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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stump Mom Never told you?

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Speaker 1: From house Stop works dot com. Hey Thearon, Welcome to

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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Kristen, I'm Molly. So guys, welcome to

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Speaker 1: part two of our overview of the nonprofit Care UM.

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Speaker 1: And just to give you a little recap, Care is

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Speaker 1: a nonprofit headquartered here in Atlanta that UM has a

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Speaker 1: mission to alleviate global poverty, specifically by empowering women. And

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Speaker 1: they do this through multiple programs that cover health, education,

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Speaker 1: water and sanitation, micro enterprise development, and agriculture. And Molly

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Speaker 1: and I had um the opportunity to go and talk

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Speaker 1: to Malia Han who works at Care and she is

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Speaker 1: the director of Program Impact there and she's going to

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Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about the three areas that

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Speaker 1: Care has to address in order to affect change in

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Speaker 1: these women's lives. We identify the three areas that are

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Speaker 1: most important. The first is, of course, you've got to

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Speaker 1: have an entry point and you've got to address whatever

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Speaker 1: is the physical condition or the issue that women are facing.

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Speaker 1: So if in a particular context, healthcare is the biggest thing,

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Speaker 1: and you've got extremely high maternal mortality and you've got

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Speaker 1: very low levels of nutrition. Well that's got to be

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Speaker 1: one of the first things you address. But just addressing

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Speaker 1: that in itself is not going to change a woman's life.

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Speaker 1: The second part of what you've got to change is

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Speaker 1: a woman's ability to do things, and whether that's through training,

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Speaker 1: through building her capacity, giving her education, increasing her knowledge,

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Speaker 1: whatever it is, so just that, or providing her with

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Speaker 1: with things like credit and finance which allows her to

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Speaker 1: do things. That's the second part which you've got to

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Speaker 1: do in order to change um, you know, in a

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Speaker 1: in a in a long term way. But the third

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Speaker 1: part is the hardest nut to crack. And those first

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Speaker 1: two are actually relatively easy. I'm not saying they're easy,

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Speaker 1: they're relatively easy. The third part is actually changing how

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Speaker 1: people perceive women and how women perceive themselves, and their

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Speaker 1: ability to act in a society and what they're able

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Speaker 1: to do, and that is by far the most difficult things. So, Kristie,

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Speaker 1: when you listen, when we listen to mileah Han talk,

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Speaker 1: it seems to make so much sense. But then when

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Speaker 1: you actually, you know, roll it over in your brain,

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Speaker 1: it seems like such a hard thing to measure. How

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Speaker 1: can you tell if a woman's place in a community

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Speaker 1: has changed? You know it? It really did seem kind

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Speaker 1: of daunting to me, but she did give us some

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Speaker 1: ways you can kind of look at it. Um, you

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Speaker 1: can tell if a woman's place and community has changed

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Speaker 1: if you're doing let's say, an agriculture product. If when

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Speaker 1: we talked about this a little bit in the last episode,

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Speaker 1: if women get the extra income from their own work, Um,

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Speaker 1: if she gets to have decision making power over how

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Speaker 1: it's spent um. And when that happens, then you do

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Speaker 1: see how you know, a man or a mother in law,

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Speaker 1: per reception of her daughter in law or his wife

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Speaker 1: does change. Yeah, and even perceptions among other women in

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Speaker 1: the community. Now, to give an example of how this works,

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Speaker 1: we're going to use an example that's in the book

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Speaker 1: Half the Sky by Nicholas Christoph and Cheryl Wu Dunne.

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Speaker 1: We talked again about this last time. And if you

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Speaker 1: aren't interested in this book, if you go to Care's

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Speaker 1: website care dot, or you can buy it through a link.

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Speaker 1: Um that so, if you buy it through that link,

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Speaker 1: it takes you to Amazon, but still Care will get

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Speaker 1: a percentage of the proceeds. But anyway, they have a story.

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Speaker 1: They have many stories in this book. By the way

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Speaker 1: of how this works in practice, height can change a

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Speaker 1: woman's uh position in a community from sort of the

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Speaker 1: bottom up. They've got a story specifically about something Care did.

