On Gendercide in Asia

By Glenn Fawcett
Executive Director of Field Operations

I recently read that 500,000 females are aborted every year in India. The number may be less, but is still in the hundreds of thousands. Sex selective abortion is a form of gendercide conducted on a staggering scale in Asia. For those of us working to empower women and girls, it is a fact we all should mark and reflect upon so that we may address this issue in the general course of our work.

I have to ask myself why? Women at their best are gentle, caring and nurturing. They think of children and family first. My own mother sold our family home to pay for a legal battle, rather than see my brother lose his baby girl. Likewise, my mother’s great grandmother was a midwife from days of yore; she rode on horseback to the homesteads of Australian women living in the bush not only to deliver the children, but to wash and clean, chop wood, set the fire and cook for a month prior to delivery.

In contrast, when my Indian wife’s father was murdered, her mother was forced to sign over her right to her husband’s share of the family wealth by her brothers-in-law. She was left destitute with three small children to raise. My wife tells me her mother would go without food to ensure that she and her siblings would never know hunger.

I meet a lot of women during the considerable time I spend working in rural Cambodian villages. A great many of them are single parents; widowed or deserted, they manage to hold on to generosity and nurturing even in the midst of crushing poverty.

Why do mothers sell their children to ensure an education for their boy children? Why do Indian families abort their girl children, and why is sex determination illegal here? Poor Indian families, most often lacking in education, seek to escape the cost of dowry that comes with a girl child. The financial drain continues even after the wedding, by way of gifts given on certain religious days year in year out. Many well-to-do and educated families (though they may never admit it) would also prefer two boys, rather than a girl and a boy as is commonly sought in Western countries.

I am thankful we are doing so much to ensure girls are valued in the countries we are working in. Access to education and the promise of being a breadwinner for the family is the key to transforming the traditional, vulnerable place girls have in these Asian countries. Their capacity to earn is perhaps one of the most promising developments in this modern era; families here are more often letting their girls get an education in the hope they will get white collar jobs and attract a better “match” in the marriage market.

It’s perhaps a shame that economics is driving this quiet revolution, but whatever is driving it is most welcome.

I have included here below a Poem by Rujuti Shastri from Gujurat called ‘She Born,’ to illustrate the feelings often associated with the birth of a girl child here in India:

Rujuta Shastri from Gujurat



She Born

Maternity ward was
Full of crowd.

All the beds
Surrounded by relatives.

Happy faces and
Sharing of sweets.

Babies were carried
From one arm to other.

Sharing of love and
Blessing from all.

One bed amid others
Away from crowd…

Unwanted baby.

Her small tender body
Wrapped in cloth.

Calm and innocent eyes
Staring at ceiling.

Did she forget to cry?
Did she forget hunger?
No she didn’t…

She understood
She is in human world

With female body.

Is Culture to Be Kept or Transformed?

By Raksmey Var
Country Representative, Lotus Outreach Cambodia

Culture is an integral part, or “the heart,” of a society. Without it, a nation is incomplete. Yet cultural traditions often perpetuate inequality and gender discrimination. In China, for example, a baby boy is considered a blessing whereas to a baby girl, her gender is a curse. Cultural tradition dictates that the boy will maintain the clan by passing on the family surname to the next generation. As a result, boys are considered more valuable than girls and when a family is limited to only one child, the preferred gender is obvious.

The discrimination does not stop here. After birth, sons and daughters are treated differently and unfairly. Traditional gender roles dictate that a boy’s duty is to act as the breadwinner whereas a girl’s duty is to act as the homemaker and caretaker. Consequently, little emphasis is placed on girls’ education. These traditional roles also have an effect on the psychology of girls and women: many become dependent and lazy and just wait to be married off to a rich guy.

Girls are discouraged by society at large from obtaining higher levels of education, because well-educated and capable women are considered too proud and arrogant, and a cause of divorce. Many men prefer not to marry well-educated women, as they don’t like their wife to be smarter. Thus there is not only a lack of incentive for educating girls, but female ignorance is often considered a virtue.

Raksmey (center, back) with a Girls' Access to Education (GATE) scholarship family in Banteay Meanchey, Cambodia

Women who lack education, skills, or the capacity for self sufficiency are incapable of supporting themselves. They are voiceless. They have no choice but to remain patient, accept their arrangements, and even learn to live with domestic violence and abuse. Given their high level of dependency, to do otherwise is tantamount to suicide.

