International Women’s Day - and what we’re doing about it!

It’s International Day of the Woman!

For those of us in the United States, this IWD may seem more of a social media “holiday” than anything – you post about it, celebrate some amazing women in your life, and carry on. But in other parts of the world – it’s a DAY. 

In Uganda, it wasn’t uncommon to see people hand out cards to women, give them the day off of work, and for the men to take over the household responsibilities for the day! In Poland, it’s not unusual for young men to be holding large bouquets and handing out tulips to women they encounter. In Saudi Arabia, they’ve extended the single day to be a three day event where royalty and citizens gather together to discuss women’s rights and make pledges for changing policies to ensure equal rights. In China, women are legally entitled to half a day off work (paid time off!). But around the world, mothers, daughters, wives, sisters, female colleagues, coworkers, and friends are recognized for their contributions to society.

We at FTG love this day because, well, obviously, we are an organization positioned to support and empower women, but also because we recognize that gaps between men and women on the global front (economically, socially, legally, etc) directly lead to oppression and the exploitation of women.

One initiative we are excited to begin this year is a new Women’s Health Curriculum. So many women lack access to formal education and even those that are able to attend schools are sometimes never taught about their own bodies. When I (Courtney) was living in Uganda, I was recruited to teach a sex ed class in one of the rural communities after several young teenage girls became pregnant and were seemingly baffled at how that happened. What I began tentatively ended up being one of my favorite programs. We started with a handful of teenage girls and by the end, had mothers and grandmothers attending as well! One woman who acted as the village midwife even said, “So that’s how babies are made?” Shortly thereafter, I asked some of the women and girls I worked with who had been trafficked and/or involved in prostitution if they would be interested in this class. They leapt at the opportunity as well for even though they had to rely on their bodies for survival, most still lacked knowledge about how these bodies of theirs operated.

This is problematic for many reasons. Without truly understanding women’s cycles, how can a woman know what is “normal” and when an issue requires medical intervention? Without knowing female anatomy, how can a woman feel confident in communicating to her doctor about what is occurring? Without basic sex education, how can a woman protect herself from STIs or family plan to ensure the children she has have adequate resources?

So in a similar fashion to our job skills courses, we are putting the finishing touches on this 8 week course that takes cultural, religious, and traumatic backgrounds into consideration as we hold conversations about everything from fertility windows to women’s right to education, from how to treat a yeast infection to dispelling myths about menopause.

We have even modified a tool to help women naturally family plan by turning it into a fashionable, wearable piece of jewelry! (Shout out to our high school volunteer intern who refused to create something boring that could be fabulous instead!)

This course will be available for women in our program as well as other women who would be considered vulnerable or who express interest in this material. And for every woman who participates, we will be funding a free health screening along with a follow-up appointment for any medication, additional treatments, etc that may be required.

It may not be the flashiest International Women’s Day project, but it’s incredibly needed. It could even save lives. If you’d like to donate towards this initiative or contribute in a more on-going basis, we would love and welcome your spending on women’s health around the world!