Tune in this Monday, December 1 at 6:56 a.m. mountain time to Boulder's (CO) independent radio station, KGNU, to hear a short interview I did with Nikki Kayser regarding Heidi's & my nonprofit, Girls Education International. I talk about our program in Liberia and future projects that we aspire to do. KGNU is 88.5 FM and 1390AM, or you can go to KGNU's Web site later that day and listen to itl.
I will also post that interview on the blog that afternoon.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Updates on our activity and purpose behind this blog
I started this blog with the idea that I would record absolutely everything our nonprofit has done from day one to get going. I haven't completely succeeded in this effort primarily because of a lack of time. However, there is a pretty good record of what we've been up to. I'll try to fill in some of the blanks over the next month. For now I'll start with a complete update of what we've been up to this autumn.
Our board--which still consists of Elizabeth O'Neill, Justin Voorhees, Heidi Wirtz, and myself--decided that we needed to pay someone to do some of the work that we needed to get done, but haven't been able to get done for lack of time. At a meeting we had about six weeks ago we decided to pay me to write a grant--for a very low cost of $15 per hour (the low average is $40 per hour, but can upwards of a few hundred)--and to pay Heidi and myself to put together a donor database and send off year-end giving letters--for the same $15 per hour. We established that amount of money because we currently have (or will soon have) about $10,000 in the bank from our fundraising efforts and from the Inspiring Soles grant (which we don't actually have in hand yet...) We're working a total of 110 hours on these projects, which equals about $1650. We will have to pay an additional $350 or so to get quickbooks to manage our accounting and also to pay for supplies for the year-end giving letter. After speaking with numerous people and doing research, we reasoned that spending 20% on overhead at this point would be well worth it, especially if our giving letter campaign is successful. We will make every effort to never exceed paying 20% for overhead costs.
In regards to the grant: We understand that because we are such a new organization, it will be difficult to get substantial grants. However, we believe it is important to have a template of information that we can modify for any grant opportunities that come our way in the future as we make more contacts. We will also be applying for grants, despite the odds. We think that because we have some strong NGO partners in other countries that have been operating for years that we might have a reasonable chance at receiving some grants regardless of our newness. We are applying for a Ford Foundation grant in December, and last month we applied for a grant/fundraising relationship with BoldeReach, an organization out of Boulder, Colo.
Writing the grant has provided valuable information in regards to how Heidi and I need to plan the future of GEI. Basically, in researching and writing the grant I discovered that we have many gaps to fill before we can be fully operational and successful. We have put plans in place to have all these gaps filled by January 2009.
I'll break down the process of writing the grant and what I discovered in the following outline and narrative:
First, I read extensively on how to shape grants, who to approach, and the things GEI needs to have in place before any foundation will consider giving us money; I read "Grant Writing for Dummies," which proved to be incredibly valuable and was open next to me on the table the entire time I was writing the grant; and I spent 20 to 30 hours reading materials I found on GrantCraft, a comprehensive Web site of grant writing information created by the Ford Foundation. I also spoke with various people from the nonprofit Engineers Without Borders, including their founder, the director and assistant director of fundraising, and the grant writer (I will go ahead an include those notes at the end of this blog so that anyone interested in details on what I am about to expound on can read more). Because I had the opportunity to pick their brains, I also got a lot of great tips and advice for other important things we need to think about.
The most important things I discovered were that nonprofits have a difficult time getting grants unless:
1. They have actually been around for at least five years (and have shown they can start, implement, and follow through with projects, including managing the money;
2. They have their accounting practices accredited by an outside source;
3. They have some paid employees (which reassures grantors that there money won't disappear when volunteers inevitably burn out or end up with not enough time to see projects through)
