Women, Peace and Security

FAWCO's Human Rights Team presents 

THE STRENGTH OF A WOMAN TOUR: RWANDA

Since the genocide that tore Rwanda apart twenty years ago, this tiny African country has become a model for the involvement of women in all levels of government. Women have been at the heart of the country's recovery. While over 60% of the Rwandan Parliament is made up...

Genocide. What a strange thing it is. The need to wipe a group of people off the face of the earth! What a barbaric concept! Yet the last century has seen multiple genocides that have resulted in the loss of millions and millions of lives in the most horrific ways. We imaginative humans seem to come up with ever more ingenious ways...

When people seek to expand their families, adoption has long been considered an option. In recent decades, the number of infants available for domestic adoption has decreased due to societal changes including, but not limited to, greater access to birth control options, reduced stigma of one-parent families, the rise of same-sex-parents, and the increase in open adoptions.  

Adopting from abroad came...

Human Rights. FAWCO's current Target Project addresses the topic. We talk intensely about human rights, but thankfully, most of us have never experienced a severe deprivation of our own human rights, and probably few of us know people who have.  As much as we might care about the topic, most of our experience of the issue is indirect and...

This campaign began in 2010 in neighboring countries Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which had been torn apart by some of the worst atrocities of war that the world has seen in recent years. Women from opposing sides of war in these communities came together on a bridge joining the two countries in a plea for peace and...

Did you know that during World War II, the Japanese government systematically conscripted into “sex servitude” an estimated 300,000 poor and impoverished Taiwanese, Korean and other women through deception, abduction, and violence? If not, you are not alone; the existence of these sex slaves was only uncovered in 1992 when incriminating telegrams were discovered in the files of Japan's Defense...

The group volunteer project will be held in Amman before the Region 9 Meeting on December 3-4, with follow up on December 7. The project will involve painting, cleaning and organizing the community center of Collateral Repair Project (CRP),http://www.collateralrepairproject.org/, a small grassroots non-profit that supports refugees. Volunteers will work side-by-side with members of the refugee community and will be asked...

Mercy Corps http://www.mercycorps.org/ 

This international aid organization is providing humanitarian relief to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan. 

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) http://www.icrc.org/eng/ 

The ICRC provides water, food, medical materials and other essential items to Syrian refugees.

Save the Children http://www.savethechildren.org/ 

This organization is providing an array of services to young refugees in Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon,

The Human Rights Team has identified groups of refugee women now in Amman, Jordan, who are seeking economic empowerment through handicraft projects, including traditional Palestinian cross-stitching, crochet, felt work and sewing. The Team invites FAWCO clubs to collect and donate the following items to assist these women: cotton embroidery thread, small mesh cross-stitch canvas, crochet thread, felt, fabric (including large...

Region 9 is holding its 2014 regional meeting in  December (contact for details) in Amman, Jordan in conjunction with a regional project to assist refugees in Jordan. Attendees will be invited to collect and transport, through club or personal initiatives, donations of clothing, shoes, small toys, abayas and small household items to be given to various groups...