Every year on April 24, YWCAs around the world celebrate World YWCA Day. For 160 years, YWCA leaders have taken action in communities to make human rights a reality.In a recent in-depth study done by World YWCA on leadership, many #YWCALeaders shared that they believe “leadership is influencing, guiding and motivating women and young women to realise their potential and work together to achieve a common goal.”
For World YWCA Day 2022, join us as we will celebrate YWCA day under the theme: ” #YWCALeaders Co-Creating Goal 2035, Not just some place we are going to, but a place we are creating together“. Serving with love remains a common mandate for all the work we do on ground, in communities and at national and international level. In 2015, when the YWCA leaders came together to define “our collective goal” as a single shared statement of our commitment for the future, with YWCA contributing within its own space, context and resources, Goal 2035 was born.
This year, as we celebrate #WorldYWCADay, we invite all #YWCALeaders to share their insights on centering young women and girls, shifting power structures to achieve a world free from violence.
Goal 2035 is not just some place we are all going towards, but a place we are all committed to building and creating together as YWCA leaders. Which is why for World YWCA Day 2022 on April 24, this year, we invite YWCA Leaders to think, deliberate, engage and find spaces to co-create, acting towards Goal 2035. Find more information on the theme, ideas on how to celebrate the day, and how to engage in social media with visuals and social media covers in the tool.
On April 4, 2022, World YWCA and its partners officially launched the Young Women for Awareness, Agency, Advocacy and Accountability (YW4A) Partnership and Initiative. This was done through a global webinar that unpacked the fundamentals of the partnership and initiative. The webinar was moderated by Adelle Onyango, a media personality and active sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) advocate inspired by her own experience of sexual abuse.
Following a year of setting up the programme teams and structures across Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and determining the baselines for the four programme Pathways, the YW4A partners were finally ready to present the programme to the world. The launch webinar brought together a panel of women rights advocates from across the globe, to demonstrate the relevance and timeliness of the initiative in the Africa and MENA context. We captured a few opinions of the programme:
“At the heart of YW4A, was the belief in the value of co-creation and design, bringing varied and diverse organisations and leaders to dream of what is possible, when we work across sectors, and when we centre the leadership of young women,” said Casey Harden, the World YWCA General Secretary.
Casey added that with this partnership with the Netherlands Government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and partners, there is a shared vision of a vibrant civil society space that tackles the root cause of inequality through lobbying and advocacy. Civic space is a required precondition for structural change.
These sentiments were echoed by Froukje Gaasterland, the Senior Policy Officer in the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Taskforce of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Embedding and strengthening the voices of young women and girls, in efforts to prevent and stop violence against all women and girls, and recognising them as agents of change is a priority for the Dutch government.”
“Working in strategic partnerships with faith-based organisations and leaders, young women, and women’s rights organisations and leaders on the fundamentals of ending violence against women and girls is extremely important to realise sustainable results,” she said.
Hawa Puzzo Ally, an activist and young woman leader in the YW4A programme, who is also a survivor of abuse underpinned the importance of working with religious leaders and institutions in the programme. Religion is central to shaping community norms, therefore this becomes strategic in mentoring young women and men into respecting women’s rights.
The YW4A partners also launched the programmewebsite, LinkedIn page, logo in English and Arabic, as well as the programme’s unique media hashtags #YW4A and #YoungWomenTransform. The partners have also scheduled a series of activities to launch the programme to demonstrate the scale and potential impact of the initiative. These include the unveiling of a graffiti wall (13 April) created by young female artists in partnership with Anataban- an artist creative that uses various art forms to speak about injustice, including SGBV. In Egypt, YW4A will host a television programme (28 April), focusing on the role of religion in gender equality and the YW4A partnership’s unique positioning in addressing challenges/opportunities in religious spheres.
The YW4A programme model pilots an interdisciplinary approach to young women’s transformative leadership and tackling SGBV in Egypt, Kenya, Palestine, and South Sudan. The challenges in each country are complex, often rooted in long held norms and practices. Typically, the factors contributing to the violence and discrimination that young women face are common. These are:
Discriminatory family laws and sexual violence laws that hinder women’s rights and offer limited protection or justice to survivors of violence.
