http://viewchange.org Videos from ViewChange.org (Filtered by topics: Why Women Count) en-us Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:06:00 +0000 Copyright 2011 Link Media, Inc. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-china-geng-liufens-new-world Geng Liufen met her husband in the large city of Kunming. But after witnessing how isolated women in his home village of Zuji were, Liufen decided it was up to her to change the status quo and help Zuji's women get the education, training and health information they needed to transform their lives. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-china-geng-liufens-new-world China, Gender, Education, Rural area, Guizhou, Childbirth, Southwest China, Village, Literacy, International Women's Day >> TITLE: Why Women Count >> TITLE: Geng Liufen's New World>> VOICEOVER: Zuji is located deep in the mountainous region of Guizhou, a remote province in southwest China. The women living here had never left the mountains, and hardly anyone had ever visited the village. But in 1998 everything changed. Geng Liufen met Zhou Yingzue, a young man from Zuji. They met when she was working in Kungming, a large city. Zhou took Geng back to his small village during the spring festival. The journey there involved taking the train, then a bus, and finally on foot since there is no road access into the village. It took them a week to get to Zuji. The couple got married and had a family. But they were so poor that Geng ran away from the small village several times.>> ZHANG YUE [Journalist]: You left your husband just like that? You ran away, you didn't care about him anymore? How could you?>> GENG LIUFEN: You are right. I really felt bad about it. My child, my elder daughter, was only a year old when I left the first time.>> VOICEOVER: Geng Liufen did care about her husband and her children. She decided that she had to accept her life in the village and instead she wondered how she could improve the situation.>> GENG LIUFEN: The women in the village are illiterate. They can't even read numbers.>> ZHANG YUE: Can't they? >> GENG LIUFEN: No they can't. I work during the daytime and I get them to come here and learn in the evenings.>> ZHANG YUE: So you convinced each family to study just in your small hut without electric light? How did they manage in the evening?>> GENG LIUFEN: We use the pot to fill the lamp with oil brought from outside, and then we light the lamp for their study. They have shown a tremendous interest in learning.>> ZHANG YUE: Yesterday when I was in the mountains I wondered how the village copes with people who are sick. How do women cope with pregnancy and childbirth? I guess they can't leave the village and it's impossible to find a hospital.>> GENG LIUFEN: I suffered a lot when I gave birth to my eldest daughter. The labor took three or four days. I nearly died when I eventually gave birth.>> VOICEOVER: Geng Liufen now leaves the village every two weeks, trekking over the hills to get vital medicines from the outside world. She has also attended a course in a hospital so she can help other women when they go into labor.>> GENG LIUFEN: And after giving birth to a baby, everyone should be careful. You should not have sex until after 42 days, otherwise it may cause vaginal bleeding and can even cause a massive hemorrhage due to the womb failing to constrict. This can be fatal. Are you taking notice of what I'm saying? Okay, you are listening now!>> ZHANG YUE: Besides literacy and health problems it seems the most critical thing is poverty, the lack of money. How can you help them? >> GENG LIUFEN: They worry about being given forged notes and it's a problem for them to bargain when they are trying to sell their eggs and chickens. >> GENG LIUFEN: Please note! All members of our community! Please come to the Public Activity Room at 12:30pm. I can show you from experience that if you think the note is forged you can put a little saliva on it and rub it. If the note produces layers when you rub it, don't accept it. When it is a new note, if it doesn't make a crisp sound when you shake it, the note is also a forged one.>> VOICEOVER: Geng Liufen hopes the women of the village can make some money for themselves. With some economic independence they will gain more confidence. In March 2004, for the first time, Geng Liufen and some other women left their homes and arrived at the market at midday after walking over two mountains. In the past women always needed help from their fathers or husbands to get to the market. Now they are here and they can sell their goods. They are surprised that they can earn money by themselves. Farm Women, a non-governmental organization, is also helping. Since it began in 1998 it has helped nearly 4,000 rural women. Geng Liufen also got the opportunity to learn more.>> GENG LIUFEN: Last December I went to Bejing for a training course organized by Farm Women. They helped me apply for a World Bank loan to set up the Women's Development Association in Shimen to help attract investment to the area.>> ZHANG YUE: Not do you have a broad international outlook, but you also know how apply for a World Bank loan to develop the Rural Women's Association!>> GENG LIUFEN: If we want to improve things, then access is a big problem for us. We still think that we are neglected because there is no road to our village, and so there is no chance for us to make any progress.