4. They have complete transparency with finances;
5. They have some concrete, long-term fundraising plans in place;
6. And they are accredited by the various organizations that monitor nonprofit activities.
I also discovered:
1. Year-end giving letters that target people we know, previous donors, associates, etc, are what bring in the most money. All the EWB people stressed the need to establish personal ties with people that can be developed over the long term. Those relationships will sustain the organization, especially considering it is very difficult to get operational grants. Grantors typically designate grants to go to specific projects. However, in order to implement our projects, Heidi and I have finally realized that we have to be paid something. If we want to expand the programs we currently have and expand our operations to different countries, we have to be able to sustain ourselves as well as our programs. Thus, we decided to go ahead and implement a comprehensive year-end giving letter campaign that includes the mailing out of 500 letters with follow up emails, which we are mailing out Saturday, December 6th (after our letter-stuffing party, which is being sponsored by Oskar Blues--Thanks Dale and Chad!). We are currently using Filemaker Pro to organize the list of 400 or so donors that Heidi and I have so far put together, and The Mountain Fund is generously allowing us to use their license with Constant Contact to send out follow-up email newsletters later in December. We hope to bring in sufficient funds to pay for Heidi and I to get specific projects done, to manage our projects, and, of course, to pay for our projects.
2. Developing a donor database from the get-go is key. Basically we need to figure out a way to manage our donors including: keeping track of who has given us what in terms of money or in-kind donations; thanking people who have donated with personal calls and/or letters; knowing where the donors came from; finding out who is most likely to donate again; and the list goes on. Heidi and I have been developing this. We are still not sure which management system we are going to go with, but for now I'm using Filemaker Pro because it makes sense, and I have a free one-month trial period to use it.
3. We need a comprehensive fundraising plan that we will use in conjunction with a comprehensive marketing plan. We have a new marketing person on board--Jancy Quinn--who will be helping us develop this. We plan to have both outlined by the beginning of January. We have already made a good start. We feel that if we figure these two plans out, we can combine them with our already existing strategic plan to come up with a viable business plan.
OK, that's all for now. I've got a load of work to do, including putting together the rest of the donor database and writing the second draft of the year-end giving letter (which I will post when I am finished with it).
Notes with Founder of Engineers Without Borders:
Summary of meeting notes with Bruce Grant of Engineers Without Borders:
1. We need to create an auditable database from day one. All the “big charity watchdogs” (online sites) that evaluate nonprofits will only start evaluating us from the time we start auditing ourselves. We have to pay an accountant to do this. We have to be licensed or approved by these watchdog groups in order to get foundations to pay any attention to us at all. We also have to be recommended by these groups if we’re going to have any chance of getting a grant.
a. Also, foundations will find us if we are on these charity watchdog sites.
b. Charity groups: Charitynavigator.com, charity.org, etc
2. We need to plan out a five-year plan now. Question: what do we want to look like in five years.
3. There is nothing wrong with paying ourselves to get going, but we have to be careful to not spend more than 20% of our income on overhead. We never want overhead to go over 20% of our income.
4. We need to do extensive networking as soon as possible.
a. We need to hit every female business owner on the Front Range. I have a list of the top 100 female-owned firms on the FR.
b. We need to get out and start talking with people in person, including legislators & politicians, businesswomen and men, and anyone else who might be able to help us.
c. We need to find an Angel donor.
d. Boulder Reach. We need to speak to these women.
e. We need to find out how to access charity lists and rolls.
f. Schedule a meeting with Heidi, the main fundraiser for EWB.
g. We need to get on Linked in and link to as many people as possible.
h. We need to find Top Tier people who can influence our success and tie us into other people.
i. We need to get in contact with as many other nonprofits as possible and learn from them.
j. Avoid faith-based orgs and government grants. The moment we take US government money, our Muslim students are at risk.
5. We need a marketing plan:
a. We need to write a quarterly email newsletter that we send out via constant contact
b. We need to figure out how to better market our nonprofit with Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.
c. Annual Giving Challenge. Parade Magazine. 700 nonprofits registered last year. Through viral marketing they wanted to find out how many people could give how many people 10 dollars.
