in the street where he stood with a 5-foot piece of pipe refusing to surrender and crying out, “I won’t let you send me back!” The last agent to arrive apparently read the situation as more dangerous than it was and fired two shots at Juanito. The agents then refused to let the ambulance approach for some time, and when it did, Juan Patricio’s youthful, humble spirit had left this world. It is hard to believe that it was four years ago that this unjust and tragic death occurred just outside Annunciation House, a place of hospitality, peace and obedience to the command of Jesus to welcome and care for the stranger and the alien. In fact, Annunciation House is in dire need of more volunteers to serve the immigrant poor. If you're interested in service, check out its website at www.annunciationhouse.org. The focus of energy at Annunciation House now is the “Voice of the Voiceless” award and the outdoor Mass honoring Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Diocese of Los Angeles on April 14. In response to the draconian measures proposed by Congress last year, Mahony declared that if the measure passed, he would order his priests to disobey. He said, “Denying aid to a fellow human being violates a law with a higher authority than congress—the law of God.” We are expecting as many as 20,000 people for the celebration of the Eucharist in the street with the cardinal. Resources & Events
Sean McDonagh, SSC: Ethics & Climate Change
Philippine Daily Inquirer: Deportation Gag
REMINDER: Christian Peace Witness for Iraq
A Lenten Fast from Violence Center of Concern, in collaboration with several other Catholic justice and peace organizations, is challenging Catholics to fast from social and personal violence during Lent. Seven reflections are provided for weekly reflection during Lent on topics such as exploring violence, Oscar Romero and being a prophet for peace, the meaning of true security, the Catholic Social Teaching perspective on peace, corporate profit in Iraq, the seduction of violence and torture. The reflections can be used with faith-sharing groups, with your family or community, at your workplace or as an individual. The resource is particularly appropriate as we approach the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war on March 19. View the reflection guide at www.coc.org/index.fpl/1090/article/10651.html.
Women and Children: The Double Dividend of Gender Equality
Step It Up 2007
Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis IN OTHER NEWS
Care for Creation:
Islands Could Fall Off the Map
Federal Court Orders for the First Time a Halt to New Field Trials of GE Crops
Economic Justice:
A New Fast Track for Unfair Trade
Rich Nations Prodded on ‘Illegitimate’ Lending
Migration:
Audit Finds Multiple Abuses in Immigration Jails
Peace:
Fiji: Human Rights Protections Must Be Upheld
UN Uncovers Mercenary Recruitment in Peru Contact Us
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