Raising Our Voices
NEWS FROM THE GLOBAL FUND FOR WOMEN
AUGUST 2005
How To Stop the Import of Nuclear Waste      Cultivating Environmental Justice      Providing Water and Opportunity      Kuna Women Defending Deep-Rooted Values      From Garbage to Gardens      Sustaining Women's Movements Into the Future      Snapshots from the Middle East & North Africa

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

From Garbage to Gardens

The Human Forum for Women's Rights, Amman, Jordan
by Leanne A. Grossman, Director of Communications

The Global Fund's Middle East/North Africa outreach trip brought us face to face with remarkable women's organizations. One of the grantees we were fortunate to meet was the Human Forum for Women's Rights (HFWR). Among their many programs to advance women's status in Jordan is an education project to involve local communities in developing environmentally sustainable initiatives.

Lamis Nasser, HFWR's president, led us on a field trip to a nearby community project they have been actively supporting in collaboration with the Productive Woman Cooperative Society. Leveraging World Bank funds, the project transformed a garbage dump into a safe, healthy space for the community. The dump was relocated to a non-residential area.

Nadia Al-Kharouf, President of the
Productive Women Cooperative Society,
at the greenhouse she created.
Residents learned how to go door-to-door collecting bottles, cans and other items that used to end up in the dump. Now these items are recycled. Then the community was trained in water conservation, and set up a solar power generator to support an irrigation system. We witnessed the results: vegetables and flowers bloom in the greenhouse, and kids ride their bicycles through the new park.

But the women leading the program didn't stop there. Girls from the area had been missing out on early education. The nearest school was two kilometers away, a distance considered unsafe for girls to walk.

The women joined with other activists to successfully lobby the government to build a school in the community. The Global Fund is honored to support the work of the Human Forum for Women's Rights with a grant of $6,000. And we are deeply grateful to the group and the Productive Woman Cooperative Society for sharing their community achievements with our delegation.

The Human Forum for Women's Rights
Lamis Nasser, President
P.O. Box 1964
Amman 11953
Jordan
Phone: 962 6 5521985
Fax: 962 6 5529024
Email: hfwr@nets.com.jo,
lamisnasser@hotmail.com

Photos © Leanne A. Grossman