10. We need to start a “Year-End Giving” letter writing campaign now, so that we get letters out to 500 people before December. 80% of individual donors give money around holidays.
a. These letters should be from each of our board members and should be personalized.
b. These letters should include a powerful story about one of the girls we have helped.
c. These letters should also include the founders’ story
11. We should not focus on grants until we make more contacts because we will not likely get grants unless we know people in high places.
12. We must emphasize transparency on our Web site as much as possible. Everyone wants to know that we’re honest. We need to report every dime on our site or blog.
13. We need to find more board members, and we need to make sure that every board member brings at least two of these three things to the board: Time, Talent and Treasure (or Work, Wealth and Wisdom).
14. We need to have a “prudent reserve.” Which means we should always make sure to have a certain amount of money in the bank. In this case, since we have just $10K, we should make sure to keep $2K always in the bank. We can increase this number once we raise more money. Money has to come in all the time if it’s going out.
15. We need to build a donor list asap.
16. We should never write a grant unless we have a high expectation of winning that money. You have to know people in high places to even be considered.
17. We need to refine our Bylaws
Notes from meeting with Assistant Director and Director of Fundraising at EWB:
1. They said the most important thing that we need to do right now is: 1) compile a database of donors and; 2) get out a year-end giving letter.
a. There is free software online (Opensource and Sales Force are two)
b. Get lists of contacts from our board members
c. Contact stores, sponsors, etc, to see if we can get lists of potential donors from them.
d. Network more on Facebook and Web sites like that.
e. We need to recognize people who donate to us, especially people who donate a lot of money. Apparently 80% of nonprofits’ funds come from donors and a huge percentage (they said somewhere around 3/4s won’t donate unless they get some sort of recognition of that donation).
f. All board members should be involved in the year-end giving letter to some degree.
2. They reiterated that we should not focus on grant writing, especially now because we are much more likely to get money from people who have donated already and from our personal contacts.
3. They said writing a grant as a template is a good idea, but they warned that:
a. Really great grant writers have a 5-10% return
b. We’re not likely to get any big grants until we have been established for at least 5 years.
c. We have a chance to get smaller grants
4. They suggested networking as much as possible with:
a. Schools. Start a sister school program, have letter and photo exchanges, and encourage the kids at local schools to raise money for our scholarships and other programs. Bring some stuff back from Liberia or Nepal and give it to the kids at the sister schools to sell/auction
b. Find wealthy people and get them to serve on our board; find angel donor
5. They said we need to get people on the board who either have money or who can focus on making money, and that should be the main job of board members.
6. Fundraising events. They said the key element of fundraising events should be the collection of information. That until we get more efficient and effective at fundraising events, we aren’t going to make much money, but we do have the opportunity to really build up our donor database.
7. They said it’s not a bad idea to get someone who wants to work for free and tell them to earn their own salary, but they also said that most of the time the people who “stick” are people who are passionate about the cause already (i.e. me and Heidi).
I haven't summarized the meeting notes with the grant writer yet, and so I shall leave those out.
Our board--which still consists of Elizabeth O'Neill, Justin Voorhees, Heidi Wirtz, and myself--decided that we needed to pay someone to do some of the work that we needed to get done, but haven't been able to get done for lack of time. At a meeting we had about six weeks ago we decided to pay me to write a grant--for a very low cost of $15 per hour (the low average is $40 per hour, but can upwards of a few hundred)--and to pay Heidi and myself to put together a donor database and send off year-end giving letters--for the same $15 per hour. We established that amount of money because we currently have (or will soon have) about $10,000 in the bank from our fundraising efforts and from the Inspiring Soles grant (which we don't actually have in hand yet...) We're working a total of 110 hours on these projects, which equals about $1650. We will have to pay an additional $350 or so to get quickbooks to manage our accounting and also to pay for supplies for the year-end giving letter. After speaking with numerous people and doing research, we reasoned that spending 20% on overhead at this point would be well worth it, especially if our giving letter campaign is successful. We will make every effort to never exceed paying 20% for overhead costs.
