The Mary Fran Myers Award Recipient, 2007

The Mary Fran Myers Award, 2007 Prema Gopalan 2007 Recipient of the Mary Fran Myers Award

As the Executive Director of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) for over 15 years, Prema Gopalan has supported poor rural women in building bridges with local government to facilitate democratic processes that are inclusive of women. The impact of Prema’s work is clearly demonstrated by the experience of SSP after the Marathwada earthquake of 1993. The Maharashtran government enlisted SSP to catalyze residents in 300 villages to learn, cooperate, and apply new technology and construction techniques, and their remaining government subsidies, to rapidly repair their damaged homes. When SSP’s initial appraisal found that village officials and homeowners lacked basic information and opportunities to participate in reconstruction, Prema quickly determined that the women’s savings and credit groups, although largely defunct, could be reactivated as community organizations that could inspire and engage large numbers of women to lead their community’s repair and reconstruction. Since then, the efforts of SSP in Maharashtra to engage women’s groups in reconstruction efforts have established a platform of peer learning exchanges enabling other earthquake impacted communities of women around the world to learn from these strategies. In earthquake and tsunami areas, Prema has supported women who mobilized to organize their communities to restore housing, livelihoods, community infrastructure and basic services, participate in reconstruction and create new, empowered spaces for women to continue their development activities after reconstruction was completed.

In 1999, Swayam Shikshan Prayog, with Prema Gopalan’s leadership, supported grassroots leaders from Maharashtra to share their experience with women in 8 earthquake devastated communities in the Marmara region of Turkey. In Gujarat, after the 2001 earthquake, Prema took a delegation of Maharashtran women leaders and SSP staff on a humanitarian/solidarity visit. Gujarat women were so moved by receiving a delegation of peer leaders who had survived similar situations, that they urged the women’s groups and SSP to return and come and assist them. This process was repeated, when the tsunami struck Tamil Nadu at the end of 2004. In all of these cases, Prema took care to work only in communities that invited them in, seeing the value of a women-led relief and reconstruction process. Last year, SSP partnered with more than 42,000 women organized in autonomous community groups in 889 disaster-impacted villages in three states in India.

Under Prema’s leadership, the SSP has partnered with GROOTS International, an international network of grassroots women, and served as their secretariat. In this role, she has facilitated the creation of training teams of expert grassroots community women leaders. These women-led teams are now available to support and build the capacity of women’s groups in high risk and disaster struck low-income communities across the globe. These efforts have been widely recognized as a model of good practice in the field. For these initiatives and for her sustained work with and on behalf of grassroots women, Prema is recognized as an expert in community driven, gender equitable disaster response and resilience initiatives which help transform the chaos of disasters into opportunities for women to lead and restore their communities.

For more information go to www.gdnonline.org

Women and Children: The Double Dividend of Gender Equality

Each week I receive my Executive Momorandum from Executive Mom.  This week I am compelled to share and celebrate the work that Marisa Thalberg does.  As a fellow professional mom, I admire her commitment to her family, her career and herself.  This year, as part of the celebration of their 60^th year, UNICEF published The State of the World’s Children 2007 Women and Children: The Double Dividend of Gender Equality where it examines the discrimination and disempowerment women face throughout their lives – and outlines what must be done to eliminate gender discrimination and empower women and girls. It looks at the status of women today, discusses how gender equality will move all the Millennium Development Goals forward, and shows how investment in women’s rights will ultimately produce a double dividend: advancing the rights of both women and children.(source:  http://www.unicef.org/sowc07/report/report.php)    So why did I mention Marisa?? Well I was thrilled to discover as part of this report, that Marisa was one of seven women from around the world that UNICEF profiled.  To see these incredible and inspiring profiles go to:  http://www.unicef.org/sowc07/profiles/profiles.php 

Key Points of the Report

Gender equality and the well-being of children go hand in hand. Gender equality furthers the cause of child survival and development.Gender equality produces a double dividend: It benefits both women and children. Healthy, educated and empowered women have healthy, educated and confident daughters and sons. Gender equality will not only empower women to overcome poverty and live full and productive lives, but will better the lives of children, families and countries as well. Women’s equal rights and influence in the key decisions that shape their lives and those of children must be enhanced in three distinct arenas: the household, the workplace and the political sphere. A change for the better in any one of these realms influences women’s equality in the others, and has a profound and positive impact on child’s well-being and development.Gender equality is not only morally right, it is pivotal to human progress and sustainable development. Achieving Millennium Development Goal Number 3 – promoting gender equality and empowering women – will also contribute to achieving all the other goals, from reducing poverty and hunger to saving children’s lives, improving maternal health, ensuring universal education, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, and ensuring environmental sustainability.

For the full report go to:  http://www.unicef.org/sowc07/report/full_report.php

Continuity Cares in New Orleans

Imagine living in a city, a large city where miles and miles of houses are abandoned, gutted and charred.  Where firehouses are barren, moldy and entire departments operate with so few men, their lives are at even greater risk for the job they do every time they respond to a call.  Where crime is widespread and where the local economy has collapsed.  Imagine this is an American city.  One where a generation will be lost if action isn’t taken.   

I don’t have to imagine.  Neither do the people of New Orleans.  Just last week I traveled to New Orleans for my regularly scheduled annual trip.  In addition to speaking at the Continuity Insights conference and spending time with our BCPWHO members, I had the privilege of participating in the Continuity Cares Initiative.  In cooperation with BNP Paribas North America, the Sheraton New Orleans, and various
New Orleans civic leaders, Continuity Cares was an opportunity to get personally involved in much needed construction projects.  This is not the only work this group has done and the work will continue and expand.  This is just the beginning of the series of entries on my blog about this issue as it is a complete outrage that families and their livelihoods have been destroyed and that they continue to be abandoned by their government and their fellow Americans.   

Now don’t misunderstand me.  I don’t believe the people of New Orleans need your pity, sympathy or charity.  They need your sponsorship.  This is a call to action to every person reading this.  And understand this is not just for the people ofNew Orleans.  We must look at what can be done in disaster affected areas and focus on grassroots initiatives designed to create sustainable communities.  Let each and every one of us be part of creating a world of empowerment, not dependence.  Be a part of hope and unity.  That’s how communities are built.  That is how we change the world.