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Speaker 1: It's called a care package for Guaretti. And Gretti is

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Speaker 1: a woman who lives in Burundi and she has this

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Speaker 1: husband who beats her spends all the money on banana beer. Gretti,

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Speaker 1: on the other hand, has never touched any of this

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Speaker 1: money that goes to banana beer. And she can't even

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Speaker 1: leave the house without asking her husband, Bernard's permission. And

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Speaker 1: this really affects her children. You know, her children see

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Speaker 1: that if they need something, their mom can't get it

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Speaker 1: for them until the husband comes back and says, yes,

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Speaker 1: you can go to the market if there was any

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Speaker 1: money left over after all the money that was spent

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Speaker 1: at the bar. Right. And even if they do go

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Speaker 1: to the market, um, Garretti still isn't allowed to handle

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Speaker 1: the money. The husband will actually stay there with her

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Speaker 1: and pay for the goods, shield and carry home. Right,

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Speaker 1: So then care comes in. They form a women's group,

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Speaker 1: an association about twenty women who are going to get

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Speaker 1: together and just talk about their lives. And Gretti wants

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Speaker 1: to go, and her husband says no, and for the

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Speaker 1: first time in her life, she doesn't get his permission

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Speaker 1: to leave the house. She goes with her grandmother to

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Speaker 1: this meeting. Anyway, Now, what this group does is they

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Speaker 1: do all their work together, and that the women will

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Speaker 1: go to one family's field one day and do all

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Speaker 1: the chores, all the work till the land, and then

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Speaker 1: do another families the next day. And so Bernard sees this,

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Speaker 1: Bernard the husband and says, okay, I'll let you keep

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Speaker 1: going to this group. They they're doing my work for me, right. Um.

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Speaker 1: They all bring a dime to the meeting sort of

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Speaker 1: their dues. And what they do is they all make

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Speaker 1: loans to each other and um, then the woman is

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Speaker 1: expected to pay the loan back into the pool. When

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Speaker 1: Granny barrows her money, she uses it by fertilizer, and

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Speaker 1: that was the first time she had handled money. So

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Speaker 1: with this fertilizer, of course, she is able to have

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Speaker 1: a more successful crop harvest, so she makes even more money.

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Speaker 1: She ends up buying bananas and starts selling her own

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Speaker 1: banana beer that her husband, Bernard liked so much. But

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Speaker 1: Bernard had to keep his hands off of the banana

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Speaker 1: beer so that she could sell it. So she starts

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Speaker 1: making money off of this banana beer. She's able to

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Speaker 1: pay the loan back with interest, and then eventually she

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Speaker 1: goes and gets another loan, buys a pregnant goat so

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Speaker 1: that she is able to have goats she can then sell,

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Speaker 1: and so it just starts to snowball. You see this

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Speaker 1: starting from a dime that she invested in this women's group.

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Speaker 1: To all of a sudden, she is now basically the

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Speaker 1: head of her household. She's the breadwinner. She doesn't have

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Speaker 1: to answer to Bernard anymore. Bernard is now coming around

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Speaker 1: to her to ask permission for things, and it is

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Speaker 1: entirely revolutionized not only her household but the other community

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Speaker 1: because she has now been with all of her success,

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Speaker 1: she's now looked upon um by other members of the

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Speaker 1: community as sort of the go to person if there's

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Speaker 1: any kind of household dispute or that if they have

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Speaker 1: any questions about anything, they go to Gritty. Now Half

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Speaker 1: the Sky also points out that, uh, at some point

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Speaker 1: all of this could it's It's also kind of a

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Speaker 1: house of cards, you know, because UM militants could come

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Speaker 1: in at some point and raise just decimate her, her

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Speaker 1: field and her crops be gone. Or someone could steal

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Speaker 1: the goat, or Bernard could um steal the banana beer

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Speaker 1: and beat her. You know, there are all these different

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Speaker 1: things that could happen. But at the same time, it

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Speaker 1: is um a pretty powerful example of how UM just

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Speaker 1: with a little a little bit of investment, you're able

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Speaker 1: to just raise the standard of living for these women

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Speaker 1: and for their families. Right. You know, Bernard the husband

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Speaker 1: got malaria which was only able to be uh. The

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Speaker 1: treatment was paid for with Garretti's money. And a quote

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Speaker 1: that Kristof includes in the book is, you know, I

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Speaker 1: see my wife making money now, bringing cash into the house.

