SISTERS CELEBRATING THE RIGHT TO VOTE

WOMEN UNITED

From the very beginning it was the Unity of Women that made the diference between being ignored or listened to.

Here are some old photographs of those wonderful brave women who open the path for all of us.

STOP RAPE NOW-U.N. ACTION AGAINST SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN CONFLICT

Please click on the link below


Stop Rape Now -- U.N. Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Fact: Around the world, as many as one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused in some other way.

Additionally,violence against women encompasses a wide range of human rights violations.
In some countries, up to 60 percent of women suffer from domestic violence.

In about onefourth of these cases, sexual violence also occurs.
Between 600,000 and 800,000 individuals are trafficked each year for forced labor, the majority for commercial sexual exploitation. Approximately 80 percent are women and girls.
Nearly 50 percent of all sexual assaults worldwide are against girls 15-years-old or younger. High numbers of young women report that their first sexual experience was coerced.
It is estimated that 130 million girls and women have undergone female genital cutting (FGC). Approximately 2 million girls are subjected to this practice each year worldwide.
UNFPA leads the international community’s efforts to promote the rights of women. For more than 30 years, UNFPA has been in the forefront of bringing issues such as better access to education and the prevention of violence against women, promoting societal change and legal and policy reforms.
Promoting the Rights of Women Fact SheetVideos

Can you name 16 forms of violence against woman?

IMPROVING WOMEN AND CHILDREN'S HEALTH

Clinton Introduces Legislation to Restore United States Support for United Nations Population Fund
Bill Would Direct Funding to Activities Improving Women and Children's Health
Today,

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton introduced the United Nations Population Fund Restoration Act, legislation that would direct United States contributions to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to essential women’s health services, including safe motherhood initiatives, infection prevention, and provision of health and hygiene supplies in disaster situations.

“It is unconscionable that this Administration has chosen to withhold U.S. funding from an organization doing so much good for women, girls, and families around the world. UNFPA’s work prevents maternal deaths, provides vital health services in emergencies, and improves the health and well-being of women in countries around the world. We should restore funding to UNFPA, and this legislation is an important step in that process,” said Senator Clinton.

“We thank Senator Clinton for this bill which champions UNFPA’s work to promote

safe motherhood programs around the world so that women don’t die giving life. Legislation like the UNFPA Restoration Act of 2008 helps us shine a light on the crucial assistance UNFPA provides around the word and why the United States should be leading the international community’s commitment to women,” said Anika Rahman, President of Americans for UNFPA.

UNFPA was created in 1969, with the strong support of the United States government. Today, 180 countries from all regions of the world provide support to UNFPA programs operating in more than 154 countries. With this funding, UNFPA works to reduce maternal mortality, train safe birth attendants, decrease sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, and provide essential supplies to women in disaster or conflict situations. It does not provide abortion services.

Despite the fact that UNFPA has overwhelming support from the international community, the Bush Administration has suspended U.S. contributions since 2002 to UNFPA over baseless allegations that the organization has helped to provide abortions in China. This suspension of funding has persisted even though an Administration-backed fact-finding mission to China in 2002 found “no evidence that UNFPA has knowingly supported or participated in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.”

The

United Nations Population Fund Restoration Act would address unfounded concerns that UNFPA funding is being misused by ensuring that the U.S. contribution would be used for a specific set of activities to improve the health of women, children and families. In limiting the use of funds in this manner, this bill counters the objections of the Bush Administration, and thus makes it harder for them to justify withholding funds from UNFPA and its valuable women’s health work around the world.

This legislation is supported by Americans for UNFPA, American Jewish World Service, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Population Connection, Center for Reproductive Rights, Center for Women Policy Studies, Catholics for Choice, the Sierra Club, Center for Health and Gender Equity, Global Health Council, Population Action International and the United Methodist Church, General Board of Church & Society.

