Advancing Access to Justice through volunteer engagement

Just because a law exists doesn’t mean it is applied. As I finish reading the Court Watch project report drafted by two of our volunteers in Ghana, I could add this to the list of reasons why advancing access to justice for women and girls is a vital focus of intervention for Crossroads International.

Even though the Domestic Violence Act (DVA) was passed in 2007 in Ghana, the first court watch we conducted in 2012 already showed that the law was not used because the victims or those who were supposed to implement the law were not aware of it. The second court watch, launched in 2017, showed that only 22.5% of the 280 cases of gender-based and domestic violence observed were completed. It’s still far from being enough, but it’s an improvement on what we have witnessed in the past. Nevertheless, the team of 10 local and Canadian observers who worked on this project came to an unequivocal conclusion after spending their days hearing terrible stories in which the victims could be as young as 5 years old: the DVA is still little used in court. Although they witnessed an evolution in people’s mindset and a real desire for more transparency and improvement in the way the cases of violence against women are handled, the insufficient number of trained police officers and the ignorance of the law among the public and some police officers or court officials led to uncertain application of the law. In addition to this alarming observation, the observers also shed light on the many challenges awaiting victims of violence to access justice. Often faced with prejudice and treated like the guilty party, the fight for justice is not an easy one for victims of violence. By identifying the issues surrounding the application of the DVA and offering recommendations, the Court Watch initiative is an important step toward improving access to justice for women and girls.

Unfortunately, this situation is not unique, and the same observations could be made in other countries where we work. That’s why the approaches we are implementing with our partners to advance justice for victims of violence are crucial. Since last year in Tanzania, we’ve been supporting a partnership among volunteers from the Ontarian legal system, our Tanzanian partner KWIECO and representatives from the Kilimanjaro Justice Court. Through several mandates in Toronto and Moshi, Canadian lawyers, magistrates and gender experts specialized in supporting victims have been working hand in hand with Tanzanian police officers, prosecutors, lawyers and welfare officers to exchange knowledge, skills and tools to support Tanzanian victims of violence in their quest for justice as well as to strengthen the Kilimanjaro Justice Court. This exchange aims to have a positive impact on the Kilimanjaro Justice Court and create a more coordinated legal system that could become an example in the country.

As mentioned in the Court Watch report and equally true in many countries where we work, there is a real lack of knowledge and resources available when it comes to women’s rights. For many reasons including the damaging weight of cultural norms, many victims don’t know their rights.  It is therefore essential to raise women’s and girls’ awareness of their rights so they can assert them when needed. It is what our Legal Literacy volunteers do by working with women so they have a better knowledge of their rights and access to legal services. In our Girls’ Empowerment Clubs, girls also learn about their rights and how to assert them. For women and girls, knowing their rights is the first step toward equality.

I would like to recognize and applaud the work our partners and our volunteers are doing to address the underlying causes of gender-based violence as well as the systemic barriers to justice facing survivors. Their passion for justice and women’s rights is inspiring, and their achievements show that by working together we can implement approaches that will help the justice system account for and respond to the needs of women and children.

An integrated approach to achieving long-lasting change

A slum in Accra on a sunny afternoon in April. A group of women is setting up an improvised tent to protect themselves from the sun while attending an empowerment workshop. These women are part of the Obrapaa Women’s group, a group of former sex workers collectively designing and selling handmade jewelry. The group who is also acting as peer educators to carry out health campaigns related to HIV/AIDS testing and sexually transmitted infection screening for Crossroads International’s partner, Pro-Link Ghana, participated over the past few months in a series of workshops facilitated by Crossroads’ volunteers. On the afternoon I joined them, they were getting ready to attend a workshop to boost their self-esteem.

These workshops focused on skills development with beadwork, basket weaving or entrepreneurship training but not only. The Obrapaa Group also participated in yoga, wellness and self care workshops as a way to develop their self-esteem and self confidence. The group has become a safe place where women can help each other and talk about their rights, but also their day to day challenges.

Thanks to these initiatives, the Obrapaa group launched a jewelry collection that provides them with additional revenue, helping them contribute to their families’ expenses. Formerly stigmatized and marginalized in their community, they earned back respect and dignity because of their new economic activities. They are now more self-confident and know more about their rights. Prouder, they use their voice to have an impact in their community.

The work Pro-Link and our Crossroaders are doing with those women reflects the integrated approach Crossroads International promotes to achieve gender equality. I firmly believe that to advance equality we need to work on improving the economic, social and political situation of women. Empowered women have the means to overcome the challenges they face and can make their voice heard in their community. When women are economically self-sufficient, when they know their rights and have the political representation they need, they can assert their rights and demand equality. Crossroads focuses its work on those three areas because change won’t be sustainable if we don’t.