Culture has a strong influence on girls’ perceptions of themselves. Because they are conditioned to feel less valuable than boys, they often believe their futures don’t deserve the same level of investment. They accept subordination not only to their husbands and fathers, but to their male siblings - girls often work so their brothers can attend school. In sum, they are not encouraged to become educated, self-reliant or pursue their dreams.

I asked a waitress at the Freedom Hotel restaurant where I stayed in Siem Reap why she quit school at grade 8. “Our family was poor,” she replied, “and since daughter is not as important and valuable as son, I quit school to help my family eke out a living and to support my older brother’s education.” I have very little doubt that this mindset is strongly influenced by traditional culture.

We need to recognize that protecting human rights and protecting culture are often antithetical goals. To pursue both at the same time is to ignore the deep roots of gender inequality; if this culture is maintained, so is gender discrimination. We need to highlight gender issues and their sources within a culture, otherwise they will remain ignored and unquestioned.

Lotus Outreach Australia Visits Cambodian Projects

By Julia Booth
President, Lotus Outreach Australia

In May 2010 as president of LOA I was very privileged to travel to visit our projects in Cambodia with LOA Vice President Pheona Arndell. After working with the Lotus Outreach community for many years, the chance to visit the projects we support was very exciting but also strangely abstract. I had read many reports and applied for grants, but I had little concept of the human element.

I was very fortunate to have Pheona as my travelling companion - her passion for Cambodia is infectious. On arrival in Phnom Penh we met up with our larger-than-life and incredibly dedicated Director of Field Operations Glenn Fawcett, and our head of Lotus Outreach Cambodia, Raksmey Var.

I was stunned by Raksmey's facility with the English language, and even more astounded to learn that she was entirely self taught. In many ways this is reflective of Cambodia. There is a palpable energy in this country; with a large percentage of the population under the age of 30 the youth are desperate to learn and develop - but due to a lack of resources and crushing poverty opportunities are very limited.

On a visit to one of our Girls’ Access to Education (GATE) scholars, the dire circumstances of her life were obvious. Her father was unemployed, her mother had health issues and young children to support - without the rice support provided by LO they would not be able to survive. The fact that their daughter was a dedicated, hard working student who wanted to study medicine was a brilliant indication of the positive impact GATE was having on the lives of the urban poor.

Julia sits in on a class at GATE Phnom Penh

Another girl in primary school was thrilled to show off her most prized possession - a coloring book. Her mother was deceased and her father, who was suffering a chronic illness, had 6 children under his care. The all-terrain bike the girl had been given by LO to get to school lay idle with a flat tire - evidently her brother's friend had borrowed the bike and punctured the tire without repairing it. Glenn delivered a repair kit so the girl could resume her studies. All the children were malnourished, and the eldest girl was not allowed to go to school because she had to bring in an income to support the family. The scholarship was a beacon of hope in a very grim reality.

Julia and Pheona with GATE girls at a school in Dangkar

It is not original and may sound terribly trite but this trip changed my life; I have seen firsthand the real impact of our projects. When I catch myself moping about not having achieved enough, or whining about not being able to do something, I think about the girl living in a crowded shack with illiterate parents, three young siblings and not enough food – who dreams of being a doctor.

36 Hours with Lotus Outreach (Part II)

By Amy Hall
Director of Social Consciousness for EILEEN FISHER

(Click here to read Part I)

Afterwards, we went to Goats Soup 888, a beer garden somewhere across town.  Breezy and airy, this bar had the feeling of the tropics, with a thatched roof and rock garden.  While the staff received life skills instruction, their young children played with a nanny out front.  It was here that we met one young woman, 20 years old, who had already spent 5 years in Malaysia and whose English was pretty good.  We also met a young man, one of many whom the locals refer to as “girl-boys.”  He dreamed of becoming a hair-dresser one day, a dream that Lotus Outreach is equipped to support.  And we met a young woman who desperately wanted a job in a garment factory – in fact, she was willing to lie about her age (15) in order to do so.  I’m told that, after speaking with Glenn and Raksmey, she reconsidered her plan and has decided to wait until she’s of legal age to pursue that kind of work.

