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COVID-19 Relief Updates

It’s been six months since WECO first carried out emergency relief to communities in Cambodia and India, while countries—especially lower-income countries—continue to grapple with the evolving pandemic. In early September, WECO heard from local partners in Cambodia that circumstances had worsened and communities in rural areas were still unable to work, meaning once again they were experiencing food insecurity. Without any support from the government, many of these communities are completely on their own in terms of finding income and ways to feed their families. In response to this urgent need, WECO held a fundraiser for $6,000 that would provide a total of 150 families living on the outskirts of Siem Reap with assistance. Our partners, local community workers Samuth Muon and Saven Ny, told us $40 would support one family for up to around three months with rice, noodles, seasonings, cooking oil, medical supplies, and hygiene products for each family. WECO was able to raise $5,000, which has enabled us to provide 100 families with this vital support so far. The following photo gallery overviews this most recent round of relief to families living in extremely remote areas around Siem Reap: As we look to the future, we hope to provide additional support to the remaining 50 families in need and our other partner communities that continue to face dire circumstances as COVID-19 drags on. If you or anyone you know is interested in helping WECO spread the word about these efforts, please reach out to us via our Contact Form. We will be raising money year round for current and future relief initiatives.

September 20, 2021

Emergency Relief in Cambodia & India

Beginning in March 2021, WECO heard worrisome news from partners in Cambodia (The Ponheary Ly Foundation and Women’s Resource Center) that COVID-19 was inching toward rural communities with elevated health risks. These areas were also experiencing food insecurity due to widespread lockdowns and discontinued programs that ultimately left many people without a means to work and feed their families. The virus spiked in Cambodia in February after four tourists bribed security guards and left quarantine early, which ushered in the wave of COVID cases in Phnom Penh and ultimately the entire country. The Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, has long been criticized for corruption and questionable connections with Chinese government and big business, and has been inconsistent in his response to the crisis. With the lockdown mandate in April, many Cambodians working in the informal sector (farming, factory workers, food & goods sellers, etc) were left with little aid or government assistance, which has resulted in severe food insecurity. In response to these dire circumstances, WECO worked on emergency food distributions with The Ponheary Ly Foundation, REACH, ABC’s & Rice, and Samuth Muon, a long-time worker and advocate for community projects around Siem Reap. The Ponheary Ly Foundation was able to purchase 80 bags of rice to sustain food pantries for student dorms and community food banks for six months, and REACH/ABC’s & Rice were each given 40 bags of rice for their community food distribution projects. Samuth Muon and his small team distributed food, cooking, and sanitation supplies to 100 families from Pong Ro and Ro Kayea villages. Each family received a 50 kg bag of rice, noodles, cooking oil, soy sauce, salt chicken powder, sugar, fish sauce, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, masks, and hand sanitizer. You can watch our short video to see more about these initiatives here. Following the crisis in Cambodia, COVID began to spread throughout India and May 2021 was the worst reported month for COVID cases and deaths in the country. Poor record-keeping and a lack of widespread testing have made these numbers especially hard to estimate, and as a result the death toll is much higher than reports suggest. Some figures indicate the actual number of infections is 15 times higher than the official count, which would make the death toll roughly double what has been reported to date. India is now low on oxygen, hospital beds, and medical resources, precipitating a crisis that is

