The International Women’s Day – March 8, 2022

The International Women’s Day, March 8, is an opportunity to reflect on the advances and gaps in gender equity and commemorate how women and girls are leading the solutions to address global problems, including climate change within RET’s programs. The UN 2022 theme focuses on “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.”  According to the UN, “the year 2022 is pivotal for achieving gender equality in the context of climate change and environmental and disaster risk reduction, which are some of the greatest global challenges of the twenty-first century. Without gender equality today, a sustainable future and an equal future remains beyond our reach.”

Gender Equality 
Equality and non-discrimination are fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter, adopted by world leaders in 1945. Yet, “millions of women, young women, minority groups, and people of diverse gender identities worldwide continue to experience discrimination in the enjoyment of civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights. Moreover, many women face compounded forms of discrimination—due to factors such as their age, race, ethnicity, disability, or socioeconomic status, in addition to gender-based discrimination.”

Though girls and boys face similar challenges in early childhood, gender disparities become more pronounced in adolescence (10-19 years of age), a crucial period when boys’ and girls’ attitudes about gender develop and gender norms consolidate. Due to expected gender roles, adolescent girls may also face a disproportionate burden of domestic work, risks of early marriage and early pregnancy, and sexual and gender-based violence. Women today face social, economic, and political barriers coupled with unequal access to resources and decision-making processes.

According to RET, gender equality means women and men of all ages and regardless of sexual orientation have equal conditions for realizing their full human rights and contributing to and benefiting from economic, social, cultural, and political development and decision-making.  RET considers the impact of gender and social norms throughout all its projects. RET’s interventions work across the triple nexus, supporting equality and inclusion of women and young girls (focusing on refugees, migrants, and returnees) in society and the economy to help them lead their self-reliance journey and build their resilience. RET is also fully committed to supporting the Sustainable Development Goal SDG5: “To Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls,” to ensure women and girls have equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes, particularly during times of crisis and fragile contexts.

Gender and Climate Actions
Climate change is felt through primarily natural hazards and affects many sectors, including agriculture, food security, health, and even migration patterns. Both women and men relying on natural resources for their livelihoods, such as agriculture, are likely affected by climate change. However, the impact is not the same on both, and women’s vulnerability stems from several factors – social, economic, and cultural. Advancing gender equality in the context of climate crises and disaster risk reduction (Preparedness and Mitigation) is one of the most significant global challenges of the 21st century that RET is currently undertaking. 

RET has actively worked to address women and young people’s specific and immediate needs while addressing the broader issues preventing gender equality within each given context. Given that RET works primarily in emergency and fragile contexts, it has gathered first-hand evidence that conflict and climate change affect males and females differently, and those gender disparities are often exacerbated. Both protection and livelihoods risk for girls and young women increase in such contexts; climate change affects the livelihoods of specifical women dependent on natural resources in rural areas. In response, RET actualizes equality through gender-sensitive strategies to respond to the environmental and humanitarian crises caused by climate change and conflicts. 

Within its current projects in Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas, here are some facts about our interventions and commitment to climate adaptation in 2022:

• RET is promoting short and medium-term agriculture measures to revive rural areas that directly target the needs of the poorest refugees/local farmers, especially female-headed households.
• RET is increasing adaptive capacity and resilience to reduce people’s vulnerability, especially women, to the impacts of climate change and climate-related risks.
• RET is building farmers’ adaptive capacity, especially women (refugees and host), to boost the local economy and create employment and income-generating opportunities. 
• RET is reducing the impact of climate change on agriculture production, affecting the livelihoods of populations depending on agriculture, especially women.
• RET is reducing Inadequate water and plant pest/disease management representing a significant constraint to stabilize and increase agricultural production linked to intensified seasonal and inter-annual climate variability and change.
• RET is strengthening the adaptation-related research, including meteorological and hydrological monitoring and forecasting, including early warning systems, etc.
• RET is taking part in promoting water-saving irrigation methods to withstand climate change;
• RET is advancing the promotion of modified fishing practices to adapt to stock changes and fished species and introducing more flexibility in the equipment and techniques used, including enabling and training vulnerable women on fish preparation …

Disaster Risk Reduction – The Americas
RET is mainstreaming resilience approaches that address disaster and climate risks within the context of multiple projects, aiming to integrate climate and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) as integral elements in all RET projects as we move forward. 