On that sunny afternoon, I met women who had regained control of their lives, women proud of what they have accomplished. Women who, a few months ago, had no self-confidence, now talk proudly about themselves. They now have hope for a brighter future for themselves and their kids.

“If you want to go far, go together.”

“If you want to go far, go together.” As we celebrate National Volunteer Week, this African proverb resonates. Over the last 60 years, Crossroads International has worked with more than 9,000 volunteers and year after year, we witnessed the change they accomplished, the lives they contribute to improve by working with locals as equals. When we come together, when we work together, we can do great things. In 2016-2017 alone, our volunteers gave 54,077 hours to advance women’s rights and fight poverty in Africa and South America. Some worked with Girls’ Clubs, empowering young girls to speak up and know their rights. Others worked with women and youth to improve their leadership skills or develop their business. Young Quebeckers spent the summer in Senegal working with our partner APROFES to optimize garden plots, therefore helping improve food security. These volunteers may have had different mandates, but they all worked together with partners, beneficiaries or other volunteers to implement change. They all took part in a movement improving the situation of women, girls and youth, their work taking us a step further toward gender equality and ending poverty.

“If you want to go far, go together.” This idea is particularly timely. Emergence of movements like “MeToo” or “Times Up” showed us how powerful we become when we rally together behind the same cause. Thanks to these movements, sexual misconduct happening in all walks of life are now centre stage. Violence against women is finally evoking the outrage it deserves. The silence has finally been broken. United our voices can’t be ignored.

Volunteer Cooperation can also be a movement for change. In addition to supporting local partners and beneficiaries to change their reality, volunteers can change the discourse here in Canada. By talking about their work overseas, volunteers can raise awareness about the issues they helped fight during their mandates. And by doing so they can inspire other Canadians to volunteer or to take a stand for women’s rights or for more funding for international development. Real global citizens, volunteers bring a new perspective based on their valuable experience but also values and new skills to enhance their communities.

Our volunteers by working in solidarity with our partners are doing great things. I would like to thank them for sharing their time, expertise and passion and for being real catalysts for change. They are an example for all of us and their dedication and work deserve to be praised and celebrated.

Federal Budget demonstrates commitment to women and international cooperation – now we must continue to build on our progress

Crossroads International welcomes the 2018 federal Budget as a positive investment towards empowering women and girls in the global south. Announced earlier this week, the Budget reiterates the government’s wider approach to equality and commits to gender-based budgeting, something Crossroads and other women’s rights organizations have been seeking for years.

Of particular note for our community, there was significant news regarding funding for the international aid sector. There is $2 billion in new money for international development assistance over 5 years, a significant increase compared with recent years. This new funding comes with an added commitment to transparency which is important not only for aid agencies but for all Canadians. The money will support Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy.

Crossroads International is encouraged by this Budget, especially following our discussions with Members of Parliament and staff from the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of International Development and La Francophonie’s office at the launch of Crossroads 60th anniversary celebrations on Parliament Hill on International Volunteer Day, December 5th.

Global Affairs Canada has made decisive, innovative strides in directing its development focus to women and girls. Now we must commit to a path to meeting our overseas aid funding commitment to ensure we can achieve our ambitions. As welcome as this new funding is, it is still far short of Canada’s global commitment to spend .7% of Gross National Income on overseas development. We must set out a detailed plan to reach this funding level if we are to truly be a global leader and maximize our potential to defend the rights of women and girls in the South.

With the support of Global Affairs Canada, and through partnership with organizations in the global South and Canadian volunteers, Crossroads International is making an impact. Consider:

• Volunteers contributed 54,077 in-kind hours valued at more than $1.9 million in 2016-2017
• 8,850 people in the South improved their income and more than 20,600 increased their capacity to access their rights in 2016-2017
• 17,000 women and girls increased their access to justice, developed leadership skills and became more financially autonomous in 2016-2017

Imagine what we could do together if Canada met its global funding commitment on overseas development.

For now, we celebrate the good news in Budget 2018, and we look forward to building on our work with our partners in the years to come.

Celebrating 60 years of change

In 2018, we celebrate Crossroads International’s 60^th anniversary. We celebrate the thousands of volunteers South and North who changed lives, theirs and the lives of others. And we celebrate the Canadian and Southern partners who worked alongside Crossroads and our volunteers to create one equal world.

In 60 years, Crossroads International evolved to respond to the changing needs of communities, but we never stopped working together with partners as equal, following the vision of our founder, Dr. James Robinson.

Partners drive our work, guiding the design of cost effective interventions that answer their needs and the needs of their communities. These programs involve the different actors of the communities to ensure long lasting results. In Togo for example, with our partner Groupe de réflexion et d'action Femme, Démocratie et Développement (GF2D), we launched Boys Clubs in schools, knowing boys need to be involved early on if we want to achieve gender equality. With our Ghanaian partner WILDAF, as part of our Access to Justice Program, we are engaging religious and traditional leaders as advocates for women’s rights, knowing they have the power and influence to change their communities and therefore improve the lives of many women and girls.