June 10, 2021

2021: Year of the Funding Renaissance

“What does it mean to transform the way power operates in this country? How do we not perpetuate the same systems of domination inside of our own work as we reimagine what our communities can look like and what our institutions can and should look like?” – Alicia Garza, Black Lives Matter As 2020 comes to a close, many of us are struggling to stay afloat amid the unpredictable currents that have sidetracked and sidelined us this year. The world as a whole remains in dire straits as healthcare practitioners work to alleviate the pain caused by ongoing effects of COVID-19, along with the incompetent responses from far right leaders and administrations. Domestically, the U.S. has come face to face with social justice movements calling at once for holistic, inclusive, and equitable policies that fully address the depths of our nation’s toxic past with the intention, first to heal, and then rebuild it into an authentically diverse future. Where we go with this momentum in 2021 will speak volumes in the history books to come. In terms of the work we do with WECO, and of global gender equity, the development community has seen setbacks that could amount to years, even decades, of progress. According to a recent UN Women report, the impacts of the current health crisis could force an additional 96 million people into extreme poverty by 2021, 47 million of whom are women and girls. Women are also more likely to work in social care positions and are on the frontlines of COVID-19 relief work, meaning they are more likely to be exposed to the virus. On top of this, gender inequities are exacerbated during times of crisis, which means there are more instances of domestic violence and sexual abuse, less reported incidents of abuse and assault, higher rates of joblessness for women, and increased amounts of unpaid labor. From Insights to Action: Gender Equality in the Wake of COVID-19 (UN Women, 2020) Two glaring realities have been made apparent by recent articles and research on the state of global gender equity: more dedicated giving to gender equity is paramount; and, better gender data is fundamental for our capacity to build smarter, more effective gender programming. The 2018 Development Co-operation Report conducted by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), mirrors these conclusions as central to both preventing the situation from worsening, as well as building back a

December 22, 2020

2020 Vision: Reflections on Equity and Empowerment (Part II)

This post is a continuation of an earlier post exploring our reflections on equity and empowerment from the past year. Question #4: What role does implicit bias play in perpetuating gender inequity? “Worth is a matter of opinion, and opinion is informed by culture. If that culture is as male biased as ours is, it can’t help but be biased against women by default.” – Caroline Criado Perez Melinda Gates wrote a great deal about her experience working as one of the few women (if not, at times, only woman) granted access to male-dominated tech spaces in The Moment of Lift. She describes how the fear of backlash keeps women from asserting themselves as their male counterparts do in professional settings. Women in this context are not, as some may think, risk averse; rather, they are observant of workplace realities that could prevent them from succeeding in major ways. From her experience, Gates learned how important it is for men to take an active role in removing barriers to workplace equity and addressing workplace bias. On a broad scale, it requires leaders who provide ways in which women and minorities can effectively pursue their potential – leaders who listen. Men are a critical component in changing this narrative, through action and advocacy to create spaces accommodated to and designed for women, not only men. Worldwide, women continue to carry heavy burdens, often silently, in order to carve out a path for survival. Silence of this nature is isolating, and often the result of unconscious (or implicit) biases that favor maleness as well as whiteness. Caroline Criado Perez describes how our culture is designed by this white, male default in her book, Invisible Women. After extensive research on the topic, Perez overviews the many gender-based data gaps that tend to prevent women and minorities from equal access to education, work, and care. There is a wide misconception in our culture of meritocracy: that we can work our way up the economic ladder through hard work and perseverance by making our own opportunities. While a nice story, it is one that undermines the privilege it takes to gain access to a majority of that opportunity. The few examples that are exceptions to this rule are not enough to make a major dent in the data that indicate our culture glaringly favors white males who live by a heteronormative social code. Data is

December 16, 2019

2020 Vision: Reflections on Equity and Empowerment (Part I)

“Wisdom is about understanding big truths in a deeper way.” – Melinda Gates December is a perfect time to reflect on the past year, to deeply consider salient questions about our personal, professional, and organizational development. As WECO makes plans for new projects in 2020, we’ve stopped to review our work thus far and where it fits into the bigger picture of equity and empowerment. Like so many development organizations, we want to prioritize making stronger partnerships and creating richer volunteer experiences so we can better achieve our mission of supporting women and girls around the world. We strive to use the resources we have to empower community workers who empower their communities. It’s been a winding road, at times – one full of learning and growth. In order to give plenty of space to this (very broad) topic, we decided to break it down into five questions over a two-part post. Answers to these questions are formed from both our experience and through various insights offered by authors who are well-versed in issues of equity and empowerment. At the end of Part II, we’ve included a list of our favorite reads from 2019. It is our goal that, by keeping these questions at the front and center of our work, we can stay on the right track in doing effective, ethical, and empowering work with communities we support. Question #1: Where are the gaps in equity and empowerment work? “It was possible, I knew, to live on two planes at once: to have one’s feet planted in reality but pointed in the direction of progress. For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self.” – Michelle Obama The world as it is needs improvement. Michelle Obama reminds us how we can live in this world while continuing to work to create the world as it should be: a new world, a better one. The key will be crafting an honest narrative as we build this new world, and engaging every character in the story of social change. For starters, we can avoid the Hero Narrative that’s full of colonial overtones, while also refraining from diving too deep off the Cliff of Criticism. Somewhere in the middle is a place where we can take a hard, compassionate

