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Women of the ELCA celebrates it’s first-ever Bold
Women’s Day on Sunday, February 25. When I think about
how this organization has helped women make bold strides
in the church and the world, I’m reminded of courageous
women I’ve met through my job.
Working for the Lutheran
Office for World Community at the United Nations, I have
the privilege of seeing the impact that women from
around the world are making in the areas of HIV/AIDS,
domestic violence, and peacebuilding. Let me tell you
about a few of the bold peacemaking women that I have met.
I met Sophie from Zimbabwe,
at the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto.
She was there in her capacity as the HIV/AIDS
coordinator for the international headquarters of the
YWCA in Geneva. Like so many young women I’ve met,
Sophie is energetic, courageous, and cheerful. She is
also a person living with HIV.
Sophie is one of two White
women that she knows of in Zimbabwe who has gone public
with her status. Frustrated by the lack of information
about HIV/AIDS in the schools in her country, she
started an HIV prevention program for youth called
Choose Life.
“When I was 15, a health
care worker came to our school and showed us a book with
photos of people dying of AIDS,” Sophie said. “Their
photos showed their body parts rotting. This was
just not a message I could relate to. Like most of us, I
believed that couldn’t happen to me.” But it did.
The goal of Choose Life is
to make HIV/AIDS real to high school students and to
stress the importance
of prevention of the
sexually transmitted
disease. Sophie discovered that she could break through
to young people because she is someone living with HIV.
She is also proof that the disease is real but not
necessarily a death sentence. As a result of Sophie’s
program, an active group of 16–25 year olds is now
trained to teach others about the disease.
When she wanted to train other young people to continue
her work at Choose Life, she met with Zimbabwe Ministry
of Education representatives to talk about the strategy.
Sophie said, “I was told that it is
against policy for anyone who does not work directly for
the government to talk to young children in schools, let
alone, show them how to use a condom.”
To be allowed into the
schools, she agreed to take full responsibility if
anyone made trouble.
Sophie is also key organizer of
the Positive Women’s Forum, a one-day meeting for women
who are HIV-positive, to be held in July in Nairobi,
Kenya. Sponsored by the YWCA and other international
organizations, the forum launches the
International Women’s Summit that will focus on
women’s leadership roles in preventing HIV/AIDS.
Yakin has served as U.N. special rapporteur on
violence against women since 2003. In this role she investigates, monitors, and
recommends solutions to human rights violations against
women around the world.
She travels to countries
both rich and poor, at peace and at war, investigating
these human rights violations.
In Guatemala, she was
both welcomed and spurned. She visited with
President Óscar Berger, and the media covered her trip
extensively. Yet, she received multiple threats from
Guatemalan criminal elements — gangs — that are largely
responsible for violations against women. She was
forced to hire a bodyguard who was with her constantly,
but the threats did not deter local women’s groups, who used
the attention to gain access to government officials.
The results of her work are
difficult to measure, but she has seen success. In the
past three years, the number of countries tackling
domestic violence has surged, according to the U.N. Fund
for Women. Eighty-nine nations now have some type of
legislation dealing with domestic violence. Sixty of
those have specific laws addressing violence against
women, up from 45 in 2003.
“It has been a real
challenge and great privilege to address this important
task,” Yakin said. “The severity and extent of violence
against women worldwide is sad, but more women are now
resisting it. I know this U.N. mandate dealing with
violence against women is making a difference in women’s
lives, and that’s what keeps me going.”
Serving as assistant U.N.
secretary-general for peacebuilding support since May
2006, Carolyn is the first and, so far, only woman to
have overseen a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
In a previous peacekeeping
role with the U.N., Carolyn helped more than 70,000
people of Burundi, an East African country neighboring
Rwanda, give up their weapons and start a new life. In
her new position, she will help countries that are
emerging from conflict situations return to stability.
She will work closely with the newly created
Peacebuilding Commission, which aims to help
post-conflict countries avoid sliding back into war.
A life-long advocate for
women, Carolyn hopes to stir gender concerns into the
mix of her peacekeeping efforts, specifically as she
works to integrate Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and
Security into her plans. She has added a gender advisor
to her unit who will oversee the requirements addressed
in the resolution.
I am lucky to meet or hear
of bold and courageous women almost every day. These
women have made justice and human rights their life’s
work. Many positions, like those of Yakin, Sophie and
Carolyn are new — and they exist as a result of an entire
movement, years of work by thousands of women around the
world.
If you’ve felt pulled toward
advocacy work or to make a difference in the world in
some way, look around you, there are many bold women to
celebrate. Think about what networks you are a part of —
your church, school, community, workplace or country.
Let’s celebrate bold women’s day together.
Emily Freeburg is the assistant to the director at
the Lutheran Office for World Community in New York.
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