>> VOICEOVER: Sometimes people rely on external forces to change things. Geng Liufen, however, with just a junior high school diploma, is leading the women of Zuji in gradually changing their destinies and improving their lives.>> TITLE: [End credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-fiji-determined-women In the rural, cane-growing region of Fiji, a new enterprise is revolutionizing the lives of the local community by providing an income for women who previously relied on their husbands, helping them scale up production and save money, and financing the country's only senior citizens center. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-fiji-determined-women Fiji, Microfinance, Gender, Agriculture & Food, Poverty, Poverty threshold, LinkTV Picks, tve, Why Women Count, Chutney >> TITLE: Why Women Count>> TITLE: Determined Women>> VOICEOVER: In the rural cane farming communities of Fiji, women have always been the homemakers and not the breadwinners. But the role is slowly reversing. Until a year ago, Anshu Mala took care of her home and two daughters while her husband farmed their cane land. When they started to struggle financially, Anshu used what knowledge she had of the traditional task of chutney-making to help to earn their living.>> ANSHU MALA: We weigh the mangoes and wash it. After washing it, we peel and grate it. And then we weigh the grated mangoes, put it in the pot, mix it with sugar and cook it for about one hour.>> VOICEOVER: She plays a leading role in the area's chutney production, an enterprise initiated by the NGO FRIEND.>> ANSHU MALA: Before we had land, we had a sugarcane field. But when our lease expired it was taken over by the native mataqali, so it was very hard for my husband to support the family. I have two daughters and my mother-in-law to look after. So it's very helpful when I work too. I support my husband.>> VOICEOVER: Vijay Latchmi's chutney recipes are used to fill these jars, now ready for sale at local stores and in the near future for export.>> VIJAY LATCHMI: I made some pickles and sweet mango chutney. These were tested at the FRIEND office and then they asked me to work with them.>> VOICEOVER: While FRIEND provides the kitchen, Vijay employs staff and secures a mango supplier. And with the income she gets for each jar of chutney, she is able to pay her workers.>> VIJAY LATCHMI: I came here and got work so I could earn money. When I wasn't working I didn't have any money. Now I can save money and buy the things that I want. I don't have to ask anyone for money.>> VOICEOVER: Tamarind chutney sales have financed the country's only senior citizens center. In this cane-farming town, everyone in this kitchen and this center plays a role in the chutney-making process and reaps the rewards.>> SASHI KIRAN [Co-founder, FRIEND]: Older people are able to take out the tamarind, so the center is able to buy from them. These women are earning money out of that, at the first level. And the center employs women and they are making money. And eventually all the proceeds are then [put back into the center]. That money is used to provide services to the older persons, and it may be a whole range: community outreach, wheelchairs, to just a cup of tea for the seniors.>> VOICEOVER: But the challenges remain.>> SASHI KIRAN: If you you're not monitoring, the quality drops. If you're not monitoring or supporting them or encouraging them throughout then the production may not be there. Because our reality is that the people we are dealing with are extremely poor or have been battered most of their life, and to build their esteem and to get them to a stage will take time. It's a process.>> VOICEOVER: At home, but making a difference, the villagers of a cane farming community are learning to save what little they have for a rainy day.>> KASANITA BOLOULUTU [Group Leader, Save Scheme]: The source of income is just catching crab in the mangroves. Some are cane farmers but majority don't have land, they are just cane cutters.>> SASHI KIRAN: In Fiji, we have a culture of borrowing, and for the first time we wanted to set them up to save on their own.>> VOICEOVER: These women don't do paid work; they are the homemakers. But they put aside a dollar or two each week from their husbands' earnings as savings for their future.>> KASANITA BOLOULUTU: I think they save only one or two dollars but for us that's something. We can save at least one dollar a week. >> SASHI KIRAN: We identify the skills needed when we help them get started and when they continuously keep coming back and telling us how they've used their money. They go through our budgeting lessons and then they start putting money away, and it's wonderful to see. We may not be reaching the entire country right now because of lack of resources, but we see hundreds of people every week where this has made an impact in terms of their income.>> TITLE: [End credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-latvia-born-to-be-in-business Vija Ancane runs her own bakery, shop, and bread museum in the rural village of Aglona, south of Latvia's capital Riga. It's one of 300 small and medium sized businesses to benefit from a new loan scheme started by Latvia's Land and Mortgage Bank to encourage more women to go into business. