After getting an International Recognition from the UNEP,UNDP and IUCN i.e. SEED Gender Equalit

y Award 2011WEPCO conducted a Happiness sharing Program on topic “SEED Award: Achievement and Challenges” with all its partners, Donors, well-wishers and Whole WEPCO team. Many high recognition personnel from UNDP/GEF/SGP, The Asia Foundation, WWF, Lalitpur Sub Metropolitan City and community were presented in the vary program. Everyone congratulated WEPCO for this honor.

Nairobi—From a company that transforms groundnut shells into fuel briquettes in Gambia, to an enterprise that has developed solar ovens in Burkino Faso, to an initiative that trains and employs street youth to collect waste materials in Ghana, which they then transform into handmade designer products, to a business in Kenya where women produce aloe-based skin care products, these are just some the 35 winners of the 2011 SEED Awards, theUnited Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today.

And this year — in addition to the general SEED Awards and as part of SEED’s partnership with UN Women — a special Gender Equality Award was given to the “Solid Waste Management and Community Mobilization Program” in Nepal. The programme is a waste collection and recycling initiative of over 1,000 households and businesses and is run by a women’s environment preservation committeeand supported by a local municipality. Under the initiative, landfill waste is reduced via recycling and biogas plants are fueled by organic waste on which training is provided. A savings and credit cooperative has also been established to mobilize loans to 150 female members.

This Gender Equality Award is part of an initiative that will not only fulfill the general criteria of the Awards but in addition is women-led, or owned, and prioritizes gender equality or women’s empowerment as a core objective.

UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet said: “UN Women is proud to join other UN partners and sponsor the first-ever SEED Gender Equality Award to lend a helping hand to women who drive sustainable development and the Green Economy. As we face rising disparities, mounting protests, faltering economies, and a changing climate, we must unleash the potential of women to contribute to the solutions our common humanity has to find. Sustainable development depends on economic and social equity, wise management of the environment and demands gender equality. UN Women supports women’s full and equal participation in decision-making and most especially at next year’s Rio+20 Conference on sustainable development.”

As last year, in addition to seeking innovative start-ups throughout the developing world, the 2011 SEED Awards have a special focus on Africa, placing particular emphasis on initiatives from Burkina Faso, Cameron, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. This focus is part of a larger project linked with UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative, which is funded largely by the European Union’s Green Economy and Social and Environmental Entrepreneurship in Africa.

The annual international SEED Awards, which is part of the SEED Initiative, recognise inspiring social and environmental entrepreneurs whose grassroots businesses in developing countries can help to meet sustainable development challenges.

The SEED Initiative — hosted at the UN Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) — is a global partnership for action on the Green Economy. By helping entrepreneurs to scale-up their activities, the SEED Initiative aims to boost local economies, tackle poverty and improve livelihoods, while promoting the sustainable use of resources and ecosystems.

The Award winners will receive from SEED a package of individually-tailored support for their businesses, access to relevant expertise and technical assistance, and profiling at national and international level at conferences and through the SEED’s partners and associates.

All the SEED winners will be honoured at a high-level award ceremony in South Africa which will form part of the SEED Green Economy Symposium at the end of March 2012.

The 2011 call for proposals saw applications from 76 countries, representing the collaborative efforts of non-governmental organisations, women and youth groups, labour organisations, public authorities, international agencies and academia.

Most of the applications were in the agricultural and rural development sectors, as well as in energy and climate change, ecosystem management, and biodiversity. Many entries at the same time addressed micro-enterprise development, IT applications, and education and training.

The winners were selected by the independent SEED International Jury of experts.

The 2011 SEED Gender Equality Award Winner

Nepal

• The “Solid Waste Management and Community Mobilization Program” is a waste collection and recycling initiative of over 1,000 households and businesses and is run by a women’s environment committee and supported by a local municipality. Under the initiative, landfill waste is reduced via recycling and biogas plants are fueled by organic waste on which training is provided. A savings and credit cooperative has also been established to mobilise loans to 150 female members.

Gender equality is understood as equal status and ability of both men and women to exploit productive resources and to achieve freedom from violence and discrimination.

We bear in mind that gender equality essentially calls for actions to level the men-dominated playing field by improving the condition and position of women. At the centre of the fight against poverty is the identification of the most excluded communities, among whom women top the category. Women are poorer because they face difficulties to acquire capability to improve their living conditions.

Although men too have that difficulty because of various socio-political as well economic factors, women are doubly disadvantaged because of the added burden of patriarchal institutions that work against them.

These institutions impede women’s ability to enjoy public life and limit their choices to negotiate their positions according to their own interests and needs. Consequently, they have nearly lost control over their bodies, eroded confidence, and are in a state of compromised citizenship in a real sense. In addition, women’s rights remain underdeveloped, unfulfilled, and unattainable because some special conditions or circumstances that uniquely affect women are not taken into account. In order to establish women’s rights, which is the priority concern, we seek to combat both formal and informal institutions of power that marginalise women. While we seek to empower women by attending to their basic human needs, building or consolidating their coalitions, and fighting patriarchy on one hand, we will be equally engaged with government and policy advocates at the national level seeking policy reforms and their effective implementation on the other.

Above all, we seek to engage in the constitution-making process not only to ensure women’s effective participation and voice but also to guarantee the expansion and protection of women’s human rights.

In this regards, WEPCO is going to organize an district level workshop dated on 9th December 2011 at Jwalekhel. Many repected ecperts, researchers, women organizations,change makers and Most likely former Honorable Minister Mrs. Phampa Bhusal will be present at the program do discuss about the present condition and effective way to solidify the women status.

WEPCO urge all of the respected people to participate in that program. Your presence will be highly appreciated.