In regards to the grant: We understand that because we are such a new organization, it will be difficult to get substantial grants. However, we believe it is important to have a template of information that we can modify for any grant opportunities that come our way in the future as we make more contacts. We will also be applying for grants, despite the odds. We think that because we have some strong NGO partners in other countries that have been operating for years that we might have a reasonable chance at receiving some grants regardless of our newness. We are applying for a Ford Foundation grant in December, and last month we applied for a grant/fundraising relationship with BoldeReach, an organization out of Boulder, Colo.
Writing the grant has provided valuable information in regards to how Heidi and I need to plan the future of GEI. Basically, in researching and writing the grant I discovered that we have many gaps to fill before we can be fully operational and successful. We have put plans in place to have all these gaps filled by January 2009.
I'll break down the process of writing the grant and what I discovered in the following outline and narrative:
First, I read extensively on how to shape grants, who to approach, and the things GEI needs to have in place before any foundation will consider giving us money; I read "Grant Writing for Dummies," which proved to be incredibly valuable and was open next to me on the table the entire time I was writing the grant; and I spent 20 to 30 hours reading materials I found on GrantCraft, a comprehensive Web site of grant writing information created by the Ford Foundation. I also spoke with various people from the nonprofit Engineers Without Borders, including their founder, the director and assistant director of fundraising, and the grant writer (I will go ahead an include those notes at the end of this blog so that anyone interested in details on what I am about to expound on can read more). Because I had the opportunity to pick their brains, I also got a lot of great tips and advice for other important things we need to think about.
The most important things I discovered were that nonprofits have a difficult time getting grants unless:
1. They have actually been around for at least five years (and have shown they can start, implement, and follow through with projects, including managing the money;
2. They have their accounting practices accredited by an outside source;
3. They have some paid employees (which reassures grantors that there money won't disappear when volunteers inevitably burn out or end up with not enough time to see projects through)
4. They have complete transparency with finances;
5. They have some concrete, long-term fundraising plans in place;
6. And they are accredited by the various organizations that monitor nonprofit activities.
I also discovered:
1. Year-end giving letters that target people we know, previous donors, associates, etc, are what bring in the most money. All the EWB people stressed the need to establish personal ties with people that can be developed over the long term. Those relationships will sustain the organization, especially considering it is very difficult to get operational grants. Grantors typically designate grants to go to specific projects. However, in order to implement our projects, Heidi and I have finally realized that we have to be paid something. If we want to expand the programs we currently have and expand our operations to different countries, we have to be able to sustain ourselves as well as our programs. Thus, we decided to go ahead and implement a comprehensive year-end giving letter campaign that includes the mailing out of 500 letters with follow up emails, which we are mailing out Saturday, December 6th (after our letter-stuffing party, which is being sponsored by Oskar Blues--Thanks Dale and Chad!). We are currently using Filemaker Pro to organize the list of 400 or so donors that Heidi and I have so far put together, and The Mountain Fund is generously allowing us to use their license with Constant Contact to send out follow-up email newsletters later in December. We hope to bring in sufficient funds to pay for Heidi and I to get specific projects done, to manage our projects, and, of course, to pay for our projects.
2. Developing a donor database from the get-go is key. Basically we need to figure out a way to manage our donors including: keeping track of who has given us what in terms of money or in-kind donations; thanking people who have donated with personal calls and/or letters; knowing where the donors came from; finding out who is most likely to donate again; and the list goes on. Heidi and I have been developing this. We are still not sure which management system we are going to go with, but for now I'm using Filemaker Pro because it makes sense, and I have a free one-month trial period to use it.
3. We need a comprehensive fundraising plan that we will use in conjunction with a comprehensive marketing plan. We have a new marketing person on board--Jancy Quinn--who will be helping us develop this. We plan to have both outlined by the beginning of January. We have already made a good start. We feel that if we figure these two plans out, we can combine them with our already existing strategic plan to come up with a viable business plan.