Through a range of approaches, RET reduces the number of lives and livelihoods lost or adversely affected during a disaster and helps capacitate and empower young people, especially women, to become more resilient to future crises. RET’s programs aim to help vulnerable populations anticipate and prepare for disasters in the education system and at the community and national levels through participatory and community-based approaches. RET intervenes in disaster and emergency-affected environments to mitigate the impact of disasters and ensure the most vulnerable, especially young women and People with Disabilities (PwD), have access to protection services and adapt to educational opportunities and learning environments. Moreover, RET has DRR programs to reinforce the preparedness and mitigation capacities of national and local stakeholders, families, and communities in the event of a disaster, with a strong focus on the active participation of vulnerable groups, especially women, throughout the whole process.

Recently, RET has been integrating an intersectional approach to address the needs of the most vulnerable populations to understand how the different layers of vulnerability interact between at-risk populations, including gender vulnerabilities. RET has been incorporating Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in its Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategy to build climate resilience and self-sufficiency; strengthen community food production; promote plant-based diets and Eco-efficiency initiatives; to help reduce risks while simultaneously support livelihoods.  Nature-based Solutions (NbS) focus on managing or restoring an ecosystem that addresses societal challenges, such as disaster risk, climate change, food security, water security, and human health. It addresses all three components of the risk equation – preventing or mitigating hazards, limiting people’s exposure to hazards, and limiting their vulnerability.

RET’s response is strengthened through active partnership in many inter-sectoral networks and clusters promoting inclusive disaster and climate resilience, including the UN Educational Cluster, the LAC Network for Disability Inclusion in DRR (GIRDD LACRed de Gestion Inclusiva del Riesgo de Desastres y Discapacidad), GNDR (Global Network of Civil Society Organizations for Disaster Reduction), GADRRRES (Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector) and the regional PEDRR platform for Latin America and the Caribbean (Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction.)

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ZERO Project Award for Innovative Practice 2020 – PANAMA

The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction is an opportunity to acknowledge the progress being made toward reducing disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health. The 2021 edition focuses on “International cooperation for developing countries to reduce their disaster risk and disaster losses.” This is the sixth of the Sendai Seven targets.

RET has been designing and implementing Disaster Risk Reduction DRR projects since 2009. RET started in Colombia during the winter wave; since 2012, and to date, RET has been working in multiple countries in the Americas region, including Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Panamá at the national and regional levels, using innovative approaches and ground-breaking interventions. During the last 10 years, RET has implemented more than 20 DRR-focused regional and national projects, including integral actions in other sectors such as education, protection, health and/or WASH, benefiting more than 30,000 direct participants, and 90,000 indirectly.

Three main strategic directions drive RET’s DRR approach:
(1) Participation of children, adolescents and young people in DRR (including children with disabilities);
(2) Advocacy and institutional strengthening in DRR focused on children and youth;
(3) Development of tools and frameworks for DRR focusing on children and young people.

The DRR projects focus specifically on the needs of children, adolescents, and young people, building their resilience through capacity strengthening under a rights-based approach, with particular attention to people with disabilities or indigenous groups. 

Some of RET’s DRR projects include institutional capacity building and strengthening processes, such as with the Ministries of Education or Social Development) contributing to the design and/or implementation of their DRR public policies. Moreover, other projects have focused on a community level through the implementation of risk management models.

