I am feeling humbled, in awe and overwhelmed all together at the moment. I ll tell you why, this past week I had the privilege to volunteer for two organizations whose work resonates with me.
One is called SFWAR ( San Francisco Women Against Rape) and the other is TCF (The citizens foundation.)
SFWAR is a community based rape crisis center, They are a women of color led organization a large number of volunteers working with this organization are rape survivors them selves. These facts alone just blow my mind, a few days ago I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and we were talking about the importance of role models, how we women of color do not see a lot of women in places of leadership and how much difference it makes when you do have such role models. When you see women and women of color in places of power and leadership you are able to imagine your self in those shoes and believe that it is a possibility that those positions are not just reserved for white men or just men.
SFWAR's work addresses sexual assault in two ways; by providing direct services to sexual assault survivors, their families and friends, and by using community organization and education as tools of prevention, they believe that rape takes place in the larger social context that condones inter-personal and institutional abuses of power and oppression of marginalized groups. SFWAR believes a world without rape is possible only when we challenge the existing paradigms, confronting the root causes of violence and support the development of community derived and driven initiatives the emphasize collective responsibility, healing and transformation.
TCF is working in the education sector. It was started by 5 Overseas Pakistanis who at the time pooled their resources to build 5 schools in some of the most under-privileged areas of Pakistan. Those 5 schools have now come to be 1441 schools which have a current enrollment of 204,000 children. There is still a lot more to be done as approximately 24 million children are not in school in Pakistan. TCF mission is to remove barriers of class and privileges to make the citizens of Pakistan agents of positive change. TCF has an impressive TCF in a box model whereby all the schools are state of art purpose built campuses. They have a sliding scale fee structure whereby the students enrolled feel empowered and feel they are a part of the organization. All the teachers are female and they are well trained and 50% of the student enrollment is females.
It is a known fact that education is one factor alone that can bring about wide- ranging benefits to society and accelerates social change, it has a positive impact on all parameters, may it be health, enabling individuals to perform better in the workforce and promotion of good citizenship. Education helps to contain violence and with the TCF model where 50% of the students and all the teaching staff are female it ensures women empowerment.
This week being around highly accomplished and motivated individuals working selflessly to further the causes of education and to end violence I felt encouraged and inspired but at the same time i also felt overwhelmed. I felt overwhelmed by the magnitude of the issues these organizations are trying to fight, will we in our lifetimes be able to end the violence against women and against the marginalized groups. Will there be a time when every child will have access to good education regardless of gender and socioeconomic conditions. As I grappled with these questions I felt a sense of dejection, I also felt like an impostor, why was i given all this privilege its all luck of the draw really. I could have just as easily been born in an impoverished family who were unable to provide for me. I think a lot of times the reasons we do not want to think about these bigger issues is because we feel we cannot make any difference and that is a very disempowering and sad feeling. Yes it is also true that in the day to day lives of keeping homes running, kids, spouses, jobs, schools and friends a lot of times we do not have any time left over to spend on any kind of worthy causes so we just shrug our shoulders when we see poverty and we see gender inequality and take it as a sad part of life and keep going.
This does not have to be the case, yes we may not be able to solve these problems in our lifetime but maybe we can make some difference and as long as the ball keepsrolling and there is positive change there is hope.
What can we as an individual do you may ask. I would like to invite you to look into these organizations SFWAR, TCF and if their message resonates with you as well, give these organizations your time, give them your money and if nothing else educate your self about these issues and talk about them with your friends and families. If these are not causes you feel passionately about find the causes that move you, whether it is a disease which needs more research on it, whether it is climate change or access to clean water what ever it is get involved in it because social change begins with you, with me with us all. This is a tiny planet that we all share in the bigger scheme of things its just a tiny planet in the midst of this huge galaxy on which we all live, lets find it in our hearts to live in peace and harmony with each other because honestly this is all we have.
http://www.sfwar.org/
support.tcf.org.pk
http://www.tcf.org.pk/
One is called SFWAR ( San Francisco Women Against Rape) and the other is TCF (The citizens foundation.)