OK, that's all for now. I've got a load of work to do, including putting together the rest of the donor database and writing the second draft of the year-end giving letter (which I will post when I am finished with it).
Notes with Founder of Engineers Without Borders:
Summary of meeting notes with Bruce Grant of Engineers Without Borders:
1. We need to create an auditable database from day one. All the “big charity watchdogs” (online sites) that evaluate nonprofits will only start evaluating us from the time we start auditing ourselves. We have to pay an accountant to do this. We have to be licensed or approved by these watchdog groups in order to get foundations to pay any attention to us at all. We also have to be recommended by these groups if we’re going to have any chance of getting a grant.
a. Also, foundations will find us if we are on these charity watchdog sites.
b. Charity groups: Charitynavigator.com, charity.org, etc
2. We need to plan out a five-year plan now. Question: what do we want to look like in five years.
3. There is nothing wrong with paying ourselves to get going, but we have to be careful to not spend more than 20% of our income on overhead. We never want overhead to go over 20% of our income.
4. We need to do extensive networking as soon as possible.
a. We need to hit every female business owner on the Front Range. I have a list of the top 100 female-owned firms on the FR.
b. We need to get out and start talking with people in person, including legislators & politicians, businesswomen and men, and anyone else who might be able to help us.
c. We need to find an Angel donor.
d. Boulder Reach. We need to speak to these women.
e. We need to find out how to access charity lists and rolls.
f. Schedule a meeting with Heidi, the main fundraiser for EWB.
g. We need to get on Linked in and link to as many people as possible.
h. We need to find Top Tier people who can influence our success and tie us into other people.
i. We need to get in contact with as many other nonprofits as possible and learn from them.
j. Avoid faith-based orgs and government grants. The moment we take US government money, our Muslim students are at risk.
5. We need a marketing plan:
a. We need to write a quarterly email newsletter that we send out via constant contact
b. We need to figure out how to better market our nonprofit with Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.
c. Annual Giving Challenge. Parade Magazine. 700 nonprofits registered last year. Through viral marketing they wanted to find out how many people could give how many people 10 dollars.
10. We need to start a “Year-End Giving” letter writing campaign now, so that we get letters out to 500 people before December. 80% of individual donors give money around holidays.
a. These letters should be from each of our board members and should be personalized.
b. These letters should include a powerful story about one of the girls we have helped.
c. These letters should also include the founders’ story
11. We should not focus on grants until we make more contacts because we will not likely get grants unless we know people in high places.
12. We must emphasize transparency on our Web site as much as possible. Everyone wants to know that we’re honest. We need to report every dime on our site or blog.
13. We need to find more board members, and we need to make sure that every board member brings at least two of these three things to the board: Time, Talent and Treasure (or Work, Wealth and Wisdom).
14. We need to have a “prudent reserve.” Which means we should always make sure to have a certain amount of money in the bank. In this case, since we have just $10K, we should make sure to keep $2K always in the bank. We can increase this number once we raise more money. Money has to come in all the time if it’s going out.
15. We need to build a donor list asap.
16. We should never write a grant unless we have a high expectation of winning that money. You have to know people in high places to even be considered.
17. We need to refine our Bylaws
Notes from meeting with Assistant Director and Director of Fundraising at EWB:
1. They said the most important thing that we need to do right now is: 1) compile a database of donors and; 2) get out a year-end giving letter.
a. There is free software online (Opensource and Sales Force are two)
b. Get lists of contacts from our board members
c. Contact stores, sponsors, etc, to see if we can get lists of potential donors from them.
d. Network more on Facebook and Web sites like that.
e. We need to recognize people who donate to us, especially people who donate a lot of money. Apparently 80% of nonprofits’ funds come from donors and a huge percentage (they said somewhere around 3/4s won’t donate unless they get some sort of recognition of that donation).
f. All board members should be involved in the year-end giving letter to some degree.
