30 years Marie Schlei Association, Germany – 30 years Women Empowerment for a more equitable world

Gender gaps exist in women’s paid employment rates, in salaries for equal work, in access to property and resources. Therefore, injustice and inequality are characteristic for the situation of women. Despite the fact that women work two third of world’s labor hours, women o­nly earn 10 percent of world income. Women are an economic factor and indispensable for the sustainable development for a country.

The Marie Schlei Association was created in 1984 to promote women’s education and professional skills in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Marie Schlei Association is very much engaged in women’s equality and cooperates with women’s organizations in developing countries. This solidarity wants to contribute to a more equitable world by empowering women. o­n the o­ne hand, the Marie Schlei Association is raising funds for projects, but also invites representatives from partners organizations in different countries to attend conferences, seminars and round tables o­n the role of women in developing countries.

As still two thirds of illiterate people are women, capacity building, transfer of knowledge and skills are extremely necessary for women. Without educational training women remain in the poverty trap. The focus is set o­n the vocational training for women. Besides new production techniques, storing and processing of the harvest is a main part of projects with rural women. Another challenge is marketing, which is a common problem for women, particularly rural women in different countries. They lack access to efficient and affordable transport. But women in the cooperation projects undergo also training in traditional and non-traditional craft, industrial and mechanical art, services, book-keeping and computer training. This enables women to break out the traditional role towards new self-awareness, self-confidence and independence. Earning an independent income is a turning point for many women in fighting social exclusion. Many women complain that they are without education and training and thus are marginalized. The women also learn to organize and manage themselves. They get seminars o­n women’s rights and access to micro credits in order to set up small scale businesses. The projects contribute to the self-esteem of women. The women are proud to earn their living, and contribute to the living of their families and the development of their country.

The Marie Schlei Association has been in solidarity with the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) in the struggle against poverty since 1999. This is proven in eight projects in 7 provinces concerning conical hats, animal husbandry, fruit trees, flower production, mushroom production, production of vermicelli noodles, vegetable production, soya beans production. The projects have contributed not o­nly to higher income, life improvement for the women and people in the project sites, but also to attracting more active women's involvement in WU activities, thus contributing to enhancing their capacity and helping the VWU to fulfill its objectives. Both partners also exchange views o­n equality policies and international women’s affairs, especially in connection with the Beijing’s UN platform of action, the UN millennium development goals, as well as the preparation of the UN post 2015 development agenda.

Gender justice and gender empowerment is a human right which has to be scaled up o­n the UN agenda. Solidarity between women in Germany and Vietnam have to continue in order to end gender injustice, inequality and discrimination as well as violence against women.