Volunteers
upholding women's rights
By Lisa Saremel
Volunteer projects around the world help to empower women in many ways.
They provide opportunities for women to participate in broad fields of
work that they might not normally have an opportunity to participate
in. Volunteerism can also promote women's rights and provide much-needed
services in many areas.
In Syria, a photographic workshop organised by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) in late 2005 brought together groups of women volunteers working on various Syrian projects, such as the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The idea behind the workshop is that visual images send powerful messages and so can portray women in a range of positive roles.
The workshop coincided with International Volunteers Day on 5 December and aimed to give the Syrian volunteers the opportunity to learn photographic skills to help them communicate their work to others and to promote volunteering.
Dr Warka Barmada of the Syrian Environment Association, one of the partners involved in the project, said it was important for volunteers to learn how to promote gender equality through the portrayals of women in their images.
During the 1990s, a successful Iranian project involved women in volunteering roles in community health centres in major Iranian cities. After being provided with initial health care training, volunteers were initially involved in family planning matters, but eventually monitored other health needs within the community. This helped to promote not only women's health issues but also demonstrated the role of volunteers in society.
On the other side of the world in Latin America, UNV work includes a project to develop gender-based budgets in the planning of government expenditure. The aim is to recognise the value of women's unpaid contributions to society (through caregiving and volunteering), and to allocate public resources so that men and women benefit equally.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) supports the development of gender budgets in 30 countries and a new project based on gender budgets was launched in late 2005.
In five Latin American countries including Bolivia, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, UN volunteers will be placed with organisations in each country to communicate with the public and government about the need for a gender perspective to be introduced into budgeting and planning, and provide training to those working in this area.
More information
Read more about women in volunteering on World Volunteer Web
Read how UNIFEM and UNV launched their new initiative in Latin America
Visit United
Nations Volunteers (UNV)
Visit UNIFEM
The Centre
for Volunteering [ABN 28 002 416 024]
Level 2, 228 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000
T: 02 9261 3600 | F: 02 9261 4033 | E: info@volunteering.com.au
www.volunteering.com.au