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Speaker 1: I have more respect for her now. So UM and

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Speaker 1: her children see this, you know, Like like christ And said,

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Speaker 1: it's a house of cards, But there are numerous examples

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Speaker 1: of how this can work and how it should work. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and it addresses that third area that Melia said is

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Speaker 1: the most difficult, which is changing the perception of women

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Speaker 1: in these societies. But one thing that care has also

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Speaker 1: started to understand is the fact that women really can't

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Speaker 1: do this on their own. It's very important. Um, and

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Speaker 1: you'll see this with a lot of CARES work that

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Speaker 1: they will go in and form groups of women that

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Speaker 1: can support each other. Women acting alone is very difficult.

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Speaker 1: So you know, just one woman by her self trying

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Speaker 1: to defy social norms, expectations of family, the traditional leadership

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Speaker 1: of her community and what for millennia has been designated

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Speaker 1: as her place is one an act of courage and

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Speaker 1: to actually sometimes even dangerous because you know a lot

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Speaker 1: of gender based violence takes place at that point and

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Speaker 1: so on. Um. So what CARES discovered that solidarity is

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Speaker 1: an extremely important part of that. You have to have

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Speaker 1: groups of women, women who can act together, women who

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Speaker 1: can give support to each other, and who can also

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Speaker 1: then use those platforms to say, you know, this is

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Speaker 1: not just me, or it's not just me being defiant

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Speaker 1: or being a bad mother, or being a bad wife

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Speaker 1: or being a bad daughter in law. Um, this is

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Speaker 1: what really should be expected of every woman. And so

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Speaker 1: for instance, we have a model called VSNL Village Savings

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Speaker 1: and Loan, which what we do is we get groups

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Speaker 1: of women together form cohorts and men also, I mean

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Speaker 1: it's not just a women's only thing. Men also joined

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Speaker 1: those and they're and they're actually just sort of saving circles.

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Speaker 1: They save, they get credit UM, they take out micro

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Speaker 1: loans UM. Now, actually we have a program that's trying

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Speaker 1: to cover all of sub Saharan Africa over the next

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Speaker 1: ten years, which actually then links these groups to financial

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Speaker 1: services so that women are able to get loans, they're

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Speaker 1: able to open bank accounts, they're able to transmit money,

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Speaker 1: which is an extremely important function which they generally are

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Speaker 1: sort of left out of. So we spoken Lahana asked

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Speaker 1: her about priorities for the coming year, and one program

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Speaker 1: that she mentioned was Access Africa, which is going to

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Speaker 1: be bringing basic financial services over the next decade to

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Speaker 1: thirty nine steps Saharan African countries. UM. They have this

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Speaker 1: model that CARE uses called the Village Shavings and Loan Association,

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Speaker 1: where you basically make loans UM into the pool can

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Speaker 1: borrow money against it, much like what Garretti did to

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Speaker 1: start her banana beer business. UM. Women borrowing from each

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Speaker 1: other in groups and women in the twenty countries where

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Speaker 1: CARE has used v s l A, the Village Namazing

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Speaker 1: Loan Association report increased incomes, sustained investment in their children's

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Speaker 1: education and health, greater self confidence, and increased respect from others. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and if you're wondering, you know, why, why are we

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Speaker 1: so concerned about putting you know, these monetary resources in

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Speaker 1: the hands of women. Well, UM taken to account the

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Speaker 1: fact that of the more than one billion people in

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Speaker 1: the developing world living on less than a dollar a day,

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Speaker 1: seventy percent of them are women. So I think it's

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Speaker 1: UM pretty important that they are UM going in and

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Speaker 1: actually targeting the women in these communities. And not only

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Speaker 1: the women, they're also targeting girls education as well, because,

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Speaker 1: like we talked about in the last episode that we

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Speaker 1: did about care, um uh NGOs and nonprofits have really

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Speaker 1: come to realize that investment in girls education is so

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Speaker 1: crucial right now. And so CARE has an other flagship

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Speaker 1: program called Power Within and their goal is by to

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Speaker 1: empower ten million girls around the world to learn and lead.

