Projects Planned by African Women Council, Inc.

 

African Women Council has long term plans to provide programs for education, nutrition, job training, and business development for women in war-torn areas of Africa, particularly in Democratic Republic of Congo. Our planned program includes the following:

• Center for Women and Children focusing on literacy, health, hygiene, provision of food and clothing and women's’ rights awareness.
• Nutrition Center for children and training some staff members to run the Center.
• Education in husbandry/farming , vocational training and small business
• Computer literacy center

The sections below outline the need for these programs. In addition, the picture gallery also provides evidence of the great need of women and children in this part of the world.

Uniqueness of African Women Council,Inc. African Women Council, Inc. is unique because its representative(s) will travel at least 2 times a year to Central Africa countries,  particularly to Congo-Kinshasa in the first phase of its activities, to ensure that projects are being carried through, and will return with video reports for sponsors in the U.S .  The projects will be monitored by permanent AWC, Inc. representatives in the country, and quarterly reports will be provided to African Women Council, Inc.here in the U.S. All financial donations received by African Women Council, Inc. go directly to the projects.  

Education supplies, farming tools and  and other equipment/material related to our work will be housed on the premises occupied by African Women Council,Inc.to ensure that these tools,equipment and material are used by and benefit only those they are intended for.

 African Women Council representative(s) will travel to Congo- Kinshasa to conduct workshops and seminars for women on such subjects as building self-esteem and self-reliance capacities.These workshops will be recorded for future use as well as for documentation purposes for the organization and sponsors. 

Admittedly, grassroots african women live day to day, without thoughts of the future. The planning for the future being a men's privilege.   To help these women re-orient their day-to-day attitude toward life into a future focused mode of thinking , is to African Women Council , Inc.one of the keys to empower them.This effort will prompt these women to want to be combative instead of passively or readily accept situations ; as a result, they will acquire the ability to participate in the improvement and in the shaping of their own future and that of their families. 

The Need for AWC's Programs in Central Africa

Succesive wars in Central Africa have caused a lot of afflictions to the region in human terms: More than three and a half million people have died both directly and indirectly from conflicts in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone over the past six years. This is the highest death toll in any conflict since the end of World War II. As a result , millions of children are now destitute orphans and millions of women   have become widows without any means of subsistence . (Please refer to US State Department Press Release, February 3, 2005 ;United Nations,december11, 2004;Global Reports by International Rescue Committee, 2004 ; Nightline News by Ted Koppel, ABC News ; BBC World News, december 2004 ). 

Most of these women and children were already poor before the wars.  Now the livelihood of these already poor and vulnerable people has been totally shattered .

 

But if these women and children are given support, they can overcome their trauma and extreme deprivations, and begin a totally new life, looking with hope to a better future.

 

AFRICAN WOMEN COUNCIL, INC. is emerging as one of the foremost representatives of all who wish, from around the world, to help these women and children of Central Africa, not only depart from war deprivations , but also leave behind deep poverty by providing them means to acquire the capacity to build a better future for themselves and their communities. That is our endeavor.

 

Thus, AFRICAN WOMEN COUNCIL, INC. is convinced, at this juncture, that it is necessary to take basic education to these women and children ; with basic education, they will  acquire the aptitude to learn some skills ; and once equipped with skills, these women will be able to earn a living independently by working, for example, as organized small commercial farmers, bakers, etc. They will, from that point, become capable to provide for the basic needs of their children and be useful to themselves and their communities.

 

AFRICAN WOMEN COUNCIL, INC. predicts that this approach will result, among other things, in reducing  dependency of these African women on handouts ; it will also promote among them an interest in productivity and provide them some measure of self-reliance.

 

For AFRICAN WOMEN COUNCIL,Inc. , you good people out there are an essential part of our effort to relieve these women and children from dire needs. So please give your support to these most deprived women and children of Central Africa - as a matter of fact , the most deprived women and children of the World.

With your help, these very vulnerable people today can become tomorrow useful to themselves , even builders of able communities in their countries.

 

Thank you very much for the aid you are willing to offer toward this effort.

African Women and the Agricultural Economy

As poor and agricultural Africa shivers at the gates of the rich world, the women of Africa carry an untold burden for the welfare of the family. In this 21st century, African women are not just the most vulnerable subjects of the hunger and civil wars rigged society, they are the ever most diminished economic agents; ones who work harsh and long hours on the farms or in the ill equipped agro-industrial factories. Various reports from across Africa agree that for any given identical profitable activity, female laborers are paid a third or a half less compared to a male’s income. In addition to the burden of being remunerated cheap, women carried out exhaustive unpaid domestic activities ranging from childcare and housekeeping to providing meals and clean water for the entire family.