SFWAR is a community based rape crisis center, They are a women of color led organization a large number of volunteers working with this organization are rape survivors them selves. These facts alone just blow my mind, a few days ago I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and we were talking about the importance of role models, how we women of color do not see a lot of women in places of leadership and how much difference it makes when you do have such role models. When you see women and women of color in places of power and leadership you are able to imagine your self in those shoes and believe that it is a possibility that those positions are not just reserved for white men or just men.
SFWAR's work addresses sexual assault in two ways; by providing direct services to sexual assault survivors, their families and friends, and by using community organization and education as tools of prevention, they believe that rape takes place in the larger social context that condones inter-personal and institutional abuses of power and oppression of marginalized groups. SFWAR believes a world without rape is possible only when we challenge the existing paradigms, confronting the root causes of violence and support the development of community derived and driven initiatives the emphasize collective responsibility, healing and transformation.
TCF is working in the education sector. It was started by 5 Overseas Pakistanis who at the time pooled their resources to build 5 schools in some of the most under-privileged areas of Pakistan. Those 5 schools have now come to be 1441 schools which have a current enrollment of 204,000 children. There is still a lot more to be done as approximately 24 million children are not in school in Pakistan. TCF mission is to remove barriers of class and privileges to make the citizens of Pakistan agents of positive change. TCF has an impressive TCF in a box model whereby all the schools are state of art purpose built campuses. They have a sliding scale fee structure whereby the students enrolled feel empowered and feel they are a part of the organization. All the teachers are female and they are well trained and 50% of the student enrollment is females.
It is a known fact that education is one factor alone that can bring about wide- ranging benefits to society and accelerates social change, it has a positive impact on all parameters, may it be health, enabling individuals to perform better in the workforce and promotion of good citizenship. Education helps to contain violence and with the TCF model where 50% of the students and all the teaching staff are female it ensures women empowerment.
This week being around highly accomplished and motivated individuals working selflessly to further the causes of education and to end violence I felt encouraged and inspired but at the same time i also felt overwhelmed. I felt overwhelmed by the magnitude of the issues these organizations are trying to fight, will we in our lifetimes be able to end the violence against women and against the marginalized groups. Will there be a time when every child will have access to good education regardless of gender and socioeconomic conditions. As I grappled with these questions I felt a sense of dejection, I also felt like an impostor, why was i given all this privilege its all luck of the draw really. I could have just as easily been born in an impoverished family who were unable to provide for me. I think a lot of times the reasons we do not want to think about these bigger issues is because we feel we cannot make any difference and that is a very disempowering and sad feeling. Yes it is also true that in the day to day lives of keeping homes running, kids, spouses, jobs, schools and friends a lot of times we do not have any time left over to spend on any kind of worthy causes so we just shrug our shoulders when we see poverty and we see gender inequality and take it as a sad part of life and keep going.
This does not have to be the case, yes we may not be able to solve these problems in our lifetime but maybe we can make some difference and as long as the ball keepsrolling and there is positive change there is hope.
What can we as an individual do you may ask. I would like to invite you to look into these organizations SFWAR, TCF and if their message resonates with you as well, give these organizations your time, give them your money and if nothing else educate your self about these issues and talk about them with your friends and families. If these are not causes you feel passionately about find the causes that move you, whether it is a disease which needs more research on it, whether it is climate change or access to clean water what ever it is get involved in it because social change begins with you, with me with us all. This is a tiny planet that we all share in the bigger scheme of things its just a tiny planet in the midst of this huge galaxy on which we all live, lets find it in our hearts to live in peace and harmony with each other because honestly this is all we have.
http://www.sfwar.org/
support.tcf.org.pk
http://www.tcf.org.pk/
No comments:
Post a Comment