2. They reiterated that we should not focus on grant writing, especially now because we are much more likely to get money from people who have donated already and from our personal contacts.
3. They said writing a grant as a template is a good idea, but they warned that:
a. Really great grant writers have a 5-10% return
b. We’re not likely to get any big grants until we have been established for at least 5 years.
c. We have a chance to get smaller grants
4. They suggested networking as much as possible with:
a. Schools. Start a sister school program, have letter and photo exchanges, and encourage the kids at local schools to raise money for our scholarships and other programs. Bring some stuff back from Liberia or Nepal and give it to the kids at the sister schools to sell/auction
b. Find wealthy people and get them to serve on our board; find angel donor
5. They said we need to get people on the board who either have money or who can focus on making money, and that should be the main job of board members.
6. Fundraising events. They said the key element of fundraising events should be the collection of information. That until we get more efficient and effective at fundraising events, we aren’t going to make much money, but we do have the opportunity to really build up our donor database.
7. They said it’s not a bad idea to get someone who wants to work for free and tell them to earn their own salary, but they also said that most of the time the people who “stick” are people who are passionate about the cause already (i.e. me and Heidi).
I haven't summarized the meeting notes with the grant writer yet, and so I shall leave those out.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Response from Emily Sherman-Davis, Liberia
This note is from Common Ground Society's Program Director Emily Sherman-Davis in response to a note I sent her along with those terrible statistics I published on my blog yesterday. I wrote, "Those statistics make me feel sick." She responded:
Lizzy
I can understand how you feel, but it is also pathetic when you see the girls or the victims themselves. The personal tragedy is too terrible and I can tell you stories upon stories of what I saw during the war. When it comes to rape, especially up country, people are too scared to talk about it, women are seen as tools to be used by men, girls get ostracized because of rape and sometimes even blamed. Women live in a very harsh world here. It is only now that thngs are taking a different trend. We have a woman president and she is doing her best. But women need to stand up for themselves. How can they, when they can't get an education. This is the struggle and it is going to be a long and ardous journey. I am happy that your organization is helping our girls. Someday, it is my desire that you come and see this country and the children you are helping.
Rgds
Emily
Lizzy
I can understand how you feel, but it is also pathetic when you see the girls or the victims themselves. The personal tragedy is too terrible and I can tell you stories upon stories of what I saw during the war. When it comes to rape, especially up country, people are too scared to talk about it, women are seen as tools to be used by men, girls get ostracized because of rape and sometimes even blamed. Women live in a very harsh world here. It is only now that thngs are taking a different trend. We have a woman president and she is doing her best. But women need to stand up for themselves. How can they, when they can't get an education. This is the struggle and it is going to be a long and ardous journey. I am happy that your organization is helping our girls. Someday, it is my desire that you come and see this country and the children you are helping.
Rgds
Emily
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The situation for women in Liberia is dire
The situation for women in Liberia is dire, which is why we are committed to supporting our Liberia Scholarship Program for the long term and expanding it over the next few years. I found this entry on a woman's blog. It is powerful. Among other things that are really sticking in my head are the facts that the rape rate is upwards of 77% and the literacy rate for women is less than 30%. To read more, visit this powerful blog.
SUNDAY, JULY 1, 2007
Personalizing the reality of Liberia's gender statistics
Statistics about the situation of women in Liberia are few. After 14 years of civil conflict, the lack of data is a huge constraint for government and development partners alike. One of the ongoing priorities is to gather data to characterize the population and inform policy, especially as the country moves into the process of drafting its 5-year Poverty Reduction Strategy. Over the past week, I have been working with the Ministry of Gender to review and revise the nation's Gender Profile and Gender Needs Assessment, telling a story with what little information is available. I'm keeping my nerdy fingers crossed that the Demographic and Health Survey data will be out in July, as promised, so that I can do some data crunching to expand upon the data we have now (including violence prevalence rates, perceptions on HIV/AIDs, education attainment and women's health concerns). Below, I have attempted to pass along some of the harsh reality that the current reports contain.