Our partnerships are having an impact and we are glad the new Feminist International Assistance Policy launched last year by the Canadian government recognizes the importance of partnering with local civil societies as well as the private sector to achieve the right results. This new feminist direction is well aligned with the work Crossroads and its partners have been doing for 10 years to advance equality for women and girls and overcome poverty.

Celebrating our 60^th anniversary in a context where advancing gender equality is made a priority by the government but also by part of the society is special and gives us hope for the future.

Every success is a new step taken on the way to gender equality and that’s why, now more than ever, backed by the lessons learned in the past 60 years, our volunteers’ devotion and enthusiasm and our partners’ determination we will keep being a catalyst for change.

We all have a role to play to achieve ONE WORLD where poverty is eliminated, equality prevails and the rights of women and girls are fulfilled. It can be through volunteering or donations, through advocating for women’s rights in your community or taking a stand and speaking up. You can also take part in the Charity Challenge Trek we are organizing in Tanzania in August 2018, host an event in your community to raise awareness about the challenges women and girls face in the countries we worked in or participate in the conversation by joining our upcoming Facebook Live about women’s economic empowerment. A lot can be done at every level, here in Canada as well as overseas. Now, the question is, what role are you going to play?

Working together to overcome global challenges

I’ve just returned from the International Volunteer Co-operation Organizations (IVCO) conference in Seoul.  It was inspiring to be part of a global community united in strengthening partnerships to address today’s global cooperation challenges.  At a time when countries are growing increasingly nationalist and withdrawing from international collaboration, I witnessed in Seoul a civil society movement committed to strong international cooperation and eager to accomplish more together.  IVCO Chair Chris Eaton summed up this commitment well: “We need to go out of our comfort zone; we need more room for our partners at the Forum and on the ground.”

The theme of this year’s conference was Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) through transformative partnership in volunteering.  Crossroads International took the theme to heart, kicking off the conference with Sustaining Girls’ Empowerment, a joint presentation with the Director of Educational Testing, Guidance and Psychological Services of the Swaziland Ministry of Education, Ms. Lindiwe Dlamini.  We presented our work with local partner Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) that is empowering thousands of girls at risk of gender-based violence.  Most importantly, we demonstrated that a program nurtured and supported by volunteers is now expanding across the country, with growing engagement, and ownership demonstrated by the Swazi Government which ultimately will be key to sustainability.

Crossroads volunteers have worked alongside local people and partners for decades.  Working together as equals is a value we have held since the first volunteer served overseas in 1958.  On International Volunteer Day on December 5^th, we will launch our 60^th anniversary celebrations on Parliament Hill.  In the company of our partners from Togo and Burkina Faso and our volunteers, we will share with MPs, Senators and Ministers successful stories of 60 years of partnership addressing poverty and advancing equality across the world.

After six decades of activity and more than 9,000 volunteer placements in the South, the One World vision of our founders remains relevant, not only to Crossroads but to the entire international volunteer community.  I am positive that we can unite to overcome global cooperation challenges and see better times in which the values of solidarity and equality regain their importance.  Thank you to all volunteers for offering their time, skills and enthusiasm in pursuing this goal!

Planting seeds of hope for the new generation

103,318. That’s the number of people who crossed the Mediterranean Sea to get to Italy from January to August 2017. 103,318 people, most of them youth leaving everything behind, country, wives, families, to seek a better future, a quest that cost many their lives.

 

This is what poverty looks like with its intense despair that makes people risk their life for an Eldorado that often doesn’t exist. Europe’s promise hides a sad reality for migrants. Most of them end up in the streets or in migrants’ camps without better prospects than before.

Faced with growing poverty and food insecurity, Senegalese youth are among many African youth who lack hope for the future and are making the choice to leave. This situation is dramatic. The Senegalese economy relies deeply on cash crops and fishing and the growing exodus threatens the future of theses sectors.

What can be done to stop the flow of youth leaving their country? We can revalue agriculture as a viable career and lifestyle choice attractive to youth.

On my recent visit to Senegal, I met proud youth working in agriculture, growing a rotation of crops that allow them to have revenues all year long. These youth took part in the Farmers for the Future project launched by our partner RESOPP with Crossroads International’s support. One hundred youth, half of them women, were trained in modern farming technics, agroecology and management and now understand how it can work. This model is inexpensive and has a high retention rate with youth who now have steady revenue and activity.

Projects like this one are inspiring and have proven their worth in other countries like Bolivia, Togo or Tanzania where our partners, with Crossroads’ collaboration, developed new farming models that now provide sustainable revenues to youth and their community. I’ve seen promising results and those projects are real catalyst for change that can transform the way youth see agriculture and can help them find new sustainable prospects for the future.