Through these proposals, more than 25 tools have been developed for advocacy and guidance, needs assessment, implementation, and capacity building at the regional, national, and community levels, allowing users to identify vulnerabilities, reflect on their capacities, and strengthen them.

Finaly, RET is actively engaged at the global level in the “Global Alliance for Risks Reduction and Resilience of the Education Sector” (GADRRRES). In the LAC, RET is a member of the “Regional Education Sector Group for DRR and Education in Emergencies” and has been the coordinator of the “Coalition for Children and Youth Resilience in Latin America and the Caribbean – CORELAC.” As a leader of CORELAC, the movement “Voices of Children and Youth for Resilience” has been promoted, reaching more than 6,000 young people in collaboration with UNICEF and UNDRR, Save the Children, Plan, and World Vision. This initiative succeeded in incorporating the participation of young people from LAC in different regional platforms for DRR (Chile, Ecuador, and Canada). The initiative led to the recognition of children’ and youth’ participation at the “World Conference on DRR” held in SENDAI in 2015; fundamentally influenced the inclusion of children and young people as “relevant actors” in the document of the SENDAI Framework for Disaster Risks Reduction 2015-2030.

 Read more about the Zero Project Award 2020 for Innovative Practice that RET won in 2020. 

ZERO Project Award for Innovative Practice 2020 – PANAMA

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RET, represented by its President & CEO Ms. Zeynep Gülgün Gündüz was part of the High-level Virtual Side Event, UNGA” 75″ 2020 “Government and Foundation Partners Demonstrate Effective Cross-sectoral Collaboration to Meet SDG4 and Support the 2030 Decade of Action.”
This event was co-hosted by Education Above All Foundation, the Permanent Mission of The State of Qatar to the United Nations, Qatar Fund For Development, the UN Office for Partnerships, and UNESCO. 

The event discussed ways to enhance collaboration among vital actors, specifically countries, civil society and foundations, policymakers, and institutions engaged in education, humanitarian, and development responses to accelerate country progress on the SDG4 and the related SDG targets. 

The SDG4 Education 2030 Framework for Action seeks to promote international collaborative efforts to achieve SDGs through different methods and institutional arrangements, including cross-sectoral coordination and multi-stakeholder partnerships. The overall 2030 Agenda recognizes that the global goals and targets will not be achieved through single sectoral approaches alone. The SDG4-Education 2030 Framework for Action’s key message is that different domains (e.g., data, sport, water, energy, and food) are interconnected. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of collaboration between sectors to ensure students’ well-being and learning continuity. 

RET addressed its multi-sectoral response in more than 32 countries worldwide and emphasized its achievements in the Americas related to (SDG 13) strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters by mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction & Management within education-focused interventions to improve all learners’ education on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning; (SDG’s 5 & 9) using an innovative, inclusive approach, paying particular attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations to leave no one behind; and (SDG 6) providing equitable access to safe drinking water and restore water-related systems in school settings, among other interventions. 

Ms. Gunduz highlighted the Zero Project Award 2020 for innovative practice, won by RET for “Including Children, Adolescents and Youth with Disabilities in Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Practices.”

Ms. Zeynep Gülgün Gündüz Remarks:

“Thank you very much for the introduction and thank you to “Education Above All Foundation” and the Government of Qatar for inviting us to participate in this important event. 

Let me first start with who we are!
At the heart of RET’s mission is to PROTECT and BUILD the SELF-RELIANCE of young people and women. RET works in areas of conflict, crisis, instability, and fragility around the world. We were created 20 years ago by then High Commissioner of UNHCR, Sadako Ogata, to provide education for vulnerable youth, namely refugees in refugee camps. Today, while we still work in camps, most of our work is with urban, peri-urban, and rural populations of concern, including refugees, host communities, and the internally displaced.   

RET has more than 20 years of experience in Education in Emergencies. We have worked in 32 countries, including ten of those in Latin America Caribbean region, throughout Central and East Africa, West Africa in the Sahel, in the Middle East with the Syrian crisis in Lebanon and Turkey, and in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with over 2 million program participants, in over 1,600 schools and centers, in nearly 400 projects.

