Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas –FAWCO
(Special Consultative Status granted in 1997)
ECOSOC Quadrennial Report (2005- 2008)
Part I Introduction
Founded in 1931, the Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas (FAWCO) is a non-partisan, not-for-profit corporation that serves as an umbrella network linking independent American and international volunteer organizations around the world.
FAWCO is a network of 73 organizations in 38 countries on 6 continents with a combined membership of over 15,000 individuals. Since its founding, FAWCO has been a philanthropic organization of volunteers serving and raising money for charities around the world. Its members are involved in activities related to education, the environment, health, ageing, and human rights issues, particularly for women and children.
It has been a recognized NGO since 1995 and received special consultative status to ECOSOC in 1997. Since that time, it has greatly expanded its UN- related activities. It actively endorses the UN and it has been enthusiastically supporting the Millennium Development Goals(MDG’s) with several projects, including NetWorks, a program to raise money for insecticide treated bednets as well as tree planting programs, which will be discussed in further detail later in the report. FAWCO’s UN NGO activities are highlighted on FAWCO’s website at www.fawco.org and http://ngofawco.org and http://ngo.fawco.org/malaria.
Part II Contribution to the Work of the United Nations
1. Participation at United Nations Conferences and United Nations meetings
The FAWCO NGO Director and local representative attended the 58th Annual NGO DPI conference “Our Challenge-Voice for Peace” 7-9 September in New York. FAWCO’s Director attended the 61st Session of the Commission on Human Rights 7 April in Geneva and participated in statement regarding “Ageing and Rights and the Older Person.”
2006
FAWCO was invited to join a select group for a health advisory panel to World Health Organization(WHO) in honor of its work related to malaria prevention. FAWCO’s NetWorks program was featured in its publication as a model initiative. FAWCO’s NGO Director, local New York representative as well as FAWCO’s youth representative, participated in the 59th Annual NGO DPI conference entitled, “UN-Finished Business” 6-8 September in New York.
FAWCO’s NGO Director as well as the New York representative attended the 60th Annual NGO DPI conference “Climate Change : How it Impacts Us All” 5-7 September in New York. Four FAWCO representatives attended the 23rd General Assembly of Committee of NGO’s (CONGO) 5-7 December in Geneva where representatives distributed brochures related to the Eleanor Roosevelt Team, honoring Eleanor Roosevelt’s role in the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
1. On 13-15 February, two representatives from FAWCO’s Vienna organization attended a forum entitled “Campaign against Trafficking of Children” sponsored by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna, Austria. FAWCO’s two NGO Directors attended the 61st Annual NGO DPI Conference on the theme of “The 60th anniversary of the UDHR” held in Paris at UNESCO 3- 5 September where they distributed informational brochures related to the Eleanor Roosevelt Team, the website and 60th anniversary of the UDHR. FAWCO’s NGO Director met with Shamina deGonzaga, chair of the DPI conference in April 2008 in Geneva to discuss pre-conference planning and preparations for the DPI conference in Paris later that year.
2. Attendance at regular UN-related meetings
FAWCO is a member of the Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) in both in New York and Geneva. Representatives attend regular meetings of these groups and one representative served as Secretary for the CSW in Geneva. FAWCO is a member of the NGO Family Committee in New York as well as the NGO Committee on Human Rights in Geneva. FAWCO representatives have also participated in meetings of the NGO Ageing committee in Geneva and regularly attend briefings of the DPI in NY.
3. Work with UN- related bodies and committees
In 2007, FAWCO joined the Working Group on the Girl Child NGO CSW Committee-Geneva and helped publish for the 51st session of the CSW a comprehensive 32 page report entitled “A Girl’s Right to Live: Female Foeticide and Girl Infanticide.” Also, as a member of the same Working Group, it signed a statement to reaffirm the rights of the girl child. In addition, FAWCO has joined written interventions on “Girls Education” addressing discrimination in education.
FAWCO continues advocate for and raise awareness about children’s rights and women’s rights. Each year asks it members to write the US Senate to urge ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as well as the Convention to Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination of against Women (CEDAW). FAWCO has also regularly promoted participation of our members in the annual UNIFEM campaign to “Say No to Violence Against Women.”