Patriarchal and ageist norms and practices that limit young women’s agency, leadership and participation in private, public and civic spaces.
Gender-discriminatory faith norms and practices, usually rooted in religious conservatism, in some cases extremism, and misinterpretation of religious and sacred texts.
Constrained resource capacity, societal backlash and threats to safety and security of feminist and women’s rights advocates and civil society organisations (CSOs).
The YW4A programme therefore uses the following approaches to address this:
A feminist and women’s rights approachwhich is based on the universality of human rights, and challenges existing unequal and discriminatory power relations. YW4A centralises young women’s leadership, voice, and agency in this change process.
An ecosystem approachfounded on the interactions of complementary advocacy strategies and diverse consortium partners and their networks.
An intergenerational and youth approachrooted in intergenerational dialogue, mentorship and action, centred on young women’s leadership being vital for a sustainable, strong, and progressive women’s empowerment movement.
A faith-based approach that recognises that in contexts where religion is a salient aspect of culture, engaging faith actors offers an inalienable pathway of influencing change to address SGBV and gender discrimination.
A community-based approachthat is participatory and acknowledges communities’ role in constructing norms, attitudes, and behaviours towards women’s rights and gender equality. This includes engendering positive masculinities among men and boys.
A partnership and alliance engagement approachthat values collective action for lasting social change, by bringing together the Netherlands Government, young women, feminists, and gender equality champions, faith-based advocates, gender researchers, and legal and policy experts. YW4A facilitates common ground and convergence with various WROs, FBOs, and other women’s rights advocates for learning and exchange, as well as joint action to influence norms, policies and laws that protect the rights of women in the four countries.
When you, your husband and son wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning because of the sounds of explosions, you can’t even imagine that this is war. The war in the center of Europe, in the 21st century, in a peaceful, beautiful country. Only yesterday every woman here was making plans for herself and her family, waiting for spring and warmth to come, but today’s reality is that each of us have to survive, falling asleep and waking up to the sounds of explosions, cannonade and air raid sirens. Some of our women in order to save their children or old parents from danger were forced to travel up to 60 – 80 hours on unsafe roads to reach Western Ukraine and the western border.
Each day we can see young women with little kids on their arms trying to get on train at the Kiev railway station to move to the safe places. But there are not enough carriages for all. So, they have to live at the station for days in terrible conditions, expecting they have more luck the next day.
Many of us who have not moved to a safe place spend a lot of time in bomb shelters, or sleep at night on the bathroom floor or in the corridors of our apartments near the load-bearing walls. This is our reality now.
The heart of every Ukrainian woman shrinks from pain and anxiety for her family. But Ukrainian women always were strong and now they are standing shoulder to shoulder with men, fighting on the front lines against Russian aggression, doing volunteer work or crowdfunding.
The woman is a peacemaker by nature. That is why I appeal to you, the women of the world, to put the maximum efforts to stop this madness.
World YWCA, though the YW4A programme, has for the first time, since the development of its RiseUp! Leadership training model in 2010, rolled out the training to MENA and the Africa Regions. RiseUp! provides peer to peer leadership and advocacy training to young women and supports them to build knowledge, skills and networks to take action on issues that are important in their lives, such as violence against women and girls, sexual and reproductive health and rights, climate justice and gender equality. The model has supported young women to build knowledge and confidence, challenging the human rights violations and negative attitudes that are barriers to the full realization of their leadership capabilities.
One of the critical components of the RiseUp! Leadership training model is the safe spaces, a concept used by women, young women and girls to share their leadership in a consultative and collaborative way. The YWCA movement has been providing safe spaces for women, young women and girls since 1855. Their use and purpose have evolved over the years to respond to its member’s empowerment needs, including the concept of creating virtual safe spaces, propelled by the global Covid-19 crisis in 2020. Safe spaces are guided by eight principles – accessible and safe location, leadership and participation, accurate and reliable information, building trust, holistic approach, Inter-generational co-operation, dignity and respect and partnership and accountability. These elements are further discussed in the this simple to use toolkit.