RET’s core competencies in the spectrum of education are built on interventions ranging from the strengthening of FORMAL and NON-FORMAL education, basic literacy and numeracy, tertiary education, human rights, refugee rights, children’s rights, women’s rights, responsible citizenship, and peacebuilding, addressing and designing inclusive programs with youth with disabilities and special needs, mainstreaming gender equality and disaster risk reduction and management (DRR&M). 

In the framework of SDG4- INCLUSIVE and EQUITABLE EDUCATION FOR ALL – RET is committed to safeguarding refugees’ right to education and other populations of concern. Typically, our education programs are accredited and in line with the Ministry of Education of the host country or the home country. 

RET advocates for enhancing the national education systems’ capacity to include refugees and other displaced adolescents and youth, including those with disabilities, to prevent acts of discrimination and harassment against them and mitigate xenophobic culture.

While RET works in the education sector (SDG4), RET’s interventions are multi-sectoral, and RET is committed to include livelihoods, socio-economic empowerment, food security and nutrition, health and specifically mental health and psychosocial skill support (MHPSS), water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), addressing: 

SDGs 2 (zero hunger), 3 (good health and well-being), 5 (gender equality), 6 (clean water and sanitation), 8 (decent work and economic growth), 9 (innovative and inclusive solutions), 13 (climate change and reduction of its impact) and 17 (partnerships for the goals)

RET is committed to mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction & Management (DDR&M) within its education interventions to improve all learners’ education on climate change, mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning.

I want to give an example of a highly innovative project we designed in 2015, together with youth in Panama and the various Panamanian ministerial authorities as a first-ever pilot project.

In terms of natural disasters, Panama is faced with the threat of flooding each year and is vulnerable to climate variability due to the El Nino phenomenon, and earthquakes and volcanoes.

The RET project was the first in Panama ever to integrate DRR&M practices into public schools to increase education sector RESILIENCE and to empower young people with disabilities to be agents of positive change in both DRR and first response.

Our RET approach was threefold: 1) awareness-raising and mobilization, 2) capacity-building, 3) institutional strengthening.

Since 2015, we have continued and expanded this project with nearly 8000 young people with disabilities participating in our program, in tandem with first aid and emergency exercises, and the designation of evacuation plans and paths.

RET also built the capacity of education partners, teachers, parents/caregivers, education center management, and staff on DRR&M through training, development of curricula, development of guidebooks and manuals, and even for the first time, the development of sign language on risk management and first response!

I want to add here that in 2020, RET has won the Zero Project Innovation Award for this project. 

RET has had 17 projects in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction & Management (DRR&M) in multiple countries in LAC region, with 70,000 participants in programs in Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador, starting in Colombia, working with the Ministry of Education in the 94 departments throughout the country, where RET trained to build capacity and work together with the departmental representatives in designing DRR preparedness for all the schools, in the development of tools and frameworks, benefitting 41,000 in 1,200 schools.

During the last few years, RET has been engaged globally with the Global Alliance for Risk Reduction and Resilience (GADRRRES) and at the regional level with the Regional Education Sector Group for DRR and Education in Emergencies. RET was also previously engaged in CORELAC, the Coalition for Children and Youth Resilience in Latin America and the Caribbean. As Coordinator of CORELAC, RET participated in the UN World Conference on DRR held in Sendai, Japan, in 2015, sharing the voices of Children and Youth for Resilience to DRR and advocating for their inclusion as relevant actors in the Sendai Framework for DRR through 2030.  

