feminism + human rights.

Because people rule.

on giving.

| Betsy

Two new projects have been brought to my attention lately, which I’d like to share, both of which are accepting donations until December 10th. Both of these projects are not only for wonderful causes, but they are both for causes that are very near and dear to my heart for two very different and very personal reasons.

Supernaturale 6th Annual Scarf Drive

All donations go to Sanctuary for Families, a New York non-profit that helps women and children affected by domestic violence. This annual drive is very special to me for two reasons. This is first drive I ever sent a knitted donation for charity to! It’s mentioned briefly in the book, and I still remember shipping those scarves off and being so happy to be able to do something for people who had been through so much.

While fortunately I’ve never been in a domestic violence situation, I have been in abusive relationships. They were long ago, in what now, thankfully, seems like another lifetime. But I will never forget the powerlessness, the helplessness and the confusion involved in them, and how they turned my little world completely upside down for a long time. I’m still quite gunshy when it comes to trusting people as a result, and still wonder what could have healed more completely if I had gotten help at the time.

So sending those scarves to those women for the first time, I felt like I was sending them all my love and hope and acceptance in those stitches created by my hands. It was my greatest hope that they would wrap them around themselves to keep them warm and know that somewhere someone was rooting for them and sending them strength. It is for reasons like this that I earnestly believe in the power and the sanctity of the handmade and giving and loving without expecting reciprocity. Clicking either the link above or the photo will take you directly to more information about what types of scarves to send and where to.



Mama to Mama: Caps to Cap Haiti Project

Mama to Mama is a new craftivism project started by the always inspirational Soulemama that is collecting newborn caps and receiving blankets for safe birthing kits for new mothers and babies in Haiti via Konbit Sante, an organization created to improve Haitian healthcare.

According to Mama to Mama, in northern Haiti:

* Just 1 in 5 women receives skilled medical care during childbirth.
* Haiti has the highest maternal mortality ratio in the Western Hemisphere.
* 1 in 40 women will die as a result of pregnancy complications, unsafe abortion, or obstetrical emergency.
* Twelve percent of children die before the age of 5

My personal interest in this is due to a long-time concern regarding the health and welfare and newborns and their mothers, especially those with premature babies. In 1975, I was born 3 months early, a thousand miles away from where my parents were from, while they were on vacation. When I was in my early teens, I visited the NICU I was in for 3 months, and was shocked at the teeny tininess of the infants. The fear for my survival can still be seen in the faces of my parents and relatives as they relive the first few months of my life and how I fit entirely in my uncle’s hand.

Thirty-three years later, my birth still evokes heavy emotions from them. And I was born in a modern Cincinnati, Ohio hospital! What about all the babies that are born with problems to scared new mothers in countries without all of our technological might? They, too, need to be comforted and held and listened to like my own mother was. But in countries where so many horrible things are happening simultaneously, how can everyone be heard and comforted and listened to? The links above will take you directly to more information and what to make and where to send donations.

Both these new mothers and new infants, as they begin their new roles in life, need the same warmth and comfort and hope that the women and children affected by domestic violence do in New York. Or the children of Iraq and Afghanistan. Or the hurricane victims still suffering from Katrina. Or any of the hundreds of thousands of people that receive donations all over the world from charities.

The trick to starting to live more compassionately and openly is by figuring out where you’d like to help and for what cause…something determined by your own life experiences and histories. And then to reach out and do some good for others, whether it’s for someone in your own life who needs some help and support or for someone across the world. By being a tiny part of the change you’d like to see (or even the change you’d like to have), you’re causing tiny ripples, ripples that perhaps one day will become waves.

change.

| Betsy

After spending the past few hours hanging out with Anderson Cooper and CNN, they just projected that Barack Obama will be the next president.

My thoughts went to all the Martin Luther King, Jr, footage I watched in school as a kid and all the Jim Crow photographs taken around my native South.


Although I was hoping my prediction was right for the results, what I didn’t see coming were the tears of happiness streaming down my face.