It is with these principles and elements that the YW4A programme sought to co-create safe spaces for young women in Egypt during the recently concluded Rise Up! training in Egypt. In a country where safe public spaces are a myth[1], it is reported that 99.3% have faced a form harassment in public space. It is argued that there are few public spaces where young women feel safe to convene. Indeed, the young women welcomed the idea wholeheartedly. The young women envisioned four critical roles of the clubs:
A place of relaxation and entertainment. Comments like ‘we would like a space where we can let our hair down and be ourselves away from home.’ dominated the discussion. To the young women, spaces outside the home where they can unwind and connect with fellow young women are limited. The safe spaces within the programme would provide such a platform.
A place for economic advancement. The young women felt these safe spaces would be a platform to explore their crafts and interactive theatre and result to improvement of their economic potential
A place for trauma informed care. The young women would feel safe enough to share their experiences and receive the necessary support they would need.
A place for learning and mentorship. To them, the clubs would be a place to share experiences and jointly seek solutions and be mentored along their leadership journey.
Other considerations made revolved around rules of engagement specific to the context. For example, to ensure safety and security, the safe spaces should not have door men /gate keeper restricting entry by young women, be close to public transportation to ease access and have a safe space guardian. To ensure dignity, respect and accountability, they recommended good furniture, motivational quotes on the wall, inspiring artwork among other recommendations. The YW4A programme will support the establishment of young woman club as safe spaces in Egypt based on these recommendations.
[1] Jan Braker Architekt, 2019. ‘Women in Egypt The myth of a safe public space.’
A global interfaith convention held in Nairobi, Kenya in December 2021
Faith to Action Network’s vision for the YW4A programme is that social norms and practices by community actors and faith organisations are shifted towards promoting young women’s rights to dignity, bodily integrity, and equal participation in decision-making.
Faith to Action Network brings to the programme its experience and understanding of religion as a salient aspect of culture, and, therefore, faith actors’ influence and potential to strengthen and diversify young women’s participation and amplify their voices to effectively influence decision making towards gender- just laws, policies, norms and practices related to their bodily integrity and equal participation. Faith to Action Network will build the capacity of faith actors who will then challenge gender-discriminatory social norms and promote women’s rights. This will be done through local social and behavioural change communication by faith champions, opinion leaders, and groups.
Apostolic Women Empowerment Trust at ‘No Longer Silent’ Campaign to end SGBV
As a global interfaith network of more than 110 Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Hindu and Muslim faith organisations, Faith to Action Network mobilizes faith organizations’ support for family health and wellbeing. F2A focus on issues that faith actors are grappling with, including sexual and reproductive health and family planning; gender justice and women’s rights; peaceful coexistence.
Faith to Action Network combines innovative, evidence- and faith-backed community-based programming with national, regional and international dialogue and advocacy to influence change at all levels. Through this, our partner meets international standards of quality and accountability and ensure the relevance of our interventions to the everyday lives of faith communities. Since 2011, Faith to Action Network has influenced 47 policy changes in support of family health and wellbeing and women’s rights. The organisation believes that faith is central in women’s and men’s lives across the world. It influences their life, identity, and behaviour.
World YWCA recognizes the war being waged on Ukraine. The invasion by land, sea, air and cyber attack against Ukraine has put the lives of Ukrainians yet again in great peril. The YWCA Ukraine, for years, has been affected by on-going tension and conflict and today, we hear from women expressing fear, shock and anger. The women of Ukraine once again face displacement, danger and uncertainty during a time when war and aggression are chosen, instead of dialogue and reconciliation. YWCA has provided leadership in conflict and post-conflict spaces for over a century, and the global YWCA movement advocates for peace and justice in communities, countries, regions, and the world.
The YWCA movement stands in solidarity with the women of Ukraine and encourages all people to not turn away from this act of war, and instead rebuke it.