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-latvia-born-to-be-in-business Latvia, Microfinance, Gender, Aglona, Glass ceiling, Baltic states, Riga, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, LinkTV Picks, tve >> TITLE: Why Women Count>> TITLE: Born to be in Business>> VOICEOVER: The latest research in Latvia shows that in many walks of life, men and women are still not equal. The president of Latvia, Vaira-Vike Freiberga, tried to break the glass ceiling at an international level, when she stood for the post of UN secretary general in 2006. Forty-four percent of women here find it difficult to start up businesses. So, the Land and Mortgage Bank of Latvia had recently targeted support of businesses owned by women. This has been seen as a welcome opportunity.>> JURIS CEBULIS [Mortgage and Land Bank of Latvia]: The total amount of money we have given out in loans is around 40 million Euros. More than 15 million of it has gone to businesses run by women -- around 300 projects altogether. For example, we find this is very important in the rural areas, where people are no longer working in agriculture and there are no jobs. Therefore this support has a social aspect as it provides new jobs. But it is clear as well that a person who has a natural talent for business must be given the opportunity to be in business, and there are a lot of women who should be in business. And, as it is sometimes harder for women to start their own businesses, we are very pleased to be able to help them.>> VOICEOVER: People are leaving small towns and villages. They move to bigger cities or go abroad to earn more money. All this prevents rural development and harms the countryside. But with a loan from the Land and Mortgage bank, Vija Ancane has managed to start her own business in the quiet village of Aglona, 200 kilometers from the capital, Riga. She runs a bakery, a shop and a bread museum, which attracts a steady stream of tourists.>> VIJA ANCANE: Please, come in. Sit down, please! Sit down, please! The Aglona bakery, which had existed for 30 years, was closed in 2000. I lost my job too. At that time, I had two teenage children. My eldest son was finishing school, but the youngest had just started. I had separated from my husband and I had to find a way to earn money. Besides, I felt that I wanted to have a business of my own. And now, now we have got this big loan from the bank. We are developing. We'll be able to have a hotel upstairs for the tourists. It will be a very traditional one; the only luxuries will be a shower and a toilet. The rest will be a straw mattress and some bedding and pillows filled with aromatic herbs. We started with a bakery. Then we opened the shop as well. This is our Latvian black bread, made of rye, prepared in the way our ancestors did, without any chemical additives. When I started my business, I had a lot of questions. And I have to say that it's the governmental departments and bureaucracy that can kill anyone. If you approach them with a simple question, "Please, explain this to me," they act as though they are superior. "Who are you? How dare you ask us?" I have experienced this. I have been in tears. And now I keep repeating that women should come together and solve their problems together. This is why we also set up a women's club, "Forget-me-nots" in Aglona. >> VIJA ANCANE: When I have guests from abroad or from Riga they are never concerned by the price of my bread -- it costs 70 cents. But when the local people come, they say that they can afford to buy it only once a week, just after payday -- after they get their salary, the pension or their child benefit. We don't have large salaries. I know that my workers deserve much higher salaries, but life is tough. I have to count each and every cent now. My biggest dream is that one day I will become the real owner of this house. And I am sure that one day, this will happen. >> VOICEOVER: Vija's eldest son is at present working in Denmark. But next year he will be ready to come home to work with his mother. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-kosovo-women-of-krusha Nineteen-year-old Ardiana Shehu has worked on her family's farm in the village of Krusha e Vogel, in southwest Kosovo, since she was 12. She, her mother, and her sisters do all the farm jobs that were traditionally men's work. Why? Almost 70 percent of Krusha's male population is still missing after the 1999 Serbian military offensive in Kosovo. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-kosovo-women-of-krusha Kosovo, Balkans, Agriculture & Food, Ethnic conflict, Agriculture, Pristina, Gender, Genocide, LinkTV Picks, tve >> TITLE: Why Women Count>> TITLE: Women of Krusha>> VOICEOVER: In rural Kosovo, farming is still regarded as a man?s job -- and it?s not just pepper farming. Almost all other work outside the house is seen as men?s work. But Ardiana Shehu, from the village of Krusha e Vogel in southwest Kosovo, has been doing this job since she was 12. She is now 19. Ardiana and her sisters do all the outside work that only a few years ago was considered something a woman could never do.