Students at Goats Soup 888

Following our revelatory afternoon, Glenn, Raksmey and I took in a relaxing dinner at the Foreign Correspondents Club, along the Mekong River.  Featuring high ceiling fans in an open-air setting, this restaurant was a throwback to colonial times.  And their pizza was pretty good!

The next day, we started with an early morning visit to Pretty Girls, a karaoke club in a stark white room with a doorway leading to a dim hallway.  A few women had made their way to the literacy class in the main front room, though many were still getting up after a long night.  I was told that these women were less transitory than those we had met the day before.  They were more likely to stay in the sex trade and had fewer options than others in the Lotus Outreach program.  Throughout our time there, they paused to get food, take showers, or just kid around with each other.  The setting was characterized by a bittersweet lightheartedness.

Later that morning, we visited the sewing program run by Lotus Outreach and Khemara, the local implementing partner. It was there that we saw young women learning how to operate various sewing machines and how to design a skirt from scratch. The earnestness with which they tackled their respective tasks was palpable.  I hope they all get work in the industry, as it would open up so many doors for employment and upward mobility.

Amy with students the NFE sewing class

We ended the day back at the Lotus Outreach office.  Glenn at his desk, Raksmey at hers, and I in the middle.  I’ve never met such passionate, committed people as Glenn and Raksmey.  They can squeeze water out of a stone, and it will be magic water at that.  Glenn would soon be returning to his wife and daughter in India, while Raksmey would stay to “woman” the fort in Phnom Penh.  While she may not realize how much inspiration she offers to the many girls and women under her watch through the Phnom Penh branch of Lotus Outreach, I was equally fascinated by the personal growth that Raksmey herself was experiencing.  She is truly a path maker in Cambodia.  Her story is yet to unfold.

36 Hours with Lotus Outreach (Part I)

By Amy Hall
Director of Social Consciousness for EILEEN FISHER

Hot, sticky, steamy.  Those are the adjectives that describe my 36 hours in Phnom Penh last November, where I visited with our friends from Lotus Outreach, Glenn Fawcett and Raksmey Var.

I have traveled to Asia many times, both for business and pleasure, but had never been to Cambodia.  With a business trip planned to Hong Kong and China in November, I adjusted my schedule to allow for a brief stopover in Phnom Penh before heading back to New York, where I lead the Social Consciousness team at EILEEN FISHER. With two young children at home, any extra time spent away is carefully considered and reconsidered. This trip was well worth the anxiety.

Glenn (executive director of field operations) and Raksmey (partners and projects liaison) met me at the Phnom Penh airport, whisked me off to my hotel and then to the first of several stops in my 36-hour odyssey: lunch at a local favorite called Friends. This is not just any restaurant, but a thriving social enterprise that plucks homeless children off the streets each day, provides a safe space to play, learn and eat, trains the older ones in restaurant skills, and offers hope to a vulnerable segment of the population. It was the perfect introduction to this city of contrasts.

Amy reviews class texts with NFE students

After lunch, we piled back into Raksmey’s SUV and drove to Trolok Baik, a red light district on what seemed to be the outskirts of the city. This was not a red light district in the Western sense. No neon lights, no glitz. Rather, garbage-strewn dirt roads, open sewers, shoeless kids and ramshackle homes on rickety stilts. This is the setting for one of the life skills classes funded by EILEEN FISHER’s Activating Leadership Grant for Women and Girls. We stood in the back of one such class, where 12 women were seated at wooden tables practicing their reading and writing skills while occasionally running out to attend to family members or clients. During the 2 hours we spent with them, two little toddlers – brother and sister – wandered in and out, never straying too far from their mom. At one point, the little boy dropped his corn on the cob on the dirty floor, picked it up and continued eating, his dimpled smile betraying the hunger and poverty of his young life.

Mother and daughter in class

We had the pleasure of observing one instructor cajole the students into discussing ways to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. This instructor, a survivor of prostitution herself, had a magnetic style that both relaxed and engaged the women in the class. How inspiring to know that she has found a calling with Lotus Outreach and their sister organization Khemara.

Our next stop was the living quarters of Khoon, a woman who has left the sex trade, was briefly trained in basic sewing skills, but who is caught in limbo between wanting to improve her tailoring skills in classes across town and needing to stay home with her baby. She lives in a single room with her husband and baby, within the confines of Trolok Baik. Her plight characterizes the difficulty many women face in making seemingly small changes in their lives.

Khoon

(to be continued)