LATEST NEWS
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- By Beth O’Connell, ICUUW Vice President, France
Two billion beverage bottles are used and discarded around the world every day, flooding the land and choking the waterways with plastic pollution. With dire messages from ecologists, it’s time to “turn off the tap” of this constant polluted flow of plastic, Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) told delegates at a meeting to develop a legally-binding instrument to end plastic pollution.
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- By Gizella Nagy, IWC Board Member, Romania
On 13 April 2023, I joined the Ukrainian aid shipment program of the Providence Organization of the Hungarian Unitarian Church, for the second time. This was Providence’s 8th aid mission since the outbreak of the war: since March 2022, the organization has been delivering humanitarian aid to Transcarpathia (southwest Ukraine) and the war zone (Odesa and Mykolaiv area). This time we came to Berehove, the Diaconal Coordination Center of the Transcarpathian Reformed Church. The shipment included an 18-kW generator, a pallet of canned food and cooking oil, 30 tourniquets, and 400 wax candles.
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- By Karen Kortsch, ICUUW President
Dear Members and Friends,
As I prepare to go to the UUA General Assembly in Pittsburgh, PA this month, I hold in awe our accomplishments around the world. We had our first post-pandemic in-person gathering at the UN for the 67th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in March, filed our first quadrennial report to the UN Economic and Social Council, and we are planning our first in-person Convocation since 2017. We have so much to celebrate, and yet the struggle for gender equality continues, complicated by many setbacks during the pandemic.
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- By Noel Lutomia, Founder of Tunawiri Pamoja, Kenya
The Tunawiri Pamoja's Young Women's Business Program in Mumias (Western Kenya), implemented in partnership with the International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women, is focusing on building young women’s capacities in the informal economy for long-term success.
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- By ICUUW Staff
On-the-Ground Partner
ICUUW's main partner in Romania is UNOSZ, the National Association of Unitarian Women of Romania; and in Hungary, MUNOSZ, the National Association of Unitarian Women of Hungary. In August 2013, ICUUW signed a formal agreement with UNOSZ, laying out areas of collaboration and specific organizational sharing.
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- By Noel Lutomia, Project Manager, Tunawiri Pamoja
Tunawiri Pamoja’s “Young Women's Business Program” in Mumias town, Kakamega county, Western Kenya aims to develop young Kenyan women’s capacities for long-term success by providing knowledge, skills, resources, and tools regarding land and property rights, family planning, as well as basic business and leadership skills.
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- By Debra Pritchard, ICUUW Board Member, USA
The meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) is held yearly for two weeks. It is a multi-level event and the culmination of a year’s work by hundreds of thousands of people; about 30,000 representatives attended the 27th meeting in November 2022 (COP 27).COP 27 was held in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh.
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- By Peg Swain, ICUUW Board Member, USA
The UU Funding Program awarded a $10,000 grant and a $5,000 challenge grant to IWC for a project in collaboration with Sueños Sin Fronteras de Tejas (SSFTX), a Latinx, WOC-led advocacy collective.“Building BIPOC power in San Antonio, TX: Justice, Healing, and Resistance” promotes reproductive, immigrant, healing, and economic justice through community-led practices that support the livelihoods, visions, and leadership development of low-income, immigrant, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in San Antonio, TX.
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- By Karen Kortsch, ICUUW President
Beloved Members and Friends,
We at IWC are working in many different ways to bring us closer to a more gender-equal world. Gender inequality is a multifaceted issue; finding solutions requires an intersectional approach so that no one is left behind.
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- By Karen Kortsch, ICUUW President
Greetings, Members and Friends,
Whether the result of war, climate change, restrictive reproductive health and rights, or gender-based violence, women’s basic human rights are being violated around the world at an alarming rate.
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- By ICUUW Staff
In-Country Partners
In the Philippines, ICUUW has partnered with the Women’s Association of UU Church of the Philippines (UUWA of UUCP) and Buhata Pinay (in English: “Do It, Filipina”), Inc., an NGO that focuses on micro finance, health, and education for women of Negros Island. In April 2019, the Philippine UU Women’s Association and ICUUW signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining key areas of collaboration.
Filipinas for Strength and Self-Determination Project (2021-22)
In June 2021, thanks to a grant received by ICUUW from the UU Funding Program, the UUCP has embarked on a project titled Kababayin-an alang sa Kalig-on Og Kabubut-on (Women for Strength and Self-Determination). The project strengthened women’s leadership in UU congregations in the Philippines and built the organizational capacity of the UUWA of UUCP. Monthly congregational visits provided a series of trainings on women’s rights and response against gender-based violence, discussions on organizational goals and objectives, and the creation of a new set of Bylaws. A progress report was published in our 2021 fall newsletter: Filipinas for Strength and Self-Determination
The new Bylaws were drafted by former ICUUW board member Roby Jean Ponsica and adopted in March 2022 at the UUWA General Assembly. New officers were subsequently elected.
The UUCP is restructuring (2022-24), and ICUUW looks forward to working with the UUWA or its equivalent in the future.
Violence Prevention (2016, 2019)
Violence against women is deeply entrenched in Philippine culture and society. Patriarchal beliefs of male dominance and unequal gender relations lie at the root of gender-based violence. Women are looked upon as second-class citizens, whose sole responsibilities are to stay home and take care of the house and the children. Awareness seminars and workshops are critical, for both women and men, to understand and deepen the understanding of the root causes of violence in the family, institutional structures, and society at large.
Through UU Funding Program grants, the UU Women’s Assn of Philippines conducted “Awareness of Violence Against Women and Children” (VAWC) programs in four UU communities in 2016: Banaybanay, Aquino, Ulay, and Nagbinlod. In 2019, two more congregations – Siapo and Kalumboyan – were involved in the training seminar titled “Awake Women & Men through Knowledge & Education” (AWAKE), thanks to a Faithify campaign that raised approximately $2,500 for this project.
UU women leaders Rev. Rebecca Sienes and former ICUUW board member Rev. Elvira (Elvie) Sienes designed the AWAKE program based on Elvie’s ideas and work experience with Tuburan, an NGO focusing on rural women’s empowerment.
Topics included an overview of the pre-colonial and colonial history of the Philippines to make participants aware about the status of women during the pre-colonial period and the subsequent foreign (Spanish and American) rule, when patriarchy became a dominant system.
Interactive sessions addressed Philippine culture and women’s and men’s self-perception, in gender-specific groups. Participants were acquainted with the 2004 Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act (VAWC) or RA 9262 is the legal act that defines violence against women and their children, provides for protective measures for victims, and prescribes penalties. This law has been significant in the protection of the rights of women and children against gender-based violence. For example, VAWC reports to the Philippine National Police have increased (49.4%) from 1997 to 2013. RA 9262 brochures as well as the form for requesting Protection Orders were distributed.
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- By ICUUW Staff
From the onset of the war in Ukraine, the Hungarian Unitarian Church and its charity organization Gondviselés (in English: Providence) have responded to the needs of refugees and those internally displaced. This is the fall 2022 update.
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- By ICUUW Staff
"We must all do more to lift up women and girls in every walk of life” (António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, 19 September 2022)
During the global health crisis, many women informal workers in Kenya - relying on daily wages - lost their livelihoods. COVID-19 has also exacerbated gender-based violence and health inequalities. In October 2022, ICUUW teamed up with Kenyan NGO Tunawiri Pamoja, founded by ICUUW board member Noel Lutomia, for a Faithify campaign to help 25 marginalized young Kenyan women thrive.