100 Women grant $90,000 to create positive change for women and girls
100 Women is proud to announce the recipients from their latest grant round. Members have generously donated to make approximately $90,000 available and have collectively decided on the projects to receive funding.
“From training and employment opportunities for women prisoners at Bandyup Prison to cervical cancer screening and treatment in rural Vietnam and a performing arts education program for Aboriginal girls in Halls Creek, these projects will create positive change in the lives of vulnerable women and girls”.
Girls from Oz will receive $28,000 towards delivery of an intensive performing arts program, whereby ten music and dance educators will teach 55 Aboriginal girls and up to five women elders as well as local teachers and teacher aides in Halls Creek, in the East Kimberley region of WA.
Prospects for girls in Halls Creek are poor with less than 13% finishing school to year 11, 4% not attending, and unemployment at 15.4%. Girls from Oz were invited to Halls Creek in 2009 to address this need and to develop a way to increase the engagement of Aboriginal girls in school and community life as well as exposing participants to a range of learning environments for further training, education and leadership.
Over a four-week period, instructors will assist those involved to learn songs in their local Kija and Jaru languages and to develop skills in dance and storytelling. The program will culminate in a performance for 300 members of the Halls Creek community. Additionally, eight teenage girls will participate in the g-oz travel program in November 2017, performing at a show in Perth.
A grant of $29,000 is being awarded to the Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation (ACCF) towards its successful cervical screening, research and treatment programs in rural areas of Vietnam. ACCF has been in Vietnam since 2012 and is expanding the program to 26 new communities in the Hau Giang Province in the Mekong Delta region in southern Vietnam from 2017.
Cervical cancer is the second most common cause of death amongst women in Vietnam. One of the reasons for the high incidence of this disease is the lack of regular cervical screening and access to sufficient levels of health care for many women located in remote districts.
Cervical screening clinics will be promoted by local village committees and implemented by trained local health workers. The project aims to enhance awareness and practices of cervical cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment with a goal of screening over 5,000 women. Long-term outcomes will not just be saving lives but changing the stigma of why healthy women need to be screened for cervical cancer as well as other health issues.
Ausum Initiatives will receive $29,095 towards the Inside Out Designs program where women will be engaged in artist or sewing workshops while incarcerated at Bandyup Prison and upon release will be able to continue working on either their designs or product manufacture. Throughout the program, industrial sewing machines, cutting tables, patterns and material will be available for use by the participants in the AUSUM studio in Midland.
Following microbusiness training, participants can choose to continue the sewing and design work in their own home allowing them the benefits associated with running a home-based business. Participants will produce a range of ties, bow ties and pocket squares for the Kirrikin Collection, which uses genuine indigenous art designs. The participants will be paid on a piecework rate for each item sold.
Following a period of incarceration, it is very difficult for ex-prisoners to gain employment. The program will build the economic independence of the women involved and provide positive flow on impacts to their families. Each woman has the opportunity of an income stream that she can grow as her skills develop. By running their own micro-business, participants will also learn about budgeting and be able to fit work around family commitments.
100 Women also acknowledges the other finalists including a mentoring program for young pregnant and parenting mums in south-east Queensland (Raise Foundation) and a poverty alleviation program for women and their families in rural Cambodia (Human & Hope Association).
100 Women is a Perth based giving circle that has over the last three years awarded close to $300,000 in grants. Members, the volunteer Advisory Board and Ambassadors all support 100 Women’s aim which is to enable everyday people to play their part in a world where women and girls can live safely with access to health, education and economic freedom.
Support the 2017 Grants for Women and Girls here
Anyone who would like to be a catalyst for positive change in the lives of women and girls is invited to join us – men and women. Members are part of a solid network who regularly attend events to learn, grow and celebrate together.