Once again, thank you, all, for having RET here today.”
Ms. Zeynep Gülgün Gündüz

Program and Panelists

Welcome Remarks

• Ambassador Sheikha Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani, Permanent Representative of The State of Qatar to the United Nations

Moderator

• Mr Jordan Naidoo, Director of the UNESCO Kabul Office and Country

Representative to Afghanistan

Keynote Speakers

• Ms Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group
• H.E. Khalifa Jassim Al-Kuwari, Director General, Qatar Fund for

Development

• Ms Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO

Panel Members

• The Honorable Janet Kataaha Museveni, Minister of Education & Sports, Uganda
• HE Dr Hang Chuon Naron, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport,

Cambodia

• HE Professor George A. O. Magoha, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of

Education, Kenya

• Ms Annemarie Hou, Executive Director, a.i. UN Office for Partnerships & Senior Communications Advisor, Office of the Secretary-General, UN
• Ms Zeynep Gündüz, President, CEO & Board Member, RET International
• Ms Mamta Saikia, CEO, Bharti Foundation
• Ms Nezha Alaoui, President, Mayshad Foundation
• Ms Magdalena Brier, Managing Director, ProFuturo Foundation
• Ms Carola Tembe, Program Manager, H&M Foundation

Closing Remarks

• Mr Fahad Al-Sulaiti, CEO, Education Above All Foundation

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On the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. RET is focused on addressing the outbreak of infectious diseases at work in particular the COVID-19 pandemic. RET’s management assessed the risks by following the developments of the COVID-19 outbreak globally and as of the first week of March, proactively started to take measures to protect its employees by cancelling international travels of RET staff with face-to-face meetings being replaced with teleconference or online meetings. As a next step a risk map and action plan has been elaborated with the regional and local RET staff to take country specific measures by considering the governmental arrangements to protect its employees and also finding optimal solutions to deliver the services to the most vulnerable by staying and delivering.

As a result of a series of collaborative planning, RET has launched multiple awareness campaigns amongst staff and project participants, providing factual information about the COVID-19 pandemic translated into more than 7 languages, including English, Spanish, French, Turkish, Arabic, Kirundi and Swahili and is rigorously combating misinformation and fake news concerning the pandemic at the country levels. RET is strictly following the related regulations and arrangements of the governments and raises the awareness of their employees and participants that if the disease starts spreading in their communities anyone even with mild symptoms such as cough or fever needs to stay at home, to inform RET’s responsible staff and request sick leave and administrative arrangements, to take everyday precautions to keep space between others, to keep away from others in public and to limit close contact and wash hands often, to avoid crowds as much as possible, to avoid public transportation, cruise travel and air travel, to contact their healthcare provider to ask about next steps, to have enough household items and groceries on hand so that they will be prepared to stay at home for a period of time.  

In countries, where no or limited local governmental restrictions apply and employees and project participants are regularly attending the field sites/offices/centers, RET is raising awareness and taking required measures on the adoption of safe practices at work, by briefing the employees on promoting respiratory hygiene at the workplace and making sure the workplaces are clean and hygienic, surfaces are disinfected regularly, and that employees and project participants have access to places where they can wash their hands with soap and water (offices and field) and/or have access to basic hygienic materials and personal protective equipment such as hand sanitizers/dispensers, face masks, paper tissues, closed bins. In addition, risk assessments and required arrangements are carried out for meetings and events, offices and/or seats have been arranged so that the required distances are kept between the participants and employees. 

RET is taking utmost measures to keep employees at higher risk of getting sick from COVID-19 safe to reduce their risk of getting infected, such as the elderly staff, staff with chronic diseases and immunocompromising conditions and pregnant women. 

RET is addressing in its contingency plan the precautionary measures and the guidelines to follow in case of any outbreak in the workplace in addition to addressing the mental health and social consequences of a case of COVID-19 in the workplace and is offering counselling and support on a daily basis for more than 1000 employees on the frontline around the world. 

To the RET humanitarian heroes on the frontline in Afghanistan, Belize, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Costa Rica, DRC, Ecuador, Kenya, Lebanon, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Turkey, Venezuela, we salute you. 

