Monday, 16 January 2012
Immigrant Women are fighting back
January 10, 2012 09:46 ET
Media Conference: Women of Toronto Say NO to Mayor Ford's War on Women and Children
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Jan. 10, 2012) - Toronto Women's City Alliance (TWCA), Good Jobs for All, the Steelworkers Women's Committee, Community Recreation for All, Immigrant Women's Health Centre, Women working with Immigrant Women, Newcomer Women's Services Toronto and the International Women's Day Committee representing the interests of women, immigrant women, workers, young people and children call for a halt to budget cuts.
| When: | Wednesday, January 11th 2012, 11 a.m. |
| Where: | Colin Vaughan Media Lounge (rear of city hall ground floor) |
| City Hall | |
| 100 Queen St. West | |
| Toronto | |
| Who: | Prabha Khosla, Toronto Women's City Alliance (chair) |
| Venise Antoine, sole-support mother of two. | |
| Arabi, Rajeswaran, Rexdale Youth TTC Challenge Team | |
| Ayesha Adhmani, Immigrant Women's Health Centre | |
| Amy Katz, Community Recreation for All | |
| City Cleaner, CUPE | |
| What: | Speakers will focus on how Mayor Ford's cuts to TTC bus and street car routes and fare increases; Priority Centers and recreation services; library hours; child care; community grants; and jobs at the city, will all reduce the quality of life of Toronto women and their families. They will be especially harmful to diverse low-income women and increase poverty in the city. |
Immigrant women more hesitant to report abuse
Although this story was written in 2004, the facts remain the same. Immigrant women are not forthcoming in reporting violence. They consider how this will reflect on their family and many fear they will be rejected by their community.
Being part of a community, being respected and included is something many immigrant women hold dearly. How do we unloosen their tongue and their courage?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2004/03/08/immigrant_violence040308.html
Being part of a community, being respected and included is something many immigrant women hold dearly. How do we unloosen their tongue and their courage?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2004/03/08/immigrant_violence040308.html
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Immigrant Women's Services in Jeopardy
Popular sexual-health program geared to immigrant women in jeopardy
Cam Tran, right, a counsellor at the Immigrant Women's Health Centre in Toronto translates for client Guangqun Xia, left, during an exam with Dr. Sheila Wijayasinghe, physician and medical director at the clinic Jan. 3, 2011. (Moe Doiron/The Globe and Mail)
Winnebago is a sexual health service that operates out of a mobile home. It provides services such as translation, medical and other support services for women who are poor, lack health coverage and having trouble accessing proper medical care. This service has been around for 20 plus years. This service is supported by City of Toronto which recently proposed a $200,000 cut to Winnebago's budget.. The proposed cut amounts to roughly 25 per cent of the Immigrant Women’s Health Centre’s city funding which amounts to almost 25% of Winnebago's budget. This comes in the face of growing demands for the service. The organisation will be left with some tough choices if this goes through.
Politicians such as city councillor Mike Layton are rallying support in an effort to spare the Immigrant Women’s Health Centre from the axe.
The agency currently provides outreach, counselling and translation in Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Portuguese, Farsi, Urdu, Hindi, Italian and Vietnamese. “We see a lot of women who have faced abuse, who come from countries where rape is not uncommon. To be able to provide culturally sensitive care in that situation, it’s a vital service for that reason.”
I hope the City of Toronto realises that this is a small price to pay for what they could pay if these women are not treated. They could end up in the hospitals, psychiatric wards and in other institutions where it would be much more costly to maintain them.
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/popular-sexual-health-program-geared-to-immigrant-women-in-jeopardy/article2290712/?service=mobile
Thought for today
Life istn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It is about learning how to dance in the rain.
Anonymous
P.S. I heard someone say that anything that is written by anonymous was probably written by a woman because in the old days women were not allowed to think or write so they wrote under the pseudo name
Anon.
Anonymous
P.S. I heard someone say that anything that is written by anonymous was probably written by a woman because in the old days women were not allowed to think or write so they wrote under the pseudo name
Anon.
Sisters in India is having a breakthrough the glass ceiling
...In March 2010, feminists and women’s organizations had celebrated the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the upper house, after a fierce 13-year debate among political parties. It seemed then that a battle of some significance had been won.
The bill would amend the Constitution to reserve one-third of seats in Parliament and in state assemblies for women. Despite sometimes chaotic proceedings in the upper house, the final vote was nearly unanimous, with 191 votes for and one against. When it passed, Brinda Karat, a member from the Communist Party of India and a longtime campaigner for women’s rights, spoke for many when she said: “The bill will change the culture of the country, because women today are still caught in a cultural prison. We have to fight stereotypes every day.”
...
Read more
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/world/asia/04iht-letter04.html?src=recg&pagewanted=all
The bill would amend the Constitution to reserve one-third of seats in Parliament and in state assemblies for women. Despite sometimes chaotic proceedings in the upper house, the final vote was nearly unanimous, with 191 votes for and one against. When it passed, Brinda Karat, a member from the Communist Party of India and a longtime campaigner for women’s rights, spoke for many when she said: “The bill will change the culture of the country, because women today are still caught in a cultural prison. We have to fight stereotypes every day.”
...
As 2012 begins, even the bill’s most ardent supporters acknowledge that India’s female members of Parliament have a battle on their hands. But some took heart from a statement made by the president of the Indian National Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, the widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
As the winter session of Parliament drew to a close with parties debating a proposal, which ultimately failed, to set up an anti-corruption ombudsman, Mrs. Gandhi mentioned the Women’s Reservation Bill and pledged to fight for its eventual passage in the lower house.
The first female president of the Indian National Congress party, the poet-politician Sarojini Naidu, would have approved. As a young leader of India’s independence movement, Ms. Naidu was among a score of women who campaigned for the right to vote. It took them from 1917, when the Indian National Congress party backed women’s sufferage, to 1926, when women could vote and run for some state legislatures, to see the first changes, and then several more years before all women in India had the right to cast ballots.
Read more
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/world/asia/04iht-letter04.html?src=recg&pagewanted=all
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