Think of a room of 100 women/girls in your life.
I picture my mom, 2 grandmothers and 7 aunts. 17 girl cousins, my 2 high school best friends (aka sisters), my god-daughter. My 11 college roommates and 15 young women who participated in service trips, retreats and adventures with me at Boston College. My 32 female peers in the 2008 MPA/ID class at the Kennedy School and 4 faculty/staff who have influenced my studies throughout the years. 4 women who were my community in Laredo and 8 mentors from Casa de Misericordia Domestic Violence Shelter.
100 women. Who would be in your room?
Now, imagine that these 100 women live, not in the United States, but in Liberia. What would this mean?*
Women will average six children each and the entire room will mother 620 children. 97 of those babies will die before they reach the age of 5 years old. Pick 61 women who will watch at least one child die before it reached school age. About 25 women will experience this loss more than once. Luckily in my own randomized exercise, my mom was one of the 39 women who never had a child die. 4 of the 97 dead infants belonged to my friend Maggie.
Now select a group of 11 women and a group of 4. 11 women will deliver their children with the assistance of trained medical professionals; 4 women will die giving childbirth. My Granny Stanger, cousin Darci, roommate Regina and classmate Caroline died while giving birth (I’ll ignore the fact that my Granny’s death might have erased the existence of 10% of the room).
Separate nearly two-thirds of the room: 74 women in the room will be illiterate adults – unable to read newspapers, street signs, books or guides to proper health care. As a comparison, if the room were 100 men, half would be illiterate. In my simulation, 7 out of my 32 Kennedy School classmates are able to read and write their names. My Aunt Denise and my Grandma Dauenbaugh no longer share books with each other and my god-daughter will never be able to read her birthday cards.
Now add in a new assumption, the room of women are all from the urban area of Monrovia:
28 work as market vender/petty traders, 5 work in clerical positions, 3 are skilled laborers or work in manufacturing. Overall, 41 women are working and of these 33 are self-employed.
Now assume your network of women comes from rural areas:
65 women have access to land for farming, but only 7 women in the room own land that they farm. In fact, even though the law of inheritance changed in 2003 to grant wives the right to 1/3 of their husbands’ property (previously, they had no rights over his property), 28 women in the room believe that the law does not even allow them to own land. (32 have husbands who believe the same). This is all in spite of the fact that women in Liberia are collectively responsible for 60% of the total agricultural production of the country.
Final scenario, the 100 women in the room were forced to leave their homes or were directly affected by the 14-year civil conflict in Liberia:
Separate just over three-quarters of the room. These 77 women were raped. 13 women became pregnant as a result of rape. In my room it was my Mom, aunt Jodi, cousin Cassie, 4 friends from Boston College, 2 colleagues from Laredo, and 4 of my KSG classmates.
42 women were subjected to internal body cavity searches.
23 women suffer from permanent physical disfigurement
Pick out one woman in the room. My random sampling drew my college roommate Lizzie. She was forced to eat or sell pieces of a loved-one’s body. Imagine her telling you a story similar to one of these:
“The soldiers cut my husband’s head off after he witnessed powerlessly them raping me. After they cut him into pieces, they put the pieces in the pot and asked me to cook it. After cooking, they forced us to eat. I am not the way I was before.”
Or
“My son was killed by a group of rebels and the body was cut into pieces and put into a wheelbarrow. They (rebels) gave it to me for sale. I did it because I was afraid to be cut to death.”
Only six women are free from physical/health consequences from the abuse they were subjected to during the war.*
SUNDAY, JULY 1, 2007
Personalizing the reality of Liberia's gender statistics
Statistics about the situation of women in Liberia are few. After 14 years of civil conflict, the lack of data is a huge constraint for government and development partners alike. One of the ongoing priorities is to gather data to characterize the population and inform policy, especially as the country moves into the process of drafting its 5-year Poverty Reduction Strategy. Over the past week, I have been working with the Ministry of Gender to review and revise the nation's Gender Profile and Gender Needs Assessment, telling a story with what little information is available. I'm keeping my nerdy fingers crossed that the Demographic and Health Survey data will be out in July, as promised, so that I can do some data crunching to expand upon the data we have now (including violence prevalence rates, perceptions on HIV/AIDs, education attainment and women's health concerns). Below, I have attempted to pass along some of the harsh reality that the current reports contain.
