The Right To Water And Women
My comments:
The responsibility of women and girls in being the sole gatherers of water for their families is taking a great toll on them in Africa, South America, and India. Not much attention is paid to this, but it is an integral part of the socio-economic problems that keep them in poverty, uneducated, and feeling their hope dissipated.
In many parts of the world it is simply expected that women will do these kinds of tasks and in the case of water gathering, it is a task that presents health concerns and security concerns.
Therefore, it is integral to any convention on water rights to address the rights of women particularly to have the right to an education and not be chained to fetching water 6 hours a day, many times under dangerous conditions and in ways that impair their rights to an education and a healthy lifestyle.
The 21st Century needs to see a great change not only in water policy for the sake of all and our planet, but also for the sake of human rights and preserving them for all, and that means the women of our world.
No young girl should have to go without a proper education simply because she is menstruating and has no sanitation available to her in the school. No young girl should have to risk her health and life fetching water.
We have the technology to change the world. All we need is the will and for the women of the world to stand up for the right to water and to life.
And that is exactly what they are doing:
Water & Women
World Water Council/DHI's Women's Water Fund
Philanthropist Brings Hope, Safe Water To Women
Women joining together in a common cause have and can truly change the world.
1 comment:
I'm going to erase this as soon as it's posted (I hope) and hope it gets to you via email or something.
The original is a very thought-provoking and hopeful article. It's changed slightly the focus of my charity efforts and the way I talk with friends, here, about women's rights and women's needs.
My purpose in posting this comment, though, is not only to thank you for connecting to the original, but to comment on your headline. The headline of the original is "The right to water is a woman’s right". It's clear that water rights and women's rights are not always the same in practice as in theory, and that there's work to be done in this area, and that women in some areas need help from women in others.
The construction of your headline, "The Right to Water and Women" implies that the Right to Water and the Right //to Women// (note, not rights //of Women//) are the same, AND belong to someone who is //not// either Water or Women.
This is because, in English, the construction //Noun and Noun// creates a single subject of the joined nouns, which is then acted on by whatever verb is present or implied (in this case, "Has" as in "[Someone has] the right to Water and Women"). You'd either need to put a comma after Water, to indicate that "...and Women" is a separate subject, a separate idea, from Water, or start your sentence with Women, for the same reason.
It's not that I'm saying "Oh, you shouldn't have posted this." It's more, "There's something in the construction of this that's off-putting, and that might detract from people actually clicking through to the original after they've read your (thoughtful) comments. And that would be a shame, because it IS an issue of which ALL women should be aware.
Thank you for posting both your comments and the link. With that effort, you've affected me, and the ripples from that will run through my conversations with my mother, sister, nieces, women-friends, and co-workers. Not bad, for a couple of clicks.
[ETA: and my apologies for having to use // instead of HTML. Blogger's not accepting my HTML this morning.]
Post a Comment