The Desk Review of Programming Guidelines for Adolescents & Youth in Emergencies

Adolescents and youth as a distinct group are often overlooked during humanitarian crises, with their unique concerns and needs seldom prioritised. The Desk Review of Programming Guidelines for Adolescents & Youth in Emergencies provides an overview of programming guidelines for adolescents and youth in emergencies and is a contribution to the goals of the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action.

 

This resource is the result of an inter-agency collaboration, led by RET International, between the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)’s Adolescents & Youth Task Team (AYTT), the Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network Australia (MYAN) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

 

Access the Desk Review here:

 

While a range of guidelines for engagement in Adolescent and Youth programming has been developed to date, there has not been any systematic consolidation or compilation of these resources nor has there been any review of the existing gaps in availability of practical guidance and tools. To contribute to the closing of this gap, we have together undertaken a desk review, covering the following domains: Education, Health, Livelihoods and Durable Solutions (repatriation, re-integration into the hosting country and resettlement).

 

This publication provides a brief assessment of the most relevant programming guidelines dedicated to addressing the needs, concerns and aspirations of adolescents and youth in humanitarian crises. It presents a comprehensive mapping of practical guidance and related tools for humanitarians and communities to coordinate, plan, implement, monitor and evaluate essential actions for youth through all phases of an emergency.

View the official announcement by clicking here below:

“Refugees and migrants are particular targets of racial profiling and incitement to hatred. In the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants adopted in September 2016, United Nations Member States strongly condemned acts and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance against refugees and migrants. In doing so, they also committed to a range of steps to counter such attitudes and behaviours, particularly regarding hate crimes, hate speech and racial violence.” (http://www.un.org/en/events/racialdiscriminationday/)

RET International is committed to assisting communities meet the educational needs, in the broadest sense, of young people made vulnerable by displacement, violence, armed conflict and disasters. Ultimately, we aim to help build a world in which the actions of empowered young people lead their communities out of crises and towards stronger social cohesion, peace and prosperity.

To offer this protection to young people and provide them with the opportunities to be actors of positive social change, we often work specifically to promote integration, inclusion and the elimination of discrimination in any form. We support vulnerable young people through educational programmes that create the conditions in which they can achieve their integration and improve their quality of life.

Young people face many sorts of fragile environments and contexts, from being a child soldier to having to live with violence and gangs. However, displacement is frequently at the root of their vulnerabilities and therefore we work very often with refugee populations. In their case, discrimination is a clear risk factor. In Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, xenophobia is a source of concern. It is hard for displaced young people to find decent jobs, and very often the youth have little or no access to the educational system.

In other contexts, refugees may have language barriers or cultural differences between themselves and the population of the host country. We have witnessed these challenges through our experience of protecting young people and their families in 28 countries, since our inception. Today we continue to do so in Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Lebanon, Turkey, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia and Belize. In addition, we have just started working in Mexico with programmes promoting the development of resilience and self-reliance. We bridge the gaps which separate young people from education, livelihoods, income-generating activities or access to services (health, legal, protection and more), within and with the host communities.

Discrimination has a strong impact in all aspects of society, diminishing productivity, political stability, social cohesion and peace. The basis of discrimination is mistrust, which occurs most often through misconceptions about others, especially if the refugees are perceived as different or strange.

Discrimination is not natural or inherent in human beings. It is a learned behaviour transmitted within families, homes and communities often through emotionally charged biases. Negative messages in the media can strengthen the rejection of people because of their race, culture, nationality, gender or sexual preference amongst other reasons.

The question, in this case, is how can we deal with discrimination in these particularly harsh realities?

Governments can promote policies that favour integration, which would benefit their populations as well as the refugees they host. International agreements such as, for example, the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants can offer inspiration for such policies aiming to protect people against bias and discrimination. Governments therefore play a key role, but we too, as organisations and individual citizens, have a responsibility to develop a dialogue about differences, cultural diversity and integration. Sometimes the person who discriminates simply does not have enough information to change his or her own mind-set.

