It
takes courage to lead any business. That means being bold and having the
conviction to back yourself.
On a recent trip to cyclone-ravaged Vanuatu, I was reminded
that courage can also be deeply personal. I was there as CARE Australia’s
ambassador for women’s empowerment, and in a remote village on the island of
Tanna, I met a young woman named Lily. In a quiet space, away from the
assembled crowd of mothers and children, she related her story and her experience
of gender-based violence. For Lily, like many young women in Australia, that
violence came by her husband’s hand. These brutal attacks happened over years.
Sometimes daily. Two months before we visited, she had left her husband, afraid
for her life and forced to leave behind her children.
In Australia, we hear stories like this too. We are starting to
examine publicly our attitudes to family violence and some victims say that has
made it easier to report abuse in the home. But it is hard to fathom just how
difficult it would have been for Lily to make that decision in a country with
no welfare safety net, where your standing in society is rigidly defined by
your place in the community hierarchy. Despite the challenges, her eyes are now
on the future, which she hopes will be brighter. “I dream of becoming a
teacher,” she told me.
Yesterday was the International Day of the Girl Child, a timely opportunity
to reflect on stories of courage like Lily’s and consider the challenges girls
face around the world. Through initiatives such as CARE Australia’s Leftemap
Sista (Empowering Women) program, adolescent girls and young women like Lily
are being supported.
What programs like these do is help remove the barriers that
prevent girls from reaching their potential. At its heart is the desire to see
women and girls provided with options and skills that build their
self-confidence and belief that they are respected and valued.
Significantly, CARE Australia also works with the boys and men
in the communities to tackle entrenched beliefs about gender and the acceptance
of violence.
In Vanuatu, like many places around the world, gender-based
violence is widespread. According to the UN, three in five Ni-Vanuatu women who
have been in a relationship have experienced either physical or sexual
violence by a husband or partner.
Imagine your five best female friends and now imagine being told
three had experienced violence from their partner. For the 42 per cent of women
who experienced physical violence, the violent incident was followed by rape.
Local welfare groups estimate more than two in three women
experience at least one form of coercive control, mostly in the form of
physical and sexual violence. But you don’t have to look far to see signs of a
seismic cultural shift.
It was evident in the vital role women played in preparing
communities for Cyclone Pam in March, the worst disaster in the country’s
history. In the months leading up to the cyclone, organisations such as CARE
Australia had helped establish local community groups and taught them how best
to prepare for disasters and what to do in the event of one.
Women were well represented in these groups, and for many it was
their first opportunity in life to take on a leadership role. Seeing women
achieve this potential had a profound effect, not just on women but also on the
men in these communities.
As one man on the tiny island of Aniwa told us: “When women talk
and take part they think about the younger ones, the older people, the
different vulnerable groups. We men only think of ourselves.”
While there is clear evidence women are part of the solution to
bringing people out of poverty and rebuilding communities, this cannot happen
until attitudes towards girls and women change.
When girls and women have opportunities, communities are
stronger, homes are healthier, more children go to school, there are fewer
teenage pregnancies and lower levels of child mortality.
There is plenty of research to show that if you bring one woman
out of poverty, she will bring four people with her. A woman such as Lily may
bring a whole classroom with her.
It’s a good investment.