No matter who you voted for, there is no denying, that yes, things are changing.

new shoes.

| Betsy

shoes

Although these shoes are from a discount-chain-shoestore that shall remain anonymous, I am currently loving them.

Unfortunately, everything I purchase is not guaranteed to be produced ethically. Even though I will go out of my way to buy items that were made with ethics in mind, I still use some items that are made without them on anyone’s conscience. This choice, however, continues to weigh heavily on my own conscience, as I strive to make the best decisions with my tiny budget.

And I know that I am not alone.

What can we do to combat this polarity?

Buying your entire wardrobe from independent crafters/businesses is not possible if your budget won’t allow for the extra cost. But, then again, going to T*rget and buying items with an increasing number of countries tags on them (Made in Vietnam, Made in Laos, Made in Bulgaria, Made in Peru, Made in India and it continues…) troubles me in a different sort of way.

I’ve been trying to come up with a solution regarding this frustration, but in discussing it with friends, see a similar type of frustration on their faces as well.

How can we afford to pay people what they are worth when we are not being paid what we are worth ourselves?

my continuing love affair with the seasons…

| Betsy

Here’s a little secret:

I <3 fall. Not THE Fall with Mark E. Smith (although I do adore them), or the falls I often make because I'm clumsy, but fall as in autumn. Today I went to the woods and tromped around in pigtails with some friends and we drank coffee from a flask and ate vegan muffins and satsumas. Fall is the time of year that makes me want to run around and create create create til my hands bleed. Fall makes me want to howl at the moon, take walks through downtown London holding hands, fling myself into huge piles of raked leaves, wear bright colours, go to the Battersea Dogs Home and cuddle with abandoned puppies, pull out my old Minor Threat and Operation Ivy tapes and sing outloud offkey.

Also of note, the following information was passed along to me and maybe you’ll find it meaningful, too:

16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is a worldwide campaign that provides opportunities to take a stand against gender-based violence and to mobilize around women’s human rights. The 16 Days Campaign, initiated in 1991 by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, runs from International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 25th) through International Human Rights Day (December 10th). The campaign makes explicit the connection between women’s rights and human rights. Over one thousand organizations in approximately one hundred and thirty countries are participating this year.

AIUSA’s Women’s Human Rights Program is once again participating in this worldwide campaign and encourages each of you to do the same. AIUSA’s campaign theme this year focuses on the murders and “disappearances” of women in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City, Mexico.

Background on 16 Days

In June of 1993, representatives of nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world gathered in Vienna, Austria for the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights. Women’s human rights advocates had worked for two years nationally, regionally and globally to ensure that women’s rights were recognized as human rights at the conference and that violence against women was included in the discussion. The resulting document, the Vienna Declaration and Platform of Action signed by 171 states, was historic in its emphasis on the global pervasiveness of gender-based violence and in its compelling appeal to governments and to the United Nations to take action to eliminate such violence. The document declared:

The human rights of women and the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. Gender-based violence and all forms of sexual harassment and exploitation, including those resulting from cultural prejudice and international trafficking, are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person, and must be eliminated.

Since the Conference, significant gains have been made on the international level for the movement to end violence against women. In December of 1993, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (DEVAW). In 1994, the UN Commission on Human Rights appointed a Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences to monitor the various manifestations of gender violence on a worldwide scale

In 1995, the UN held the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing where women’s human rights advocates again demanded that governments take concrete measures to improve the status of women. The resulting Beijing Platform for Action included a chapter devoted to eliminating violence against women. In 2000, the Beijing Platform for Action was reviewed by the UN General Assembly and the resulting document sought to strengthen governments’ commitments to fulfilling the human rights of women worldwide.

The murders and “disappearances” in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City are but one illustration of the rampant gender-based violence that persists around the world today. Join with Amnesty International and help end violence against women in Ciudad Juarez and around the world.

For more information about how to get involved with the 16 days campaign, visit here.

Screw summer, fall makes me happy. So go do good things as the weather gets cooler and you have to pull out the mittens and you can start to see your breath.

Rock on fall!