>> ARDIANA SHEHU: This work is very difficult because we are all woman. And as there is no one else to do this work, we have to do it. In my family, my father and my two brothers are missing and there are no other men who can take care of these things, so we women have to do them.>> VOICEOVER: It was in the spring of 1999 in the nearby mountains that Ardiana saw her father and two brothers for the last time. The men were separated from the women of the village by Serbian military forces and were taken to an unknown destination, while the women fled to neighboring Albania. She never saw them again. Since the end of the war seven years ago, when Ardiana, her mother and her sisters returned to their houses, they have had to take on all the work that their father and brothers used to do. But in Krusha e Vogel, Ardiana?s situation is not exceptional. Around 120 men, almost 70 percent of the total male population of the village, are considered missing. So far only six bodies have been found. Witnesses claim that all of them were slaughtered, leaving the village inhabited almost only by women and children. Ardiana?s cousin, Bedri Shehu is one the few men from Krusha e Vogel to survive. At the time of the massacre, he was studying in the capital, Pristina.>> BEDRI SHEHU: They have a lot of courage, because in the beginning it was very difficult for them to adapt to the work that had been done exclusively by men. Women?s work was in the house -- that has been the custom for generations. But as time passed they realized that they could not survive without working, and so they committed themselves to it and found the courage to carry on.>> VOICEOVER: The women now make a modest living growing peppers to sell at the market. They didn?t know anything about this business until after the war. But thanks to a Kosovan Non Governmental Organization, Sisters Qiriazi, the women received training in farming and learned to drive the tractor. After the war ended, the coordinator, Marta Prekpalaj, started working in Krusha e Vogel.>> MARTA PREKPALAJ [Regional Coordinator, Qiriazi Sisters]: First I went from house to house with all my staff. We stayed with the women and ate with them too. Then we started organizing meetings in the school building, and talked with the women and girls who they gave us their ideas. We renovated a private house and opened the Qiriazi Sisters Center. Then the women gave us more suggestions and we publicized what had happened in Krusha e Vogel through the media and the Internet. Through this exposure a lot of donors came. It was the women themselves who came up with the ideas for the training courses.>> VOICEOVER: The Qiriazi Sisters didn?t just teach the women of Krusha about farming and how to drive -- they also taught them other professions. Lavdije Shehu also lost her husband, and now she is the sole breadwinner for herself and her two sons who are at primary school. >> LAVDIJE SHEHU: If I hadn?t learned how to be a tailor I wouldn?t have been able to survive, I wouldn?t have been able to support my family. My children wanted to go to school and I would?ve let them down.>> VOICEOVER: In Kosovo today, around 60 percent of the population are women, but only 30 percent of them are part of the general work force. On average, they are paid four times less than men.>> MARTA PREKPALAJ: Very often those of us who are working towards gender equality and on gender issues are seen as feminists and only working for women. We work for both genders. Without prosperity for men and women alike, Kosovo cannot develop.>> VOICEOVER: Despite this huge tragedy, and all the difficulties that they?ve been through, the children in the village look happy. This would not have been achieved without the love, courage and hard work of their mothers, the women of Krusha.>> TITLE: [End credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-uganda-enterprising-women Grace Lwemamu is manager of the family business Mulya Maize in Uganda. Mary Kaddu runs her own supermarket business. But both felt their lack of management expertise was holding them back. Now they have taken part in a new national mentoring scheme, pairing experienced businesswomen with would-be entrepreneurs in Uganda, equipping them with new confidence and negotiating skills. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 11:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-uganda-enterprising-women Uganda, Gender, Technology, Education, Business, Microfinance, LinkTV Picks, tve, Why Women Count >> TITLE: Why Women Count>> TITLE: Enterprising Women>> VOICEOVER: In Uganda successful professional and businesswomen are often put on a pedestal, celebrated yet isolated from the women beneath them. This situation makes it difficult for younger women to see them as role models. Women make up 40 percent of university graduates, yet only half of them find formal employment within two years of graduating. And now with the formal job market shrinking, many women are turning to the enterprise economy, setting up small and medium-sized businesses on their own or with their families. Grace graduated in design, but she is now working in the family maize-milling business. She needs to learn some essential skills to help her succeed. >> GRACE LWEMAMU [Manager, Mulya Maize Millers and Traders]: The people I work with -- the workers, mainly -- didn't ever recognize me as their manager. I don't know whether it was because I'm a woman or because I was young at that time. I don't know exactly. You tell them to do something, they first hesitate then you have to contact the director to see that something gets done.