A group of women are doing what they can locally, to help provide assistance and support for oppressed women and girls from around the globe.
Gert McClure, president of the Chatham-Kent-based Women Helping Women group, told the Sydenham Current they are a group of compassionate women who are motivated to help change the world by providing awareness, advocacy and financial support to individuals, organizations and projects dedicated to the improvement of women and girls suffering from poverty, oppression, abuse and a lack of opportunity.
“We are so privileged as women living in a developed country where our rights are protected and we have the opportunity for education and we have got the right of law,” McClure said.
“There is a lot of things going our way. I get that there are things we have yet to improve, but in the end I would say that we are pretty fortunate in where we live and the opportunities in front of us. When my mother was born, she actually did not have the right to vote. In the 50’s women didn’t have the right for many things. We have come a long way and I guess this is born out of the fact that we should maybe bring our sisters up to help them in countries where they are so oppressed.”
McClure said the Women Helping Women group all feel that helping women can be a powerful vehicle.
“The last meeting that we had my grandson said ‘Nana, why is it that you think you want to help girls and not boys. Why would you just help girls?’. I explained to him how many girls in other countries are not educated, they are given no food, no health care. They are really inferior citizens. They die a lot younger and they really have a lot of things against them. So he asked if he could come to a meeting,” she said.
“So he was the only little boy at the meeting and it turned out the group that we had supported that night, one of them was called International Children’s Advocacy. It is a group started by an ex-Canadian retired Military guy. He and the team he is working with built eleven schools and we helped support that group in Cameroon. My grandson was so excited to think that there was an army man who was building schools instead of shooting people and helping little girls.”
McClure added: “I think that it is something that can help us all learn and grown. Basically, together we can raise our voices and advocate for women across the world.”
Meeting coming up on Thursday
McClure said the group meets twice a year, in the spring around Mother’s Day and around Thanksgiving.
She said two groups are chosen and presented at the meetings.
“We do a recap from the last groups that we have supported, let people know how the money was spent, where they are at in their projects and then we introduce two new groups,” McClure said.
A meeting is taking place this week on Thursday, May 11 from around 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. approximately.
The meeting will be held at the Countryview Golf Course.
McClure said people can start coming by anytime after 5 p.m.
“It makes a nice meeting with like minded women who are motivated to make a real difference in the world and learn about the different situations that we are facing,” she said.
Many organizations have been helped
McClure said the Women Helping Women group, which was formed back in 2014, has raised over $22,000 since they started.
Some of the groups and projects they have donated to, include:
– Apne Aap Women’s Collective
– Ethiopiad – The Fistula Hospital
– Teams Advancing Women in Agriculture
– Hime for Help
– IWEN Canada
– Jorge de Guzman
– Into All The World
– Free the Children
– International Children’s Awareness
– Glad Tidings Church
“What we really try to do is focus the money on something that will make a real meaningful change,” McClure said.
“So in some cases charitable organizations donate and at the end, it doesn’t even make that big of a difference because it is nothing that they can truly use. We work with organizations and individuals that are right in the country and doing work inside the communities to bring real and lasting change.”
McClure added: “A $1,000 here wouldn’t do much, but a $1,000 there goes a really long way.”
McClure said people can head onto their website and make a donation directly from Paypal to the groups they are supporting.
The Women Helping Women group will then take those funds and ensure the money goes directly to these orgabizations.
For more information, visit: womenhelpingwomen.ca