WOMEN'S HEALTH

UNFPA provides women’s health care and promotes the rights of women around the world. It is the largest international source of such assistance. Investments in reproductive health save and improve women’s lives and slow the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Contraception
When a woman can plan her family, she can participate more fully and equally in society.
Fact: An estimated 201 million women have an unmet need for effective contraception.
To meet this need women must have access to modern contraception, support from family and community members and accurate information about pregnancy and contraception.
Demand for family planning services is expected to increase by more than 40 percent in the next 15 years. There is evidence that currently fewer than 20 countries in the world have access to family planning at a reasonable cost.
As many as 50 percent of pregnancies are unplanned.
Meeting the existing demand for family planning would reduce maternal deaths and injuries by about one-third.
About 90 percent of global abortion-related deaths and disabilities could be avoided if women who wanted effective contraception had access to it.
Increased access to health services has resulted in women having about half as many children as they had in the 1960s. However, fertility remains highest in the poorest countries where access is low. With support from UNFPA, family planning use has increased globally from ten to roughly 65 percent of couples in the last thirty years.
Safe Motherhood
No woman should die giving life.
Fact: Every minute a woman dies in childbirth somewhere in the world — 536,000 deaths per year — and almost all of them are preventable. While most other health indicators have improved in low-income countries over the last decades, maternal mortality and morbidity remain unconquered.
Up to 15 percent of pregnant women experience potentially fatal complications — 20 million women each year.
Approximately 5 percent of pregnant women — 7 million women — experience complications that require surgery, most often a caesarean section, and many are without access to emergency obstetric care. One result is 2 million women living with a disability such as obstetric fistula.
35 percent of pregnant women in low-income countries do not have access to or contact with health personnel prior to delivery.
More than 60 percent of maternal deaths take place during delivery or in the immediate post-partum period.
The most critical interventions for safe motherhood are universal access to contraception, a health worker with midwifery skill present at every birth and access to transportation to a more comprehensive level of obstetric care in case of an emergency.
UNFPA supports safe motherhood initiatives in roughly 90 countries. UNFPA’s maternal health programs resulted in significant reduction of maternal deaths in Bolivia, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mongolia, and Zimbabwe in a single decade (1994-2004).
HIV/AIDS Prevention
Large investments are needed to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Fact: Each day 6,800 people are newly infected with HIV. 96 percent are in low or middle income countries.
Every day 5,700 people die because of inadequate access to HIV prevention and treatment services.
Worldwide15.4 million women live with HIV.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 61 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS are women. In some areas, young women are three times more likely than young men to become infected.
In Asia, a small percentage of HIV/AIDS infections used to be women. Today 42 percent of new infections in Asia are women, totaling 1.4 million women infected with HIV/AIDS.
In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 416,000 women live with HIV/AIDS; an increase of 187 percent since 2001. 16 In Latin America, 1.6 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. Female sex workers are considered one of the largest at-risk groups.
UNFPA plays a leading role in global HIV/AIDS prevention. UNFPA has integrated voluntary HIV/ AIDS counseling and testing into reproductive health ser vices based in par t on the organization’s pilot projects around the world.
AMERICANS FOR UNFPA is dedicated to building American support for the work of UNFPA and to restoring the United States’ moral and financial contribution to the organization. Americans for UNFPA is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) charitable organization funded by private foundations and individual donors.

THE UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, provides women’s health care and promotes the rights of women around the world. It is the largest international source of such assistance.
AMERICANS FOR UNFPA is dedicated to building American support for the work of UNFPA and to restoring the United States’ moral and financial contribution to the organization.
AMERICANS FOR UNFPA is a non-partisan, 501(c) (3) charitable organization funded by private foundations and individual donors.
The U.S. Committee for UNFPA, now Americans for UNFPA, was founded in 1998. We are the official committee for UNFPA in the United States. We support UNFPA by generating awareness of UNFPA’s work, fundraising for field programs, and advocating for U.S. policies in support of UNFPA, including the release of Congressionally-allocated U.S. funds that have been withheld by the Administration since 2002.

HAPPY FRIENDS

"IN HER GARDEN"

"GUATEMALAN NATIVE WOMAN"

"PREGNANT WOMAN"

"DANCER"

"PEACE ACTIVIST"

"WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY"

Woman-College-Student-in-Chemistry-Lab-

"VOLLEYBALL PLAYER"

"GIRLS OF PLANET EARTH"

Girl-Near-Guinguette-Springs-Looking-at-Camera-Bobo-Dioulasso-Burkina-Faso-

"BRIDE'S HANDS"

A-Brides-Hands-Respendent-with-Jewels-and-Decorated-with-Henna-

"MUSLIM WOMAN"

Portrait-of-a-Muslim-Woman-in-Traditional-Bui-Bui-Lamu-Coast-Kenya-

OLD CHINESE WAYS

COACH