>> VOICEOVER: Breaking into the business world has been hard for many women in Uganda because women have far fewer role models. Now a new scheme set up by the British Council is giving young women the opportunity to be matched with experienced business and professional women. >> BOB GARVEY [Trainer, Mentoring Program]: Women in particular are very good at this because they tend to have a lot of motivation, are very creative, innovative, tend to be very determined to make these things succeed. And also something that women are very good at is relating to other people, persuading other people and so on, which are all important business skills in today's economy.>> VOICEOVER: At the Mothers of Hope Mentoring Club for HIV positive women, older members share their experiences with new members. Through this process, Jennifer and her friend have been able to set up a shop selling handicrafts and second-hand clothing.>> JENNIFER NAMUGERWA [Mothers of Hope, African Mentoring Institute]: When we came here to learn they taught us how to save money. I never knew how to save money, but now I can save. They even taught us the tactics of how to persuade a customer to buy and to like your product, and to buy it even when they would not have bought it. >> VOICEOVER: Already the course is yielding results, helping both new and existing entrepreneurs. As Commissioner in the Prison Services, Mary Kaddu is used to giving orders, but in her private supermarket business she had to develop new ways of communicating. >> MARY KADDU [Commissioner, Uganda Prisons Services]: Before I went on the course, I used to use the parent to child approach whereby I was just commanding and giving orders to my workers, but now I am using the adult to adult approach. We sit together with my workers, we discuss, and we look at challenges. At the end of the day we come out with solutions to make the business better.>> VOICEOVER: During the four-day course, 30 experienced business and professional women are trained in business skills: to listen, to question, to spot and to negotiate business opportunities. These mentors are matched with three or four young women entrepreneurs. The perception the older and younger women have of one another has started to change. >> MARY KADDU: The problem is not only with the experienced ladies, but also with the young girls. Sometimes they are very arrogant and they don't want to take orders from the experienced ladies.>> VOICEOVER: Mary is now able to help former female prisoners set up their own business ventures.>> MARY KADDU: After my mentoring I went to the women who have passed out, who have some businesses, and I talked to them about negotiation skills and communication skills. Then we talk to them about how to make plans, how to decide which is the best program or the best business for them. At the end of the day when they are financially stable, then I know their men won't leave them.>> TITLE: [End credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-south-africa-finding-grace Seventy-four year-old Ma Grace Masuku is a community health worker with a mission. She works with young women in South Africa's rural areas, passing on the traditional knowledge she learned from her grandmother to encourage entrepreneurship and self-respect. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 10:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-south-africa-finding-grace South Africa, Education, Africa, Poverty reduction, Gender, Change Makers, Poverty, Health, LinkTV Picks, tve >> TITLE: Why Women Count>> TITLE: South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. Yet, 150 women are raped every day and one in five young women die of AIDS.>> MA GRACE MASUKU: You know, we are so rural, if we don't just stand up and do things for ourselves, we will die. >> TITLE: Finding Grace>> MALE RADIO PRESENTER: In New York City, as we approach twelve noon, you are tuned to listener-supported, commercial-free community radio WBAI.>> FEMALE RADIO PRESENTER: Our guest, Ma Grace Masuku, is a widely recognized traditionalist, environmentalist, and community worker. Ma Grace, welcome to Global Medicine Review.>> MA GRACE MASUKU: Thanks. I come from South Africa, and in South Africa when you grow up you grow up with the grandmothers. As people got more sophisticated and educated I remembered my grandmother. And I said, "I'm not going to die without [passing on] this education." So I started what I call traditional conservation clubs in schools. Come closer and have a look at this. This is the best measles cure you have on this earth. It gets all the viruses and all the bacteria out of your system. I think in the past we had our hands tied, because we were not allowed to think. We had to toe the line all the time. But today you can do anything. >> TEACHER: You may start typing.