Woman at APWLD's Parliamentary Exchange in Timor-Leste.

APWLD has been a powerhouse of advocacy and activism for 25 years. With 180 member-groups from over 25 countries, they are a leading voice for women’s rights in Asia and the Pacific. With research and training, women are empowered to use law as an instrument to claim and strengthen their human rights.

A recent training on gender and politics included a parliamentary exchange that took Burmese women parliamentarians to meet their counterparts in Timor-Leste. The result? Daw Khin Waing Kyi, a representative in Burma/Myanmar’s House of Nationalities, was inspired to advocate for a 30 percent quota for women within the Burmese Parliament. Her proposal is pending review for the next election in 2015.

From parliamentarians to local women leaders, APWLD’s strength lies in its diverse membership. During trainings on how to utilize local political resources, a member of her city council’s Committee on Affairs of Women and Youth in Tajikistan used APWLD’s materials to develop leadership trainings for young women in her city. Another participant from Kyrgyzstan incorporated APWLD resources to create leadership development sessions for women living with HIV.

At first, Tiwi’s work was caring for her family. But with the cost of living in Indonesia on the rise, Tiwi needed more money just to keep up. So, like many women between the ages of 20 and 50 in her country, Tiwi started working on contract, making leather goods for a local factory.

But there was a downside. Contract work allows factories to subvert minimum wage laws, ignore working conditions and undermine relationship and solidarity building amongst women workers who fiercely compete for contracts.

Despite these obstacles, Tiwi was promoted to a day laborer position. Unfortunately, day laborers are not entitled to transportation, a uniform, and meals like permanent factory workers. So during the rainy season, she worked outside without a raincoat because the factory only gave them to permanent workers.

Undeterred, Tiwi became involved with Global Fund for Women grantee partner, Yasanti, one of the only female trade unions in Indonesia. She and her colleagues learned the value and purpose of labor unions and leadership. Yasanti organizes local labor groups and connects women from different sectors to regional labor networks. An important advocate and voice, Yasanti speaks truth to business owners who can influence government.

Tiwi took the skills from Yasanti back to her factory, organized her coworkers, and called a meeting with the management to demand raincoats. The negotiations were successful: day laborers got raincoats and improved facilities to keep them dry during the rainy season.

Today, Tiwi continues to collaborate with Yasanti to fight for the rights of women workers in her community.

Community leader in Southeast Asia. Photo credit: APWLD.

When her husband’s alcoholism became so debilitating that he could no longer work, Kanthi Wijekoon had to make a difficult decision. She left her three small children in Sri Lanka with hopes of making higher wages as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia.

While living and working in her employer’s home, she was sexually assaulted. When Kanthi complained, the employer’s wife retaliated by withholding food and burning her hand to the bone with a hot frying spoon.

Kanthi escaped by jumping a high wall surrounding the family’s home. But without a passport, she was quickly arrested and placed in Saudi jail with little food and poor sanitation.

In prison, she met over 700 Sri Lankan women; all had been arrested for running away or minor infractions like stealing food from their employers. In the long tradition of Sri Lankan women’s organizing, Kanthi didn’t resign herself to the sickening prison conditions. She organized and led her fellow prisoners to demand better treatment.

Remembering her local women’s organization, Kanthi wrote Global Fund for Women grantee partner, Rural Women’s Front for help. They sorted out legal aid and paid her fees. When she returned to Sri Lanka, they provided her with counseling. After hearing her stories of prison organizing, Rural Women’s Front knew Kanthi would benefit from leadership training.

Today, Kanthi is a recognized leader and role model for women in the rural Gampha district. Using skills from Rural Women’s Front, she was able to increase daily wages for women rice farmers. Kanthi now leads programs reaching more than 600 women every year, many facing the same struggles she once did.

What happens when one of the world’s leading women’s rights foundations receives its largest single grant in history? We rise and team up with women-led organizations in Asia and the Pacific to propel progress for women, communities, and nations.

With a four-year, $5.9 million investment from the Dutch Foreign Ministry, women-led organizations are leading the charge to end violence and poverty. They are recruiting women to run for office and applying grassroots solutions to climate change.

Follow us through 2015 as we build on the successes of our Breakthrough Project and learn from a region where women’s rights are changing virtually overnight.

Our Impact

$1.1M

IN FLEXIBLE FUNDING

192,278

PEOPLE SERVED

11,544

WOMEN AND GIRLS TRAINED AS LEADERS

 

Our Grantee Partners

View FLOW grantee orgs in a larger map

The Stories

A Leader All Along

When her husband’s alcoholism became so debilitating that he could no longer work, Kanthi Wijekoon had to make a difficult decision. She left her three small children in Sri Lanka with hopes of making higher wages as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia. Read more »

Tiwi’s Raincoat

At first, Tiwi’s work was caring for her family. But with the cost of living in Indonesia on the rise, Tiwi needed more money just to keep up. So, like many women between the ages of 20 and 50 in her country, Tiwi started working on contract, making leather goods for a local factory. Read more »

Our Partners

Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, Chiang Mai, Thailand

APWLD has been a powerhouse of advocacy and activism for 25 years. With 180 member-groups from over 25 countries, they are a leading voice for women’s rights in Asia and the Pacific. Read more »

Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, Quezon City, Philippines

In the age of globalization, DAWN’s network of feminist scholars, researchers and activists work for economic and gender justice – basic human rights often overlooked during rapid development. Read more »

Support

This project is made possible thanks to the Government of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Funding Leadership and Opportunities for Women (FLOW) project is a 80.5 million euro fund initiated by the Dutch Foreign Ministry to strengthen the rights and opportunities for women and girls worldwide. FLOW focuses on women's leadership in three priority areas: security (including violence against women and UN Resolution 1325), economic empowerment (with an emphasis on food security, land, water and economic rights) and participation and representation of women in politics and public administration.

We are grateful to the Government of the Netherlands for their investment in women.

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