Hope for Women - Journal Post
Island Bazaar partnered with Hope for Women as our Island Loop initiative for the first & second quarter of 2022.
The journal post is part of this initiative, to shed some light on some of the incredible works these charities do.
The blog post was prepared by Hope for Women.
Hope for Women (HFW) is a civil society organization from Maldives advocating to end all forms of violence against women, promoting gender equality and women’s participation in public life, since 2010. We hope to create a safe space for the empowerment and growth of women and our girl child’s mental wellbeing. We represent ourselves as a team of like-minded individuals, who want to stand up for gender equality for all ages and vulnerable groups of the country.
Hope for Women envisions a society where women and girls are free from the violence and discrimination faced by them every day; a society filled with empowered women, who’re fully engaged and leading all aspects of public life. Our objective is to pave a path in creating opportunities, promoting awareness and providing resources to all women nationwide. Some activities in fulfilling the above involve raising our voices over gender injustice and violence against women, promote dialogue and discussions on causes and consequences of women’s right violations, conduct trainings and capacity building programs on gender equality and also facilitate workshops and seminars on public participation. Most of these programs are led through Hope Institute of Research and Training; to identify the critical issues and gaps to conduct research on all the causes we stand by.
Over the years we have managed to work with local and international organizations alike; on different humanitarian causes and established a good working relationship with them. The collaboration and coordination amongst relevant stakeholders and CSOs are an ongoing effort towards sensitizing our society in gender equality and women’s rights issues. A memorandum of understanding has already been established with the key stakeholder of the country for gender equality, the Ministry of Gender, Family and Social Services. One such important collaboration is also with the Global MenEngage Alliance, and the work done to form a national MenEngage Alliance in the Maldives, to sensitize the population, especially men, in creating a safer, non-discriminatory society. It’s discouraging to witness the number of Maldivian women silently suffering at the hands of Domestic Violence, sexual harassment, harassment at workspace, internalized misogyny and FGM/C (Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting). The data collected from Maldives Demographic Health Survey, 2016-2017 indicated 13% of women in the Maldives between the ages of 15-49 were subjected to one of the 4 types of FGM/C. Due to the taboo that surrounds this topic, the factual awareness regarding the issue is very limited. Resulting in women continuing to live a life with numerous health, mental and sexual difficulties ambiguously.
Hope for Women has been fortunate to be able to work very closely with UN agencies since our establishment in 2010. In 2017, Hope for Women became the first CSO in the Maldives to be granted the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)’s special consultative status. It’s a privilege and honor to have the support of such reputed agencies, providing our community the opportunities and the platform to address the issues faced by Maldives to an international audience.
Our most challenging, yet crucial effort is focused towards providing equal opportunities and assuring women at the island level the equal resources to build their own communities from the grass roots. We envision a day for the Maldivian women to be resilient, to be empowered and opinionated unapologetically for their rights. We believe we are the generation with the possibilities, resources, capacity and knowledge to eradicate all forms of violence against women - raise our voices higher to empower, educate and advocate for the rights of women. As Phumizile-Mlambo-Ngcuka has said “There is no greater force for change, for peace, for justice and democracy, for inclusive economic growth than a world of empowered women.”
We take this opportunity to thank all our supporters and well-wishers, for their unconditional and continued support in all forms through our journey.
For more information you can contact us via: info@hopeforwomen.org.mv
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Hopeforwomen.mv and Instagram: @hopeforwomen.mv / @hopeinstitutemv
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