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Speaker 1: And basically the objective is to help these girls complete

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Speaker 1: equality primary education because there are a lot of obstacles

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Speaker 1: for a girl going to school. UM. For instance, you know,

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Speaker 1: she might not if if there's a choice between a

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Speaker 1: son or a daughter going to school the money. The

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Speaker 1: money is going to go to the sun. There might

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Speaker 1: not be sanitation facilities there um at the school, so

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Speaker 1: that if she is sick or on her period or

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Speaker 1: something like that happens, um, she is going to stay home.

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Speaker 1: There are also issues of rape and child marriage that

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Speaker 1: are also obviously going to keep girls out of school

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Speaker 1: as well. And you know, some of the most unique programs,

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Speaker 1: not necessarily done by CARE, but that are mentioned in

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Speaker 1: the book Half the Sky are simply just paying the

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Speaker 1: parents about what a girl could make with the day

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Speaker 1: in the field, so there's a financial incentive for the

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Speaker 1: girl to go to school. I mean, this is something

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Speaker 1: that New York City is experimenting with. Also, it's not

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Speaker 1: anything that's you know, new to um the developing world.

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Speaker 1: It's something that in the United States were struggling with

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Speaker 1: getting our kids all the way through school. And then

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Speaker 1: the third major program that CARE is working on is

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Speaker 1: called Mother's Matter, and this is really tackling the issue

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Speaker 1: of reproductive and maternal health to reduce maternal mortality for

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Speaker 1: thirty million women in ten countries by now here's an

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Speaker 1: example of how that works in practice. On Care's website,

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Speaker 1: They've got an example of a program they're doing in

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Speaker 1: Smalia where they're partnering with six maternal health care centers

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Speaker 1: to reduce the maternal and child mortality. It's called the

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Speaker 1: Safe Motherhood Project. Is providing family planning and medical care

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Speaker 1: during all the face pregnancy. UM. You know, a woman

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Speaker 1: could get education about how childbirth works, the risk associated

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Speaker 1: with childbirth. A lot of the stories and half this

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Speaker 1: guy deal with women who you know, they run into risk.

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Speaker 1: I mean they run into a problem during pregnancy or

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Speaker 1: delivery and don't even realize it's a problem, and so

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Speaker 1: they get so there's so much delay just getting to

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Speaker 1: a high hospital or to midwife. But by the time

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Speaker 1: they actually see someone about a problem they're having, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's too late. So that Smalley is trying to go

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Speaker 1: in and say, here's what you've got to look for

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Speaker 1: throughout the pregnancy, here's what you've got to take to

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Speaker 1: ensure a healthy pregnancy, and then guide them all the

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Speaker 1: way through delivery. And in addition to UM attacking these

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Speaker 1: UM issues with maternal mortality, Care is also implementing more

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Speaker 1: than seventy reproductive health programs in over thirty countries UM

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Speaker 1: to help alleviate problems such as HIV transmission, and also

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Speaker 1: help women understand concepts of family planning women and men.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of men, Kristen, you know, we've talked about how

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Speaker 1: care sets itself apart by working within the community to

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Speaker 1: change an entire community's perception. So how do you do that?

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Speaker 1: You talked to the men and we asked Leahan about

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Speaker 1: the role men play and care projects. You know, one

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Speaker 1: of the things that you have to do in order

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Speaker 1: to move these things is understand the notion of masculinity

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Speaker 1: also right, because there's certain expectations of what it is

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Speaker 1: to be a man, and those expectations aren't always you know,

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Speaker 1: what men want. They're just what is expected of them

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Speaker 1: and they know no different, and therefore they feel compelled

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Speaker 1: to act in the ways that society and their household

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Speaker 1: and others expect them to act. UM. So we have

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Speaker 1: a project in in Burundi UM which actually really looks

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Speaker 1: at this issue UM. Burundi, you know, as you know,

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Speaker 1: is a society that's had a lot of violence at

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Speaker 1: various levels UM over many years, and and one of

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Speaker 1: the huge issues in the society right now is actually

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Speaker 1: sexual sexual and gender based violence UM beatings and households husbands,

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Speaker 1: beating wives, being children is extremely common. And there there's

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Speaker 1: a project UM that Cares is leading there right now

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Speaker 1: in which they work with men um and they take

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Speaker 1: men to talk to them, men who used to you know,

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Speaker 1: and in their own words, I say, I used to

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Speaker 1: beat my life because that's the only way I knew how.