December 13, 2019

Women’s Empowerment in Pinagua, Peru

Pinagua Project Background Pinagua, small town near Oropesa, has an economy largely supported by agriculture and a community that maintains a basic standard of living. Unlike other nearby towns, Pinagua doesn’t have access to services for education, health, or related programs. Project manager, Luz Chapi, explained how especially women in the community live in the margins because they have very few options for making a livable income. After talking with the women – many of whom know staff through their after school programming for children – Picaflor House decided to create a project that would empower women with greater financial independence. Women in the area predominantly exist as housewives who are dependent on their husbands for resources. Most men in the community are contract workers who have temporary jobs that produce an inconsistent income. When income from their husbands is absent, women depend on farming and caring for their animals to survive. Their only option to get money during these times is through selling meat or crops at the market in Oropesa. Why Guinea Pigs? Eight families in Pinagua were selected to participate in the women’s empowerment program based on feedback staff had received from women who were eager to work hard to improve their situations. The area has a high demand for guinea pig (or cuy), which is considered a culinary delicacy in the Sacred Valley region of Peru. In collaboration with the community, the project was designed to assist women in raising and selling cuyes. A group of WECO volunteers from Portland, Oregon came mid-way through the building portion to work a couple of days with the community and lead a financial literacy workshop to teach women basic budgeting skills. The workshop was the first training women in the area had ever had, and will be part of an ongoing support structure in financial management. Ten women attended (including women who expressed interest in joining the program as it expands), and the workshop was translated into both Spanish and Quechua. Project Impact We know from research on economic empowerment how supporting women enriches entire communities because of how women tend to distribute earnings around their families and for social betterment. For this community of women, the empowerment project is critical in providing tools that will help them start their businesses. Women in Pinagua will have more control over their food production and income, and will receive guidance and

October 21, 2019

Measuring Women’s Empowerment Part Three: Real Social Investing

*This is the final part of our three-part series dedicated to deconstructing data, measuring women’s empowerment, and understanding risk/reward when merging for-profit and nonprofit practices. For-profit meets Nonprofit To put it simply, for-profit industries are profit-driven while nonprofit ones are values-driven. For-profit industries strive for large figures and more hierarchical definitions of success (i.e. ‘the bigger the better’). They standardize the making and distributing of goods and services that satisfy market demands and create competitive market responses. The business models they conceive of generate income and opportunities to scale, or else companies go out of business. On the other hand, nonprofits provide social services as dictated by a “market” of inequality, which we can understand as need. Each nonprofit exists because of a mission they have to address some version of injustice; i.e. they offer a solution to a problem. The purpose of nonprofit services is not to grow a market but rather to create balance where there is imbalance. This balance can of course involve tapping into existing economic channels and/or new markets to more evenly distribute resources throughout a community. However, lower-income communities will not be able to expand their market economies without considerable and consistent support. It is a process that takes community buy-in, building infrastructure, and collaborating with existing community leaders. Such a process takes time in a way for-profit industries are perhaps unaccustomed to. Nonprofit funders also tend to approach social impact investing similar to how venture capitalists treat their investment portfolios: by expecting a return on their investments. In investing, return on investments (ROIs) serve as performance measures used to gauge the success of a given investment. In a similar manner, human investment returns (HIRs) in theory indicate how much impact you have based on a given social investment. HIRs, however, can be problematic in how they take social issues and condense them into easily digestible figures. Nonprofits, especially smaller, locally-led ones, will generally not scale as efficiently as for-profits because the purpose behind their existence is not, first and foremost, to generate profit or growth. Their purpose is their mission. There’s a spectrum of how well they achieve this mission, of course, and that is where investors and nonprofit staff align: both groups do want to have the greatest impact on marginalized communities. Where they diverge is when discussing what expectations exist for reporting impact as well as quickness of program scaling (i.e.

