International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) is an Australian non-profit organisation that creates positive change for women and their communities in Asia and the Pacific.  Since 1985 IWDA has worked in direct partnership with over 145 grassroots women’s organisations in more than 30 countries.

Our practical projects directly address poverty and oppression in developing countries. We develop our projects in partnership with women who work and live in the local communities.  Through more than twenty years of work we recognise that positive and sustainable change requires the active inclusion and participation of women… and this is where Global Youth Impact comes in!

Click here to visit the IWDA website, and learn more about our work.

Below are some small examples of programs which IWDA supports:

EXAMPLE ONE:

Karen Young Women’s Leadership School (KYWLS)

The Karen are an indigenous group that live along the border between Thailand and Burma. On the Burmese side, Karen have been fighting for independence for the last 60 years, but the strict military government refuses to give them any autonomy, and the military actively persecutes them through destroying their crops, burning their villages and through physical violence against them.

Because of this, many Karen have crossed into Thailand, but are sometimes not recognised as refugees, or if they are, their new lives in Thailand involve living in refugee camps for an extremely long time. The KYWLS is in the Mae Ra Moe refugee camp, and was set up to give young women skills, knowledge and confidence, so that they can participate and even become leaders in their community. The education offered specifically addresses women’s needs, promoting human and women’s rights and giving young women the ability to contribute to decision making at community, organisational and government levels. The school opened in 2001, and since then over 100 women have graduated – more than 95% of these women now work in community organisations and participate in making decisions that affect their lives!

“I feel very much empowered to see the school is continuing. I am very impressed to talk to the students because all the students were great and open. I also saw their confidence and courage in their activities they have organised in the community. I can tell that KWO grows stronger as an organisation by having these kinds of Karen young women who were taking part of the leading role in their represented areas” – KYWLS School Committee member.

EXAMPLE TWO:

Generation Next Radio Project

For women living in Fiji, whether they’re in rural or urban areas, it can be very difficult to participate in discussions and decision-making on both social and political issues that affect their lives. This project, with our partner fem’LINKPACIFIC, trains young women to produce and broadcast a weekend radio program that works to promote women’s human rights, talks about the feminisation of poverty, and allows women to discuss and contribute to Fiji’s transformation from a conflict zone to a much more peaceful place.

So far ten young women have received training as a result of this project, and they have built knowledge, confidence and leadership skills. Many young women in Fiji are still not permitted to share or voice opinion, but providing the initial safe space to learn, share the knowledge and be empowered through community media means that young women are learning that their voices and opinions matter. They are being encouraged to write and share their own stories and reflections on issues and situations they encounter in their own lives.

At the same time, the program allows more and more under-resourced and vulnerable communities access to an important resource – information and communication on an issue that greatly affects them. The expertise and experience acquired from the Generation Next Broadcasts have also enabled the young team members to pass on their knowledge on the operations and processes of community radio to the new members, and the project has, thanks to a slight change in the technology, enabled young women with disabilities to participate too.

“This is a chance for me to talk about our rural issues, here in Suva, especially the high cost of living and education costs that people like my family living at the Ba HART settlement are facing” – Sulueti Waqa, volunteer in fem’LINKPACIFIC’s program.

Click here to read more about our programs which will give you some real life examples of the work which IWDA undertakes in supporting women and their communities in Asia and the Pacific – and illustrates the kind of changes you could be helping to make through the Global Youth Impact program!