We are facing one of the most challenging times since World War II, with record-high numbers of forced displacement. The UNHCR’s Global Trends estimates that in 2015 65.3 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide, 21.3 million of which were refugees, 40.8 were internally displaced and 3.2 million are asylum-seekers.

That is why we need to understand these humanitarian needs and see the world as a whole, as a unit. Food and shelter are essential needs, but modern crises tend to be protracted and so integration becomes essential as well. Celebrating and recognising cultural diversity, respecting values and beliefs, promoting collaboration and solidarity are all elements of the solution to today’s crises.

How RET Faces Discrimination

• Through the campaign “What Unites Us”, a movement created with young refugees in Latin America and the Caribbean, aiming to promote acceptance and integration into their host communities.

• By developing events which celebrate cultural differences through sharing traditional foods, customs and songs, as we do regularly in Turkey. Children and young people share their experiences with others easily and they learn very fast about social cohesion and inclusion.

• Some other very effective activities include street actions, such as peaceful demonstrations with messages of integration and calls to stop discrimination. RET organised one of these events last November in Lebanon, making sure the voices of those wishing to end violence against women were heard.

 Other interventions include:

• Giving psychosocial support to our participants around the world, making sure they understand discrimination is not normal and reminding them that all must demand respect as members of a community.
• Opening safe spaces and community centres, physically and virtually (through blogs and social media) to exchange different points of view and to hear other voices celebrating cultural diversity.
• Developing interventions respectful of Human Rights and the protection of children and young people.

Finally, facing discrimination also requires always working hand-in-hand with the host governments and local host communities. This ensures that actions are well received, that they are within the priorities of the local government and can therefore have the highest impact possible for both the refugee and host populations.

March 8 was International Women’s Day, an opportunity to celebrate every effort made to eliminate violence against women and support women’s empowerment.

Violence against women is still a reality, as are the challenges they face to ensure, on equal terms, their rights and opportunities for growth and development.

Sadly, in 2017, one in three women still experience physical or sexual violence, most often by an intimate partner.[i] We are clearly not living in an equal world yet. In some countries women still do not have the same rights or opportunities to participate and contribute to society.

That is why it is important to highlight how individuals, groups and communities, in this case linked with RET’s work, are showing their commitment to women’s empowerment. We need to develop a conversation about violence against women. A few days ago was the International Women’s Day, and it is a good time to do so by talking about these local commitments, which together make a global difference.

More than 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women

As 2016 was drawing to an end, the world celebrated the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (25 November to 10 December). Along with many of our partners, RET participated in this global campaign, as we are growing ever more concerned by the plight of young women in fragile environments. Gender-based violence is present all around the world, but is not acceptable anywhere!

After the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign and all the messages of support, we clearly saw that the core of such a campaign happens in the field. Our teams and the young people and women we work with were the ones to really carry the campaign through numerous additional trainings, events or artistic performances.

Having a look at the activities our teams and beneficiaries implemented can help us understand the real purpose of such global campaigns and the concrete commitments they are designed to fuel.

TURKEY – Art as a Way to Create Understanding

In Turkey, the motivation was very high. As a response to the 16 Days Campaign, RET’s centre in Viran?ehir organised a Gender-Based Violence (GBV) training for male participants. Gender-based violence prevention will never work if half the world’s population do not consider that the subject is relevant to them, if they do not consider themselves affected or responsible.

This is part of RET’s holistic approach, which considers that engaging men is essential to solving the problem. Encouraging them to face their own situation, fears and challenges, opens the door to giving an equal treatment and respect to women. Men’s groups are part of the continuous work that our professionals develop in various countries and regions.