Think of a room of 100 women/girls in your life.
I picture my mom, 2 grandmothers and 7 aunts. 17 girl cousins, my 2 high school best friends (aka sisters), my god-daughter. My 11 college roommates and 15 young women who participated in service trips, retreats and adventures with me at Boston College. My 32 female peers in the 2008 MPA/ID class at the Kennedy School and 4 faculty/staff who have influenced my studies throughout the years. 4 women who were my community in Laredo and 8 mentors from Casa de Misericordia Domestic Violence Shelter.
100 women. Who would be in your room?
Now, imagine that these 100 women live, not in the United States, but in Liberia. What would this mean?*
Women will average six children each and the entire room will mother 620 children. 97 of those babies will die before they reach the age of 5 years old. Pick 61 women who will watch at least one child die before it reached school age. About 25 women will experience this loss more than once. Luckily in my own randomized exercise, my mom was one of the 39 women who never had a child die. 4 of the 97 dead infants belonged to my friend Maggie.
Now select a group of 11 women and a group of 4. 11 women will deliver their children with the assistance of trained medical professionals; 4 women will die giving childbirth. My Granny Stanger, cousin Darci, roommate Regina and classmate Caroline died while giving birth (I’ll ignore the fact that my Granny’s death might have erased the existence of 10% of the room).
Separate nearly two-thirds of the room: 74 women in the room will be illiterate adults – unable to read newspapers, street signs, books or guides to proper health care. As a comparison, if the room were 100 men, half would be illiterate. In my simulation, 7 out of my 32 Kennedy School classmates are able to read and write their names. My Aunt Denise and my Grandma Dauenbaugh no longer share books with each other and my god-daughter will never be able to read her birthday cards.
Now add in a new assumption, the room of women are all from the urban area of Monrovia:
28 work as market vender/petty traders, 5 work in clerical positions, 3 are skilled laborers or work in manufacturing. Overall, 41 women are working and of these 33 are self-employed.
Now assume your network of women comes from rural areas:
65 women have access to land for farming, but only 7 women in the room own land that they farm. In fact, even though the law of inheritance changed in 2003 to grant wives the right to 1/3 of their husbands’ property (previously, they had no rights over his property), 28 women in the room believe that the law does not even allow them to own land. (32 have husbands who believe the same). This is all in spite of the fact that women in Liberia are collectively responsible for 60% of the total agricultural production of the country.
Final scenario, the 100 women in the room were forced to leave their homes or were directly affected by the 14-year civil conflict in Liberia:
Separate just over three-quarters of the room. These 77 women were raped. 13 women became pregnant as a result of rape. In my room it was my Mom, aunt Jodi, cousin Cassie, 4 friends from Boston College, 2 colleagues from Laredo, and 4 of my KSG classmates.
42 women were subjected to internal body cavity searches.
23 women suffer from permanent physical disfigurement
Pick out one woman in the room. My random sampling drew my college roommate Lizzie. She was forced to eat or sell pieces of a loved-one’s body. Imagine her telling you a story similar to one of these:
“The soldiers cut my husband’s head off after he witnessed powerlessly them raping me. After they cut him into pieces, they put the pieces in the pot and asked me to cook it. After cooking, they forced us to eat. I am not the way I was before.”
Or
“My son was killed by a group of rebels and the body was cut into pieces and put into a wheelbarrow. They (rebels) gave it to me for sale. I did it because I was afraid to be cut to death.”
Only six women are free from physical/health consequences from the abuse they were subjected to during the war.*
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