Program Details:
Date: December 9th (Mangsir 23) Friday
Time:11:00 A.M
Venue: Mahila Prasikshan Kendra Jwalakhel
For Registration Please Contact:
WEPCO Office: 5520617/5541068

Women organization and activists around the world have been celebrating November 25th as an International day to end Violence against Women. In 1981, Feminists from Latin America and the Caribbean first chose November 25th to commemorate the violent assassination of the Mirabel sisters (Patria, Minerwa and Maria Teresa), in 1960 by the Dictatorship of Rafel Trujillo in the Dominican Republic for their resistance to dictatorship. To denounce such gender based violence from domestic battering to rape and sexual harassment to state violence including torture, abuse of female political prisoners and violent assassination of activist; women all around the world continued to commemorate November 25th as the day against Gender Based Violence. Later on in 1999, UN officially recognized November 25th as a Day of Elimination of all Forms of Violence Against Women.

In order to build awareness about gender-based violence and facilitate networking among women activists around the world, 16 Days Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign was initiated in 1991. Women Activists chose symbolically 16 Days; linking November 25th (International Day Against Violence Against Women) and December 10th (International Human Rights Day) to refer and assert that “Women’s Rights are Human Rights”. 16 Days Activism is a platform being used by women activist from around the world to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women and advocate for women’s right to live in equality.

This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates that includes:

29 November – International Human Rights Defenders Day

1 December – World AIDS Day

3 December – International Day of Disability

5December – International Volunteer Day

6 December- Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre and

10 December – Human Rights Day. 

The 16 Days Campaign is being used as an organizing strategy by individual and groups around the world to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women.

Explanation

After a decade long conflict Nepal is undergoing a transitional period. People’s mindset and behavior is becoming more aggressive and violent. They believe that their voices will be heard if they use force to express group’s stand and claim. In crimes like murder, rape, domestic violence and intimidation small arms are used widely. This criminal trend and practice is quite rampant throughout the country.

Violence against women is a manifestation of unequal power relation between women and men. In current transitional phase violence against women is disturbingly increasing. Existing culture of silence has further fueled in gender based violence and promoted institutionalization of impunity. In such context, speeding up of 16 days campaign to eliminate violence against women is imperative in order to make stakeholders and duty bearers aware and strengthen the capacity of right holders to be able to claim their rights.

WEPCO in Campaign:

WEPCO is conducting different programs related to the Women support since its inception. This year in order to mark the “16 Days Campaign on Gender Violence” WEPCO has been launching series of Program in between 25th November to 10th December.

On the date of 25th November WEPCO Launch the Rally Program at the Lubhoo V.D.C in Coordination with the Students of “Jagriti Bal Club” from Lubhoo. The main motto of the program was to sensitize the local people about the Gender Violence.

The program started from the gate of “Mahalaxmi Higher Secondary School, Lubhoo” and then it goes all around the Lubhoo Village with the slogan and theme about the gender viiolence. The rally ended after one and half hour at the Buspark, where the Team of Nagarjuna Eco Club from Nagarjuna Academy displayed street drama on the same theme. Everyone enjoyed the drama. The drama was done by the more than 15 students and was very good for sensitizing the mass.

Finally, President of WEPCO Mrs. Bishnu Thakali thanked all the participant, Community, Students from the Jagriti Bal Club and Students from Nagarjuna Academy for making the program very successful. She also deliver a short speech about the current gender violence problem and its effective way to tackle them. The program ended at sharp 2:00P.M.

In order to mark these 16 days WEPCO is also going to lunch series of program that are related to Gender Violence. On the date of 25th November WEPCO is organizing a Rally program at Lubhoo V.D.C lalitpur. On 2nd December Public hearing Program will be held on the Jharuwa Rashi village of Lalitpur district and Finally on the date of 9 December, Workshop will be held in order to discuss about the condition of Women,its persistent problem and effective way to minimize them. In between all these big events Drama on Gender violence will be showed to the participant by the Eco Club Students of Nagarjuna Academy(Kopundole)

For more details about the Program please contact:

Mrs. Bishnu Thakali (President)

01-5520617

b4thakali@gmail.com

Basant B.C (Program Coordinator)

9801055749

basant4589@gmail.com

WEPCO celebrated International Month of Recycling on 15th November 2011  with the theme of “Interaction Program on Recycling“. The program was mostly targeted to the Eco clubs students. At the very program students from five different Countries generally known as Activista which are associated with “The Bag Bringer Generation” (An youth empowering organisation from Action Aid) were also present and they highlighted about their Campaign on Kahtmandu regarding the Plastic use. Almost 50 Participant were present from the Community, Eco Clubs and the Activista.

Student share their idea on Recycling and how excessive use of Plastic have lead to Climate change and Global warning. The interaction program ended with one hour discussion with the participant and then Meeting between Activista Members and WEPCO was held at WEPCO hall.

In the meeting the president of WEPCO Mrs. Bishnu Thakali inform that WEPCO will help them in their campaign and also thanked all the members of young Activista for thier important campaign in the important time. Activista give a “Token Of Love” to WEPCO for organizing the Important Interaction program and they also commit that this program will help them to move forward.

The program was very successful and WEPCO thanked to all the Eco Clubs, Community and the Activista (Entire Bag Bringer’s) Family.

The training program and compost distribution program will be start from the 11:00 A.M in the morning and Bucket distribution program will start at 3:00 P.M in the evening. The bucket distribution program will be launched in order to prevent the solid waste problem in the lalitpur area. Two buckets (one Red for Non organic and One Blue for organic) will be distributed to the local community in order to develop the concept of waste segeregation and management at source level.