June 10, 2019

Measuring Women’s Empowerment Part Two: Evaluating Stories

*This is Part Two of a three-part series dedicated to deconstructing data, measuring women’s empowerment, and understanding risk/reward when merging for-profit and nonprofit practices. Program Evaluation When monitoring and evaluating (M&E) women’s empowerment programs, it’s important to consider the processes that shape the lives of underrepresented women and girls – processes that often only in-group community members fully understand. Empowerment of this kind is realized through mentorship, coaching, learning, and capacity-building; it is actualized by relationships – and relationships cannot be so easily quantified or scaled. How we tend to ‘measure’ the quality of any relationship is how well it weathers the trials of time, and through mutual feelings of respect, validation, acknowledgement, and trust. We mark the value of our relationships with memories and stories of shared success. If building infrastructure is a primary goal of global development, a natural part of achieving this will be meeting community leaders where they are in the process of empowering their own communities. Overlooking this means we risk mimicking patronizing overtones of our colonial forefathers. Data alone is only part of the story. The ability to gather metrics should not dictate the existence of programs that offer incredible value for their communities regardless whether or not they have noteworthy figures. Anyone who specializes in social services work well knows: convincing someone who has experienced abuse or marginalization that they are worthy and able is a nuanced, often creative, process that must be mutually defined. It takes more than exposing a person to education or development; it’s helping them integrate within it, which can be a long road for those who have become accustomed to oppression. External circumstance (i.e. that which is easily observed) is only part of the problem. What lies beneath is years, at times decades, of harm. What really matters in empowerment work is encouraging a process that can be hard to measure or observe. It involves a person realizing what they are capable of as a blossoming of possibility. This can be difficult to translate to funders or funding institutions accustomed to reviewing application after application based on objective outcomes. Evaluating empowerment means understanding that it will take time and effort – and resources. The status quo of donor giving could use a revamp to encourage a more active arm in discovering grantees and providing support. This would mean providing M&E as part of the funding versus part

May 27, 2019

Measuring Women’s Empowerment Part One: Understanding Data

*This is Part One of a three-part series dedicated to deconstructing data, measuring women’s empowerment, and understanding risk/reward when merging for-profit and nonprofit practices. Landscape Metrics Metrics are tools we can use to drive accountability. They shine light in neglected corners on hidden or underrepresented issues, and can build arguments for cross-sector collaboration. In terms of landscape analyses, these figures lay the foundation for gender equity programs because they help us understand where we are. For example, recent research from Project Drawdown – an initiative that outlines the leading approaches to solving climate change – offers insight into how empowering women reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Of the ranked solutions (80 total), the number six and seven were educating girls and reproductive health, respectively. When combined, their findings suggest these two solutions are the number one way we can fight the effects of global warming. Research like this fuels our work to challenge unjust laws, traditions, and mindsets, and has the ability to produce transparency and progress for social change and development. A recent Gender Index Report conducted by Equal Measures 2030 likewise gives us noteworthy statistics to consider. One especially salient aspect of this report is that it included opinions from different stakeholder groups from aid workers to on-the-ground community leaders. Unsurprisingly, overall they found much remains to be done in order to reach the Sustainable Development Goal for gender equality (SDG 5) by 2030 in terms of policy accountability and follow through. The good news is there is some cause to celebrate; the bad news is we’re still far off schedule in achieving global gender parity; and the hopeful news is there’s plenty of dedicated people working to find ways to bridge the two. Unequivocally, those dedicated people will need greater support. Here are our chosen highlights: The Good: The number of women dying in childbirth is down by 44% since 1990 Around 1.1 billion people moved out of extreme poverty between 1990 and 2018 The percentage of girls who dropped out of secondary school decreased from 28% to 16% The Bad: 16 million girls between the ages of 15 to 19 give birth every year In 2015 women accounted for 60% of chronically hungry people worldwide Globally women earn an average of 60-75% of men’s wages Women perform 75% of the world’s unpaid household and care work Of all the wealth generated in 2017, 82% went to

May 21, 2019

A Conversation with the Women of Huilloc

An interview with the women of Huilloc

April 2, 2019

Women’s Empowerment Coalition is a registered 501(c)(3) organization.EIN 82-2215640

Women’s Empowerment Coalition is a registered 501(c)(3) organization.
EIN 82-2215640