>> MA GRACE MASUKU: Women have come out now with mighty talents that we did not think of. That's your main challenge. The challenge is to create sustainable livelihoods. I bring women together and we hear from other women about what they are doing in their communities. We tap into the experience of the women there -- what they do best. And what is important is that it's not something that she copied, it's something within her culture. These women, without a salary from anyone, are running this road safety creche. And they are dipping into their own pension money to keep the creche running. They give the children food. They wash the children. That is the most significant thing about these women. They are just wonderful. They are just wonderful. Mrs. Mbeki asked us to start what she calls a caravan where we go into a community and stay for a time, to help them start projects. It is always the woman who brings light. This is the sign of the sun and the moon and this home has got light. And then when the projects are firm and we can see that they are well established, then we can move on to another province. Because that is the only way you are going to fight poverty and unemployment in South Africa. I don't think there is any other country that has even passed a law that encourages everybody to have women as entrepreneurs, as whatever.>> MALE RADIO PRESENTER: Well, we're slowly winding down here. Ma Grace, please, any closing words for us?>> MA GRACE MASUKU: When you come to South Africa, don't come as a tourist. Come to the village! Let me take you to other old women. Get exposed to Africa itself. Sit with us in the evening and see how we mentor the young children and prove to you that what I say is not myth, and that Africa is still Africa.>> MALE RADIO PRESENTER: You've been listening to our special guest from South Africa, Ma Grace Masuku.>> TITLE: [End credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-nigeria-love-of-indigo Nike Okundaye is an internationally renowned artist specializing in Adire, the traditional Yoruba indigo art from western Nigeria. She has used her craft to overcome a difficult past, and now trains disenfranchised young Nigerian women, including former sex workers in Italy. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 09:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-nigeria-love-of-indigo Nigeria, Education, Adire (textile art), Women's rights, Gender, Ogidi, Kogi State, Gender equality, Abuja, African art, UNIFEM >> TITLE: Why Women Count>> TITLE: Love of Indigo>> VOICEOVER: Nike Okundaye is an acclaimed, versatile artist of international repute, specializing in indigo art called Adire. Adire, also called "tie and dye," is traditional Yoruba textile art, originating in western Nigeria. Nike's art is celebrated far beyond Nigeria's borders. Her work is displayed in many museums including the Museum of African Art in New York. But Nike's strength and success comes from a hard life. She lost her mother at six, escaped a forced marriage at 13, and eventually triumphed over a polygamous marriage, physical abuse, and poverty. This hardship inspired her to train other women.>> NIKE OKUNDAYE [Artist]: I suffered when I was growing up. I did bricklaying, and farming. There is nothing I did not do. >> SIGN: Batik Studio>> NIKE OKUNDAYE: Why I started that training school is because a lot of women who have been thrown out of their husband's house, they cannot get a job and nobody is allowed to accommodate them. That is why I started the training center. I provided accommodation for them to be able to live there, eat, and also do some work with their hands.>> VOICEOVER: Nike's training center started in 1983 with 10 disenfranchised women. Today, she has trained over 4,000 men and women, and set up three training schools in Oshogbo, Abuja, and Ogidi Ijumu. She provides students with free tuition, art materials, and housing, and trains them in Adire, weaving, and quilting, as well as pottery, painting, music, and dance.>> NIKE OKUNDAYE: I used to do a lot of workshops overseas. Any money I earned I would divide it into three: one for myself, one for my center, and one for the family and my artwork. >> VOICEOVER: Currently there are 40 women doing Adire and weaving in Nike's center in Ogidi Ijumu in western Nigeria.>> AGNES UMECHE [Weaving Teacher]: Before, the proceeds from farming and processing cassava were not enough for me to take care of my children with. I was only just getting by. But when I started doing this weaving I achieved something because now, in a month, if I calculate all the work that I do and the profit I make, I can earn more than USD$120. I use this profit to pay for my kids' schooling, to take care of myself and also to support my mother.>> VOICEOVER: In Nigeria, where yearly earnings are barely USD$700, these women earn more than double the income of the average citizen. >> TOLUPE LEWIS-TAMOKA [UNIFEM Program Specialist]: There is no doubt that when a woman can stand on her own and do things on her own she becomes empowered, she has a voice; she can make choices; she can make decisions about herself, about her reproductive rights; she can support her children to get an education, and she can also have an influence on her community because it's all the political process.>> VOICEOVER: In a country where barely six percent of elected officials are women, well below the international affirmative action goal of 30 percent, Nike's empowerment is giving women the confidence to vote, especially during an election year.