YWCA Palestine is leading the implementation of the Young Women for Awareness, Agency, Advocacy and Accountability (YW4A) programme in Palestine. Their strength is in engaging and mobilising young women, women’s rights organisations and faith partners to strengthen civil society in the country, and galvanise action to influence policies and legislation that promotes women’s rights. In the YW4A programme, Palestine’s advocacy priorities are to advocate for the draft law on domestic violence to be passed, the removal of the exception clause in the Child Marriage Law (2019), the drafting of a law on protection from / elimination of sexual harassment in public spaces, and improved implementation of national laws on local elections to ensure the inclusion and meaningful participation of women and youth.
YWCA Palestine was initiated in 1893 by informal groups of Christian women and was formally established in Jerusalem in 1918. The work of the YWCA is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and is hinged on the ability and potential of young people to be agents of change. The organisation, therefore, works to enhance young women’s access to educational and cultural activities, create and develop economic opportunities, raise awareness, and advocate for their individual and national rights. The YWCA also provides young people, especially young women with leadership and representation opportunities within the Palestinian society.
The 16 days of activism against gender-based violence is a global international campaign annually held between 25 November and 10 December to bring awareness on violence against women (VAW). This year, the dates will be used globally as an opportunity to raise awareness and advocacy around the topic of femicide or the gender-related killing of women.
In 2021, as the campaign completes its 30th anniversary, the World YWCA invites leaders, activists, partners and other actors to look at the theme from an intergenerational lens, inviting all generations to work together for a world free from violence of any form.
To co-create solutions for a world without GBV, we present our 2021 Toolkit and invite you to engage in this cause by using some of the following resources:
The latest data about GBV and femicide around the world (page 1);
Ideas on how to engage during #16Days(page 2);
Great resources to increase awareness on the topic (page 3).
Download it and contribute to the fight against femicide and gender-based violence by sharing the content in social media, planning engaging activities and/or advocating with other tools shared in this document!
You can also go to ourPadlet dashboardto get instant access to some of these resources.
Don’t forget to engage on social media using the hashtags #16Days #YWCALeaders #YoungWomenLead
In the YW4A programme, Ibrahimia Media Centre (IMC) is co-leading implementation in Egypt with YWCA Egypt, while working to build the leadership and management capacities of local partner women’s rights organisations. In addition, through its convening power of faith actors, IMC will facilitate challenging of gender-discriminatory norms in faith institutions, and engage men to challenge behaviour and practice that constrain young women’s rights.
The faith organisation also brings to YW4A valuable experience in media production for social change and a mission to engage faith authorities in a faith-led strategy for the reform of discriminatory family laws in Egypt.
IMC is a faith-based organization, affiliated with the Evangelical Fellowship of Egypt. It was established in 2005 in Alexandria to support the Arab communities in elevating to a better quality of life. The organisation’s mission is to promote peaceful co-existence and human rights through capacity building, creating common spaces, raising awareness, and enhancing communities’ knowledge on their rights and skills to advocate for their realisation.
IMC works with marginalised groups to advocate for gender equality, peace and reconciliation. Working towards advancing society to a better life, IMC works through the adoption, design and implementation of a set of development initiatives that contribute to gender equality and combating poverty in all its forms in Egypt.
For 25 years, the World YWCA has hosted an annual global campaign, held in the third week of October, to raise awareness, promote change and enable positive action towards ending violence against women, young women, girls and other marginalised genders.
This year, between October 18-24, we will unite under the theme “Intergenerational Action for Gender-Based Violence (GBV): Co-Creating the Future”to invite local YWCAs, partners, intergenerational leaders, young women and women of all ages all to raise awareness and take action to end violence against women.
In a context where COVID-19 still presents challenges to the development of women of all ages, we believe that intergenerational action is key to counter GBV and build a better world. To co-create solutions for a world without GBV, we present our 2021 Toolkitand invite you to engage in this cause by using some of the following resources:
Key messages to advocate on social media (pages 9-13);
The latest data about GBV around the world (pages 5-7);
Ideas on getting together!: how to engage beyond social media(pages 14-16);
Great resources to increase awareness (page 17).
Download it and contribute to the fight against GBV by sharing the content in social media, planning engaging activities and/or advocating with other tools shared in this document!
Don’t forget to engage on social media using the hashtags #YWCALeaders #WeekWithoutViolence2021 #WWV21
