Promoting gender equality

Empowering women and girls

Tiecoura N'Daou

Empowering women & girls worldwide

Equality is a human right, yet half of the world's population continues to be disadvantaged and discriminated against. We are talking about women and girls.

Help is committed to empowering women and girls worldwide and enabling them to lead a self-determined life.

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Focus on female empowerment

Every day, millions of women and girls are affected by discrimination, violence and unequal opportunities because of their gender. We are convinced that hardship, poverty and hunger can only be overcome with female empowerment. In numerous projects, Help therefore strengthens the rights of women worldwide and empowers them to take their future into their own hands.

A Burkinabe girl sits at school and writes in her exercise book — Schoolgirls in Burkina Faso: without education, many doors would remain closed to them.

The disadvantage of women and girls becomes apparent at an early age: 119 million girls do not go to school. Although the school enrolment rate of girls and boys is continuing to converge worldwide, girls still have a decisive disadvantage: the older they get, the more often they are forced to drop out of school.

This is mainly due to the fact that girls in many countries have to help more in the household and, for example, have to walk several hours a day to the nearest water source to fetch water for the family. In many places, girls have to stay at home during their periods because they have no access to menstrual products or because there are no toilets in the schools. Other reasons for girls dropping out of school early are forced marriage and child marriages.

Help enables girls to attend school by improving the sanitary infrastructure at schools, providing menstrual products and building wells.

Aïssa Keïla sells onions to a trader in Ansongo. — Aïssa Keïla from Mali is part of a women's cooperative that grows and markets vegetables together.

In many regions of the world, women are an essential part of the labour force. For example, the World Food Programme states that women in developing countries are responsible for up to 80 per cent of food production. However, they are more often victims of exploitation than men and are less often involved in decision-making processes. In addition, women earn on average around 20 per cent less than men.

Women's equality is a key factor for sustainable change: countries in which the differences between men and women in education and employment are small have fewer problems with malnutrition and child mortality.

Help promotes female entrepreneurship, for example through training and education, financial grants or support for women's cooperatives. Financial independence gives women the chance to lead a self-determined life.

Employee of our partner organisation talking to mothers — In Pakistan, Help is committed to providing healthcare for mothers and children.

Women and girls are particularly disadvantaged in terms of health in developing countries and crisis regions. Menstruation, for example, is still a taboo subject in many places. Many girls are marginalised during their periods and cannot go to school because there are insufficient sanitary and hygiene facilities.

In many countries around the world, women are exposed to high risks during pregnancy because they do not have adequate access to healthcare. As a result, around 300,000 women die every year due to complications during pregnancy or childbirth. The majority of these deaths could be avoided.

Help is focussing on women's health, particularly in countries with inadequate healthcare: we finance midwives, send mobile clinics to rural regions and carry out information campaigns on topics such as menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth.

One Stop Centre for women in Mali — In Mali, women who have survived sexualised violence receive support from Help.

One in three women experience physical or sexualised violence in their lives. In crisis and war zones and countries where women and girls have limited rights, the risk of abuse is particularly high for women and girls. In addition, female genital mutilation is still widespread.

The physical and psychological consequences of gender-based violence are enormous. This violence often ends fatally: in 2023, there were over 85,000 femicides worldwide, i.e. homicides against women and girls because of their gender. Around 60 per cent of these femicides were committed by family members or intimate partners.

Help promotes the protection of victims of gender-based violence, for example by providing safe accommodation as well as medical, psychological and legal services. We also sensitise both women and men to the issue.

Burkina Faso

In Burkina Faso, we are very committed to the health of mothers and children. Thanks to our many years of commitment, we have succeeded in establishing free healthcare for pregnant and breastfeeding women. This has led to a lasting reduction in child and maternal mortality.

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Ukraine

Since the escalation of the war, the number of people affected by gender-based violence has risen sharply. Help supports women affected by violence and their children, for example by providing safe accommodation and psychosocial and medical assistance.

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Spenden Periode: Help informiert über Menstruation

South Sudan

In South Sudan, Help is empowering women through the distribution of sanitary products and educational work. Without access to items such as sanitary pads or tampons, many women are unable to participate in public life during menstruation.

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Spenden Südosteuropa: Help unterstützt junge Unternehmer im Westbalkan

Southeast Europe

In Southeast Europe, Help promotes the education of women and supports young female entrepreneurs in setting up their own businesses. In this way, we create ways out of poverty, which puts women and girls at particular risk.

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[Translate to English:] Mutter mit Kind in Simbabwe

"As a 37-year-old mother of five wonderful girls, I strive to make the world a better place for my children and for women in general. From the very beginning, I saw our chicken farm as a family business in order to combat gender roles and discrimination. Because physical labor is seen by many in society as a 'man's job'. I started my business with 30 birds - today there are 300 birds and I collect 2,500 eggs per month. This gives us a net profit of 150$ every month! And I use the droppings to fertilize my fields.

Thanks to Help's support, I was able to start my chicken farm and can now send my girls to school, feed the family and take care of all my family's needs."

Every girl should be able to pursue any profession.

Lizzy, Farmer in Zimbabwe

Empowering women and girls

With your monthly donation, you help women and girls worldwide to lead a self-determined life.

Eine Frau blickt über ihre Schulter in die Kamera

Why are women and girls in focus?

Hardship, discrimination and violence are part of everyday life for women and girls: forced marriage, physical and psychological violence, sexual abuse, mass rape in war and crisis situations or female genital mutilation - violence against women and girls, precisely because they are women and girls, takes many forms.

Inequality between men and women is still deeply rooted in every society worldwide. For example, women have less access to jobs and educational opportunities, face pay gaps compared to men with the same qualifications and are underrepresented in economic and political decision-making processes. In many countries, healthcare is also not adapted to the needs of women.

What are women's rights?

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." This means that people are equal regardless of their gender. In reality, however, this is not the case. A key reason for this is often the separation between the private and public spheres, which excluded women from human rights for decades. This is because human rights violations against women and girls often occur in the "private sphere", away from the public eye and the justice system. Certain rights for women should therefore explicitly protect women and girls from violence and discrimination.

Who introduced women's rights?

A so-called Commission on the Status of Women was founded within the United Nations in 1946. The aim of the Commission is to improve the legal status of women in the political, economic and social spheres. Unlike the Commission on Human Rights, however, the Commission on the Status of Women does not have the power to hold states that discriminate against women to account.

It was not until the Vienna Conference on Human Rights in 1993 that the United Nations adopted a "Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women" and defined forms of violence against women and girls in the public and private sphere as a violation of human rights.

In 2010, the United Nations founded the organization "UN Women" with the aim of promoting gender justice and equality worldwide. In the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), women's rights are also represented by Goal 5 "Gender Equality".

Why is March 8 International Women's Day?

On March 8, 1857, New York women workers demonstrated in the streets for the first time against inhumane working conditions and for equal pay. The protests of the women workers thus mark the historical origin of a movement demanding justice for women. Half a century later, at the second international socialist women's conference in 1910, the German socialist Clara Zetkin put forward a motion to establish a World Women's Day. The motion was adopted unanimously.

However, it was not until the 2nd International Conference of Communist Women in 1921 that a uniform date, March 8, was established. Since 1975, March 8 has been officially recognized by the United Nations as International Women's Day. On this day, women around the world hold demonstrations, rallies and campaigns to draw attention to violence and discrimination against women and girls and demand equal rights and equality.