>> AGNES UMECHE: I don't normally take bribes from anybody because tomorrow, if the elected official is there, I have a right to challenge him or her and tell them that I voted for you for a specific purpose and why haven't you fulfilled your election promises?>> VOICEOVER: Nike's training has also helped illegal Nigerian immigrants in Europe. By invitation of the Italian government, Nike trained and mentored over 1,000 commercial sex workers in textile art. >> NIKE OKUNDAYE: Five thousands Nigerian girls are in Italy, in Torino. A lot of them are victims. They don't know that they are going there to become a prostitute. I was teaching 120 in a day and they saw that they could make more money with this textile than the sex.>> VOICEOVER: As a result of the training, many women left the streets, and the Italian authorities adopted the training program permanently. They also gave Nike a national honor. Nike's lessons in artistic enterprise have provided a voice, renewed hope, and a livelihood for marginalized women across Nigeria and the world.>> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-ghana-picking-up-the-pieces Thirty-two year old Comfort Adongo is back in school in Bolgatanga, northern Ghana. Comfort was just 14 when a stranger kidnapped and sexually abused her. Abduction and forced marriage of young girls is a growing phenomenon in this part of Ghana. Now back home with her parents, she is determined to finish her schooling and rebuild her life. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 08:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-ghana-picking-up-the-pieces Ghana, Gender, Education, Gender equality, Forced marriage, Domestic violence, Upper East Region, LinkTV Picks, tve, Why Women Count >> TITLE: Why Women Count>> VOICEOVER: Bolgatanga is the capital of the Upper East Region in northern Ghana. Poverty is prevalent in this part of the country, and this makes poor families readily give their young daughters in marriage just to receive the bride price. But a worrying trend is the kidnapping of young girls by their admirers. These girls are later forced to marry their admirers. In the next few minutes we'll follow the story of one woman, Comfort Adongo, who in spite of being forced into marriage while still in Class Five, is determined to make it in life no matter the odds. >> TITLE: Picking up the Pieces >> VOICEOVER: This is Comfort Adongo, a 32 year-old woman from Bolga. She is in the first year of the junior secondary school -- a class for pupils between the ages of 13 and 15 years. Comfort's education was disrupted at the age of 14 when a man she doesn't know kidnapped and sexually abused her.>> COMFORT ADONGO [Victim of forced marriage]: When they kidnapped me, I wept and wept for four days.>> VOICEOVER: Later, her kidnapper contacted her family to perform the traditional marriage rites. The family initially rejected the bride price and demanded that Comfort be returned to them. But later they could no longer resist the offer of four cows, valued at 4 million cedis, or USD$400. A report by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice in Ghana, has described forced marriage as the major human rights abuse issue in the North. Forcing girls below the age of eighteen to marry is a criminal offence in Ghana, yet very few cases have been reported, let alone for the perpetrators to be prosecuted. The Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit in Bolga explains.>> JEROME KANYOG [Assistant Superintendent, Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit]: Because they see it as normal usually there is a bit of hesitation on the part of the victim in going to the police. That's the main reason why we haven't received cases like these. It's a common practice. Because this year when we went to the Builsa district for the People's Assembly, the people who were there -- the public, their contributions -- one of them just came and stated categorically that the practice of marrying of children as young as eight, ten, and nine is still rampant.>> VOICEOVER: When Comfort's daughter was less than two years old, her husband deserted her for another woman. When life became very tough, Comfort moved back to her parent's home. But when her absentee husband heard that she had found another man, he followed her back to her family home and beat her up when he heard that she had found another lover. Local non-governmental organizations have taken the lead to sensitize the people, especially traditional and opinion leaders as well as women's groups, about the dangers of forced marriage. One such organization is the Anglican Diocesan Development Organization.>> COMFORT KANCO-ACKEP [Anglican Diocesan Development Organization]: I think that somebody has to start from somewhere. You can imagine the psychological trauma that lady will go through. Someone who you do not love, and you are just kidnapped. I mean, you are treated as an animal and your human dignity is taken away completely. And I think that it is very bad. I come from this part of the country and I don't agree with it.>> VOICEOVER: The Widows and Orphans Ministry, another NGO led by Madame Betsy Ayagiba is the organization that pays for Comfort's school fees and buys her uniform. She weaves hats for a living. >> COMFORT ADONGO: I want to be a nurse in future. If God helps me, I should be somebody in the future.>> TITLE: [end credits]