From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERareas or among religious minorities, find that ‘customary’ or ‘religious’law overrules civil law in cases of domestic violence.In a number of countries, women’s legal organisations visit remoteareas to raise awareness that violence against women is a crime and toprovide legal aid to poor women. Yet even then, women must bravethe disapproval of their families or communities for blowing the whistleon these practices. Widespread changes in attitudes and beliefs thatcondone violence are critical.In South Asia, the ‘We Can’ campaign is supporting a model ofchange focused on attitudes and beliefs. We Can’s campaign to endviolence against women works through people-to-people contact anda massive network of over 1,800 civil society organisations inBangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. 130Individual ‘change makers’ sign up to the campaign, promising tochange themselves and to influence their family, friends, and neighbourson the need to end domestic violence and change attitudestowards women. They are armed with some basic materials, includingresources suitable for those unable to read, such as posters addressingeveryday forms of violent discrimination.In a process reminiscent of viral marketing, those they ‘convert’become change makers themselves. So far, just over one million peoplehave signed on. The campaign’s target is five million change makerswho will each, in turn, reach at least ten others – which the alliancehopes will be enough to achieve a critical mass that can transformpower relations in the home and attitudes towards domestic violenceacross South Asia. Surprisingly, 40 per cent of the change makers aremen, an affirmation of the campaign’s premise that real change ispossible, and perhaps that men too find their traditional gender rolesoppressive.Such deep transformation in entrenched beliefs is neither easy norrapid, and not everyone supports the changes – some men boycott themeetings and criticise the women’s assertiveness. But the men andwomen involved report enormous improvements in their family livesand a spillover effect in other areas: men’s groups have started savingsschemes, for example, and the number of girls going to schoolhas risen.276