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Speaker 1: I go home and I beat her because that's what

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Speaker 1: I saw around me, That's what I saw my father doing.

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Speaker 1: I didn't know that there was any other way of being.

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Speaker 1: But now that I've stopped doing that, and I actually

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Speaker 1: talked to her, Um, you know, as a as a

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Speaker 1: fellow human being, my life is better, our home life

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Speaker 1: is better. We have better health because you know, she's

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Speaker 1: not constantly being ill. We're actually getting along better. And

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Speaker 1: and so in that project, it's actually the men um

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Speaker 1: they call themselves the Lightbearers because they've seen, you know,

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Speaker 1: they they've changed their lives and now they they've they've

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Speaker 1: themselves their volunteers and they go from community to community

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Speaker 1: and they hold meetings and they talk about their own

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Speaker 1: experiences about how they change their lives and how other

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Speaker 1: people should also change their lives. Um. I'm not saying

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Speaker 1: there's always you know, that level of success of men

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Speaker 1: leading the charge for the change in everything that we do. UM.

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Speaker 1: But we do work with men very very closely, and

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Speaker 1: it's really changing their perceptions of what it is to

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Speaker 1: be a man and what it is to be a woman,

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Speaker 1: and how the lives of everybody improves when you change

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Speaker 1: that balance. And I do think that it is important

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Speaker 1: to focus on men in addition to these women, because

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Speaker 1: even though CARE is going in and you know, really

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Speaker 1: targeting the women in these communities, but if you leave

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Speaker 1: out the men, UM, I think you're kind of missing

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Speaker 1: the point because a lot of these issues are really

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Speaker 1: just basic human rights issues. And UM. One of the

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Speaker 1: reasons why you know, we wanted to have this two

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Speaker 1: part podcast about care was because it really, at the

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Speaker 1: end of the day kind of boils down to a

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Speaker 1: lot of the stuff that we talk about every week

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Speaker 1: here all these women's issues that might seem just focused

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Speaker 1: on stuff that that we go through, but also have

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Speaker 1: effects on you know, men and children as well, and

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Speaker 1: talk about the importance of a community wide approach to

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Speaker 1: solving these basic issues. And I think the Leah has

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Speaker 1: some really compelling stuff to say, UM about kind of

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Speaker 1: how these issues resonate on a global scale. Now, some

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Speaker 1: people think that the feminist movement happened a while ago

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Speaker 1: and it's all done, and that's that's it. I don't

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Speaker 1: even know why we're talking about this. Well, first of all,

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Speaker 1: there's still a lot of work to do, even within

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Speaker 1: the United States, but also the realization that around the

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Speaker 1: world there's so much that still needs to be done,

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Speaker 1: and that it's not a Western notion. Human rights is

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Speaker 1: not a Western notion um. The worth of a woman's

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Speaker 1: life is not a Western notion. The right to education

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Speaker 1: is not a Western notion um. And that we really

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Speaker 1: need to move these things. So there's going to be

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Speaker 1: a backlash, there's no there's no doubt about it. Um.

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Speaker 1: But you know, being from um, you know one of

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Speaker 1: those societies themselves, you know itself. I'm from Pakistan and um.

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Speaker 1: The notion that somehow, you know, the the right, the

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Speaker 1: right off a woman to to control her own reproductive

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Speaker 1: health or the right to an education is something that's

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Speaker 1: coming from the West is such a false notion. And

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Speaker 1: you can use that and it is used very effectively

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Speaker 1: to maintain the statustico um. But all these sort of

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Speaker 1: arguments are always used to maintain you know, statisicals that

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Speaker 1: that benefit some people and don't benefit others. Um. So

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Speaker 1: I think we've really got to get over that. It's

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Speaker 1: not a Western imposed notion. UM. You know, there was

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Speaker 1: a there was a process that had to happen in

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Speaker 1: Europe and had to happen here, and it's still happening,

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Speaker 1: and there's a process that needs to happen there. And

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Speaker 1: you know, if you just if you believe that it's

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Speaker 1: the right of every human being to do these things,

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Speaker 1: plus if you believe that poverty really will not end

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Speaker 1: and we will not be able to make a big

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Speaker 1: dent in it until we actually change women's abilities to

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Speaker 1: live their lives in ways that they want to. UM.