In Mardin and ?anl?urfa, our team decided to organise the premiere screening of Gülten Taranç’s award-winning film “Wish to Wash with Rain”.[ii] The film is a deep reflection on violence through the eyes of a woman; for participants of the centres it represented a great opportunity to discuss the issue of GBV. After the screening, our programme participants engaged in a lengthy Q&A session with Gülten and the main actors to dig deeper into the messages of the film.

Some RET Centres, such as the one in K?z?ltepe, chose to organise trainings on social cohesion and GBV. Others focused on artistic performances such as the Süleymaniye Centres, which celebrated with dances and a women’s choir.

In total, 11 events were organised throughout Southeastern Turkey.

When art forms such as movies, music and theatre are used as a way to exchange experiences and considerations about violence, it is possible to produce deeper connections and understanding through the use of metaphors. Art allows individuals to express ideas and experiences in a way words sometimes fail to do. As such, it is a fantastic tool, which our team in Turkey knows how to use effectively.

LEBANON – Awareness on the Streets

Women and youth in Jezzine, Lebanon decided to raise the awareness of their community directly in the streets.

These kinds of activities have a double effect. They are not only about the citizens in the streets or the awareness-raising of institutions or authorities. Marches represent opportunities for the women and youth involved to have their voices heard and to feel empowered to make changes in their own lives.

The youth in our project also wrote, directed and acted in a short film on GBV and created short theatre sketches to express the concern of the younger generation and their will to make GBV part of the past. Theatre is a powerful tool that moves ideas and feelings in a very strong way.

During the 16 Days Campaign, we were also very honoured to have the visit of Mr Philippe Lazzarini, UN Humanitarian Coordinator and Deputy Special Coordinator in Lebanon to our centre in Jezzine and have him engage with the youth and women we have worked with for the past year.

Latin America and the Caribbean: From Theatre to Advocacy

In Latin America, our teams worked with the women and youth of our programmes on the theme of GBV through a “Theatre for Integration” activity, which was part of the International Community Festival. This workshop addressed all forms of violence, by inviting participants to act the stories of confrontation they shared and redirect the actions to look for opportunities of forgiveness and integration. In this activity, all the stories highlighted the role of women in challenging situations like forced displacement, family relationships and health risks.

During the same period (December 3^rd and 4^th) the National Meeting of Young Women took place in Costa Rica with the stated objective of creating a political agenda to empower young women in the country. RET was in the Organising Committee along with the Vice-Ministry of Youth, Vice-Ministry of Citizen Dialogue, the President’s Social Council, the National Institute of Women, UNFPA, UNESCO and the Council for Young People. All the women who participated had the opportunity to give their perspective and collaborated to generate lines of action and advocacy messages for the rights of women and gender equality.

In the State of Táchira, Venezuela, RET and UNHCR with other local humanitarian organisations created a campaign called “la Messi Venezolana” (in reference to Deyna Castellanos the star football player from Venezuela). The campaign was made of two series of workshops for high schools focusing on GBV prevention and other gender identity issues directed to adolescents and youth.

Campaigns such as the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence are catalysts designed to encourage key issues to be taken up by relevant actors. They focus the attention of NGOs and communities and provide an incentive to act on certain themes. The concrete results are those described above. Women and youth who march or express themselves through art, artists who share their messages, men who feel included and trainings which transform awareness into positive behaviours.

This is not only part of one campaign, but also a daily effort developed by RET’s team and participants (specially youth and women), to change their life and raise awareness in society.

RET was therefore delighted to support the campaign, but we do have a reservation: sixteen days are clearly not enough. We will therefore continue to focus on this issue, in our programmes of course, but also in our communications. Our next article will therefore cover the often-untold story of young women soldiers in the illegal armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Gender-based violence is present all around the world, but is not acceptable anywhere!

(Also read: The Girls behind the Guns)

 

[i] UN Women: http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures#sthash.b5VYwNOf.dpuf

[ii] The story of Gamze illustrates that the victims in women murders are not only those murdered. (https://issuu.com/tarancandtarancfilm/docs/issue).