In 2007, FAWCO joined with several other NGO’s to form the Eleanor Roosevelt Team to honor Eleanor Roosevelt for her work as Chair of the Committee that drew up the UDHR. FAWCO agreed to design and host a website devoted to Eleanor Roosevelt at www.erooseveltuhdr.org, which has biographic information about Mrs. Roosevelt’s life, information about the UDHR, other key human rights documents, as well as events related to the 60th anniversary of the UDHR. FAWCO also participated in the writing and designing of a bilingual booklet devoted to Eleanor Roosevelt and the UDHR. FAWCO also donated scholarship money for to the Eleanor Roosevelt Girls’ Leadership Workshop to encourage young women to become social activists.
FAWCO participated in the design and fundraising for a plaque for Eleanor Roosevelt and the Human Rights Commission that was dedicated by the mayor of Geneva along with other UN dignitaries on 5 December 2008 in the plaza in front of the Palais de Nations, UN headquarters in Geneva.
4. Initiatives in support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s)
In 2005, for our 75th anniversary FAWCO adopted a special MDG challenge, to raise $75,000 within one year. This would be the equivalent of buying one insecticide treated bed net for malaria prevention for each individual member of our organizations. Our clubs loved fundraising for this program and to date have raised $165,885.
In order to ensure all of the money went for nets and malaria prevention, FAWCO partnered with BioVison, a Swiss foundation doing the only large scale malaria field control projects in the world . BioVision projects in Malindi and Nyabondo, Kenya address malaria prevention (MDGs # 4, 5 and 6) using ecologically friendly pest control (MDG #7) and educate and empower women (MDG #3). FAWCO has also sponsored BioVision’s “Organic Farmer” magazine distributed to over 100,000 people a month in rural Africa showing how to improve local farming techniques and including locally appropriate health information.
FAWCO also been involved in supporting tree planting and reforestation related to MDG # 7 on environmental sustainability. In 1995, FAWCO started a massive tree planting effort in Casablanca now called the FAWCO “Millennium Forrest. This project has been written up as an MDG “success story” with over 30,000 trees having been planted. In 2007, FAWCO joined the UN Environment Program, “Plant for the Planet” and the “Billion Tree Campaign.” FAWCO’s Environmental Committee issued a “One member, One Tree” challenge. FAWCO now has tree-planting projects underway in Scotland, the Woodlands Trust in the United Kingdom, Greece, and Toledo, Ohio.
Every year FAWCO‘s philanthropic arm, the FAWCO Foundation, donates small development grants to charities and NGO’s making a difference in the world. Most of the recipients are organizations doing work related to the MDG goals of poverty reduction, education and health concerns with an emphasis on helping women and children. Here is a summary of recent grants given over the past four years.
2005 Development Grants of $3000 were given for obstetric fistula surgeries in Mali; malnutrition assistance in Tanzania; Girls Rescue in Kenya; Big Brothers/Big Sisters in Antigua & Barbuda; Madagascar Support for Children’s Literacy; and a women’s water project in Kenya.
2006 FAWCO Development Grants of $3000 were given for Hope’s Promise Orphan Ministries in Namibia; SOMA Home for Girls in India;Lubumbashi Orphanage in Republic of Congo; Malo Eye in Kenya, Radio Mostar in Bosnia & Herzegovina.
2007 FAWCO Development Grants of $3500 each were donated to the Lambs Project in Burkina Faso; Korogocho HIV/AIDS Home Care Center in Nairobi Kenya; Women’s Hope International in Chad and Ethiopia; Arche de Noe in Bujumbura Burundi; Integrated Bio Farming Technologies for the Blind and Handicapped in Sebete Ethiopia; Jumpstart for Orphans in Zambia and the Silk of Hope Project Cambodia.
2008 Development grant recipients of $3500 each were given to a primary school project in Assumer, Morocco; Peaceful Home for Children orphaned by AIDS in Nairobi, Kenya; Heart to Heart for surgeries in Shanghai, China; Mayday,Mayday shelter program for children in Carei, Romania; Grandma-2-Grandma helping those raising AIDS- affected children in Tanzania; Food for Refugees in Athens, Greece; Scholarships for Girls in Manila, Philippines and Mill Project Women for Girls in Senegal.
For more information on development, grants see www.fawcofoundation.org.
In addition to the Development Grants, FAWCO club members around the world volunteer their time to raise money for hospitals, orphanages, refugee camps, soup kitchens, as well as shelters for abused women as well as many other local civic organizations. FAWCO is proud to be a member of ECOSOC and to support the UN.