 

• Why are African women so vulnerable?
• Why do they seemingly accept such conditions?
• If at all possible, how can one help African women?

 

Solving this three-part questionnaire above is a lifetime project.

 

1. Why are African women so vulnerable?

 

Traditional views in rural Africa and their consequential mentalities among urban communities need to be addressed first. In effect, in the African society, women are confined with specific and immutable roles. For example, women have the duty to grow and maintain the crops up to the harvest; this is painful and daylong work in the heat of the sun on the farms. Hence a large percentage of African women are anemic as a result of their continued exposure to the hot sun. Men frequently migrate for modern jobs, whereas women don’t, as they stay put due to family responsibility—at early ages, females baby-sit their siblings; teenage pregnancy and early marriages tie them in place as responsibilities grow. One may add the low rate of female scholarship, as the tradition still underestimate a female’s ability to pursue modern education.

 

2. Why do they seemingly accept such conditions?

 

In small towns and villages it is hard to break taboos. Africa is one of those societies. In rural African societies, no one component can just change the way of life. For example, no African woman can successfully speak out against housekeeping, which is a task earmarked for females. In fact, in many countries, legislations enforce certain discriminative roles.

 

3. If at all possible, how can one help African women?

 

Education is the ultimate solution. However, help must address the needy African woman’s immediate burden. Indeed, in their present conditions, African women need to be free from the diverse exploitations to which they are subject. They must get help with childcare; they must have access to modern medical treatments. Birth control must be available. Most importantly, such help to African women must be provided not just sporadically, but rather as a sustained help at long-term.

The Rights of Women and Children

The Consequences of War on Children:

 Children live in camps as displaced people; they suffer from malnutrition and poor health; they are abducted by rebel soldiers to serve as sex slaves or free manpower in the extraction of gold, diamond, coltan, cutting or packing timbers in forests. Some are sexually abused, and in the case of pregnancy young girls lose their lives attempting to abort or during labour. There are also dramatic situations where children soldiers become killers instead of growing in the family as children and playing among themselves. To enrol these children as soldiers deprives them of their future in various ways. They miss out on education, the joy of social activities with peers, and the necessary mental and social maturing process that would allow them to be productive members of their societies. In several regions children are so extremely malnourished that family members do not know what to do, where to go, and who to turn to in order to save their children.  The orphaned children in these areas have created a new phenomenon, and a way of living for the children in Central Africa. 1. They are child- soldiers 2. They are children of the street who take the role of gangsters. 3. They are children who become the head of families by having to take care of their younger siblings, because their parents have been killed.  The trend or phenomenon of not sending children to school is an important and necessary matter to tackle. Children who are lucky enough to have parents still do not go to school because of costly education; even elementary education has been privatized and this hinders the majority of parents in these war zones because they have been made extremely poor and cannot afford to educate their children. The Consequences of War on Women: The condition of women continues to deteriorate every day. Congolese woman must continue to try and ensure that the family survives despite the very harsh conditions. Many women suffer through sexual violence that often times leaves permanent physical and emotional scars; for example some women are raped in front of their children or other people; newspapers in the east part of Congo (Kinshasa) reported that fifteen women were buried alive by rebels because there were protesting against the invasion of their country. (see Human rights at the bottom of the ladder by Alfred Kasololo in English or the original French). Some women living in the cities or big villages are raped by rebel soldiers 

African Women Council, Inc. believes that women who give life, nurture it, and protect it must work together in the spirit of sacrifice for the survival of the families in that part of the Central Africa region.  For these reasons, African Women Council, Inc., is very much in favour of peace. AWC, Inc is aware that with peace comes prosperity and lasting development; because of our concern for the future of these children, we the women of African Women Council, Inc. call upon  people of good will to help us improve the lives of these women and children of Congo -Kinshasa.

Rights of Women in Terms of Their Children: Congolese widows do not have the right to raise their children after their husbands are deceased. The husband’s family has the right to take away the children and all the property; most of the time these children do not go to school because the husband’s family has less interest in the children and more in the wealth of their father. In some cases the children are later returned to the mother—who has been left impoverished by the family-in-law. Congo -Kinshasa has no legislation to protect widows so they can raise their children with the assets of their husbands. Children need to enjoy life with their mother and the legacy of their father. 

Married women who cannot have children because of natural biological handicap have no rights over the property of their husband whether deceased or alive. Sometimes childless women are chased away by their husbands and are treated as outcasts.

These are some of the situations women and chidren of Central Africa are entangled in , and where they crucially need help from all people to live a normal life and look to the future with hope.