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Speaker 1: I think those are those are sort of false arguments

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Speaker 1: that people used to to to set aside these issues

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Speaker 1: when they don't want to deal with them. So now,

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Speaker 1: the reason we did this two part care Um extravaganza

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Speaker 1: is because this is the end of the year, a

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Speaker 1: time when people might be choosing to make charitable donations. UM.

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Speaker 1: We think Care is a great organization. We really feel

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Speaker 1: good about how they're spending their money and how they're

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Speaker 1: using it to improve women's lives. But that is not

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Speaker 1: the We're not just telling people to send money. I

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Speaker 1: think that Leahan makes an excellent point that just by

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Speaker 1: being aware of what's going on and utilizing all these

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Speaker 1: resources that CARE provides it, you can do a tremendous

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Speaker 1: knot of just activism and raise an awareness within your

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Speaker 1: own community. This is our meager attempt to do that

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Speaker 1: UM in our own way. But let's hear from Leah

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Speaker 1: herself about what women can do to get involved. If

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Speaker 1: you feel like this is an issue that's that you

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Speaker 1: feel really passionate about and you want to help, there's

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Speaker 1: a number of things you can do. UM. You can

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Speaker 1: donate hopefully to CARE, but there's a number of other

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Speaker 1: organizations you can donate to who do good work in

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Speaker 1: this area. UM. You can educate yourself by reading, for instance,

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Speaker 1: Half the Sky, or there's a number of articles that

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Speaker 1: have come out recently in different magazines UM, particularly the

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Speaker 1: New York Times. Excerpt of this actually is a really

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Speaker 1: good short read UM. And you can and you can

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Speaker 1: start organizing UM and advocating around this, whether it's at

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Speaker 1: your local level or to your senator or to your congressman,

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Speaker 1: because I think again, having movement at that larger level

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Speaker 1: on this would be a really great thing. So you

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Speaker 1: heard it, folks, that's what you can do if you

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Speaker 1: want to help out. And UM, I do highly recommend

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Speaker 1: checking out Care's website. It's www dot c A r

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Speaker 1: E dot org. UM. They have a ton of information

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Speaker 1: on there about statistics programs they're doing, the role of

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Speaker 1: women in the developing country, links to different articles about

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Speaker 1: all this stuff, and it's a really great resource you

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Speaker 1: might want to check out. And we also want to

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Speaker 1: thank Meliahn for taking the time to talk with us

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Speaker 1: today and UM, as we've mentioned many times, if UM,

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Speaker 1: if you want to check out a really great resource

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Speaker 1: that's not only about things that CAN is doing, but

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Speaker 1: also other NGOs and nonprofits around the world, you should

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Speaker 1: check out the book Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof

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Speaker 1: and his wife named Cheryl Udin, which incidentally first married

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Speaker 1: couple to win the Pulitzer Prise. This is true. Yes,

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Speaker 1: power couple. And keep your eye on Care's website because

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Speaker 1: they're you're ready to do a big event with Christoph

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Speaker 1: and we've done about Half the Sky, which I think

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Speaker 1: if you've read the book, it's just it's suppressing because

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Speaker 1: you see what these men are up against but then

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Speaker 1: you see how they overcome it, and I think it

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Speaker 1: promises to be a really great event. Yeah and um

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Speaker 1: as always, if you want to send me and Molly

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00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:43,320
Speaker 1: some feedback, some thoughts, some comments, holiday wishes, uh, you

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00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:45,760
Speaker 1: can send us an email. Our email is mom Stuff

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Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com and in the meantime

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00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:51,240
Speaker 1: you should head over to our blog how to stuff

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00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:56,640
Speaker 1: And if you would like to learn more about charity

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00:21:56,800 --> 00:22:00,480
Speaker 1: and women's issues at large, should head on over to

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. For more on this and

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Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on

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Speaker 1: the house. Stuff works dot com home page. Brought to

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Speaker 1: you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,

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