Unleashing the Human Spirit of Women in Bangladesh

Summary of commitments made during the meetings with Joan Holmes

Overview

THP-Bangladesh is strong, expansive, deeply rooted in the principles of The Hunger Project and unequivocally committed to the end of hunger in Bangladesh. Given our strength, we are now able and committed to confront the major obstacle to achieving the end of hunger – the severe subordination of women in Bangladeshi society.

On the eve of the new millennium, we in THP-Bangladesh commit ourselves to a new phase in our work for the end of hunger: a dynamic campaign to confront and transform discrimination against women in ourselves, our organization and in the society of Bangladesh. We commit ourselves to unleashing the human spirit of women and empower women's leadership as our highest priority. The centerpiece of our strategy is to dramatically increase the number of women taking our animator training.

Eat Last / Eat Least – a formula for poverty

In Bangladesh, women eat last and least. They are malnourished, and give birth to children who are underweight at birth. Low birth-weight babies are permanently disadvantaged in all areas of personal development including health and mental capacity.

These practices are deeply entrenched within patriarchal social customs that are sometimes justified in the name of religion – a false justification. Not only are these customs not supported by the Koran, but the essential message of Islam is the equality of all people – women and men – before God.

Bangladesh pays dearly for practices that subordinate women. Not only is the persistence of this tradition a gross violation of the dignity of women as human beings, it perpetuates the cycle of malnutrition, ill-health and poverty.

Statistically, over 1/2 of the babies born in Bangladesh are underweight at birth. This compares with the percentage of underweight babies in the US of 7%, in Africa of 16% and in India of 33%.

In 1990, researchers studied the impact of four types of malnutrition and undernutrition worldwide. They calculated that the loss in productivity due to low-birthweight babies amounted to a loss of 46 million years of productive, disability-free lives.

The vitamin and mineral deficiencies that are suffered by these babies is equivalent to losing 5% of GNP. This loss of health and productivity is estimated to have cost Bangladesh and India together 18 billion dollars in 1995.

Why this persists? The subordinate position of women

To understand why this condition persists year after year, we must examine the status of women.

Women are the principal providers of nourishment, both before birth and after birth. Over 60% of women in Bangladesh of childbearing age are themselves underweight and undernourished. The women suffer from mineral deficiencies and deficiencies in iodine, iron, and Vitamin A. A majority of them are anemic. A majority of them are undernourished when they are of childbearing age.

The primary reason that children are malnourished in Bangladesh is that women in Bangladesh live in a subordinated, second-class citizen position. Women and girls are more undernourished, less educated, and receive less health care than their brothers. They eat last and least. They have poor nutrition and have little additional care when they are pregnant.

Traditional cultural attitudes place enormous restrictions on women's mobility – preventing them from leaving their house without being accompanied by their husband. They are prevented from meeting together for mutual support each other, or from engaging in any economic activity that would take them outside their home.

This situation must change!

As Joan Holmes stated to a meeting of 1,000 volunteer animators on November 13, 1999: "Without a drastic change, without tremendous intervention in condition in which the women of Bangladesh live their lives. Bangladesh will never achieve its full potential and the possibility and greatness that is inherent in the Bangladeshi people."

The Hunger Project is committed to this transformation as its highest priority. Joan's November visit to Bangladesh marks the start of an intensive campaign to retool and refocus the energies of The Hunger Project to make the most high-leverage difference it can to transform the subordination of women.

The power of the animator training in women's lives

The centerpiece of our new strategy is to have as many women as possible take The Hunger Project's animator training, and be empowered as agents of change in their villages. The animator training is proving to be our most powerful tool for unleashing the human spirit of women in Bangladesh.

In the last five years, The Hunger Project has trained 800 women as animators in its 4-day animator training. These women report a profound shift in their sense of themselves and their ability to make a difference in women's lives. Women animators have formed women's self-help groups. They have created their own enterprises and increased their own incomes. They have facilitated women to step out of their household, become literate and generate more income. They have have learned their rights – in the home and in the society. Women animators have become elected leaders in local government. They have campaigned against domestic violence and sex trafficking. They are speaking out to challenge old ideas, and create a new partnership between women and men.

The positive impact in men's lives

The husbands of Hunger Project women animators report a dramatic enrichment in their own lives as a result of their wives taking the animator training. An obvious impact is the increase in family income as women establish their own entrepreneurial businesses as a result of their new found skills and leadership.

At a personal level, husbands are discovering that the gross inequality in their relationship before the animator training had been at the root of pervasive quarreling in their homes – quarreling which vanished as their wives began to have the opportunity to lead lives of meaning and purpose. They report a newfound friendship with their wives – a discovery of shared interests and commitments. They feel pride in the contributions their wives are making in the community, and increased community respect for their families.

A new program of action

In order to dramatically increase the number of women animators The Hunger Project is able to train and empower, we shall:

• Set high targets – increasing the number of women animators we train from hundreds per year to thousands per year.
• Rewrite the Vision, Commitment and Action Workshop and the Animator Training to provide a more in-depth examination of the condition of women, provide information on nutrition and women's rights, and make unleashing the human spirit of women the highest priority.
• Refocus the Catalyst and Hunger-Free Zone Programs to give top priority to this issue.
• Rewrite the 40-point village self-assessment protocol, to be a more potent tool for sensitizing both women and men to key issues in the development of women and girls.
• Create an Animator Empowerment program to provide regular forums for women animators to come together, learn more, organize group action and support each other as leader.
• Create an Animator Trainer Program to train more women to lead the Animator Training, in order to increase the number of animator trainings and bring them closer to women's homes.
• Create and widely disseminate a brochure in Bangla that educates people about these issues, and inspires them to transform it.
• Carry out a campaign to have Bangladesh establish a National Girl Child Day, as a day of total national mobilization for the rights and improved conditions of female children.

Transforming Ourselves

In support of this campaign:

• Through every forum of Hunger Project activism, both men and women in The Hunger Project will conduct their own inquiry to recognize, own and transform our own attitudes and behaviors that marginalize women, and discover a new depth of their own commitment and moral courage for this issue.
• Avoid taking any actions that unconsciously perpetuate, reinforce or acquiesce to the prevailing subordination of women in society.

• Transform our own organizational structures to "become the change we seek."

Our commitment to women's self-hood and equality requires energetic affirmative action.

• We will commit ourselves to never train more men than women, no matter how strong the demand. Far better that we devote our energies to clearing away whatever obstacles there are to increased women's participation.
• We will commit ourselves to hire an equal number of female and male staff, even if this requires extraordinary steps in staff training and development and in acquiring suitable offices.
• We will place women's leadership in the forefront of all Hunger Project activities, even if this requires mobilizing extra funds from men for a special fund to pay travel expenses of women.

In addition, the Global Office of The Hunger Project will take whatever steps are required on its part to dramatically increase worldwide support and solidarity with THP-Bangladesh in taking these historic efforts.