Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate mothers and to honor the invaluable work they do—at home, in the workplace, in the public sphere, everywhere. Here at MADRE, our work to advance women’s human rights is shaped by the realities mothers worldwide face daily. We work together with mothers to change these conditions and to demand their rights. We start by listening to their stories.

For the month of May, we’re sharing these inspiring stories with you. Today’s story comes from Fatima, the founder of MADRE’s Sudanese sister organization, Zenab for Women in Development.

Fatima Ahmed’s mother was named Zenab. In the 1930s, Zenab became the first woman in Sudan to be educated in their state of Gadarif. She then went on to found several schools for girls, championing girls’ education throughout the region. A young Fatima witnessed all of this. She knew she would follow in her mother’s footsteps.

But Fatima also witnessed her country’s decades-long civil war and the ravages of climate change on countless communities. She knew that women—and mothers in particular—were the ones responsible for the food and health of their families. Because of this, they are most immediately and severely affected by these threats.

She decided to start an organization to support women. Her vision was broad. She wanted a world where women enjoyed equality and social justice, where they had equal opportunities for education and jobs, where they would learn about their human rights and be active partners in building peace. She decided to name her organization Zenab.

Fatima was inspired by her mother, a woman whose compassion for others, whose drive to fight for women’s rights and whose commitment to fostering community are at the core of Fatima’s work today.

Today, MADRE supports Zenab through our collaborative project Women Farmers Unite, which provides fundamental support to women farmers and their families. We provide seeds, tools and resources that enable women farmers to improve the health and well being of their communities. In addition to material support, we also provide educational support through trainings in health, human rights and political participation to ensure long-term socioeconomic progress for these women. Women Farmers Unite not only brings strong women together, but it economically empowers them to improve their situations and communities.

You can help support Zenab for Women in Development by sending ten pounds of seeds to feed two families in Sudan. You can also provide farm tools for five Sudanese women. These gifts mean so much—they mean food and health for our sisters and their families.

Afghanistan loomed large at this year’s NATO summit, as leaders discussed how to draw down the war. It was a stark change in tone from the early days of the war. The promises for democracy and rights are gone, replaced by a lowered expectation of minimal security.

MADRE never believed that the war on Afghanistan would improve conditions for women or stabilize the country. A war is no way to bring about either human rights or human security.

Afghan women, like all women living in conflict zones, suffer disproportionately from war. They shoulder the responsibility of caring for the most vulnerable, including children, the wounded and the elderly. And when foreign military intervention emboldens fundamentalist forces who claim to defend their homeland and whose vision of Afghanistan depends on denying women’s rights, women come out the losers.

Maybe NATO leaders are doing us a favor by dropping the façade about Afghanistan’s future: one less false rationale to debunk. Now, world leaders are instead hoping for “Afghan good enough,” and for “a modicum of stability.”

It’s not enough for NATO to simply lower expectations and leave Afghans to clean up the mess.

In the past eleven years of war, NATO and US-led forces have killed thousands of Afghan civilians, fueling popular support of the Taliban. Women who try to exercise basic rights have also been threatened and killed by the Taliban. On NATO’s watch, new laws that constrain women’s rights have been passed in exchange for support from fundamentalist politicians.

NATO, and particularly the United States, are largely responsible for this crisis. For those of us who care about human rights, Obama’s “Afghan good enough” is simply not good enough.

We will continue to support Afghan women who are risking their lives to stand up for their rights. And we will continue to hold the US and NATO accountable for their actions in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This past weekend, President Obama hid out from protesters at Camp David. He was hosting the leaders of the world’s eight wealthiest economies, known as the G8. As they readied to meet, on Friday, Obama put forward his New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

“We are never going to end hunger in Africa without private investment. There are things that only companies can do, like building silos for storage and developing seeds and fertilizers.”

That’s news to millions of women farmers in Africa. Their harvests feed their families and generate income that sustains local economies. For generations, they have been doing just those things: storing their harvests, protecting and developing seeds, using natural fertilizers.

Smallholder women farmers save and exchange seeds that help keep local crops viable. They demonstrate how to adapt to climate change by adjusting planting cycles, experimenting with new drought-resistant crops and more. They produce crucial food supplies using the small-scale, organic methods that are increasingly recognized as vital to the health of the planet—and everyone who lives on it.

There are differences, of course. Unlike big companies, small-scale women farmers do not grab millions of acres of land for monoculture plantations that destroy local biodiversity. They do not develop the terminator seeds that hold farmers hostage to the seed patent rights of corporations. They are not the inventors of chemical fertilizers that worsen climate change.

Those honors belong to the very companies that President Obama is inviting to oversee Africa’s food security. We know that their primary goal is not anybody’s food security but their own bottom line. That’s why it’s governments, and not corporations like Monsanto, that should bear responsibility for funding and developing agriculture. It is simply not true that only companies can build silos and develop seeds and fertilizers.

President Obama anticipated these criticisms when he addressed “whether this New Alliance is just a way for governments to shift the burden onto somebody else.” He was quick to assure that, even in hard economic times, his administration would continue to make investments in development aid. Let’s make sure that those investments work to prioritize the right to food over corporate profits.

Because here’s the truth: we’re never going to end hunger in Africa without upholding the rights of smallholder women farmers who feed the continent and care for its ecosystems.

Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate mothers and to honor the invaluable work they do—at home, in the workplace, in the public sphere, everywhere. Here at MADRE, our work to advance women’s human rights is shaped by the realities mothers worldwide face daily. We work together with mothers to change these conditions and to demand their rights. We start by listening to their stories.

For the month of May, we’re sharing these inspiring stories with you. Today’s story comes from Elizabeth, an Indigenous woman from Kenya.

Elizabeth was already late in her pregnancy when Yifat, MADRE’s Executive Director, came to visit her community. With other MADRE staff and in partnership with our Kenyan sister organization the Indigenous Information Network (IIN), she came to help lead a human rights training for Indigenous women in Kenya.

Elizabeth and Yifat (c) Henry Chalfant

But Elizabeth was determined to attend the training—for herself and for her future child.

For Indigenous women in Kenya, life is often hard. Even the simplest tasks are made difficult by drought, famine and lack of clean water. These conditions create obstacles for women like Elizabeth, who must walk for miles each day to find water, or who go without food when there’s not enough at the table.

Many of the women at the human rights training shared stories about other dangers they had faced, especially as young girls. Many had been forced to marry at an early age, undergoing the harmful practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). Both practices pose dangers to young girls, from increased incidence of fistula from early childbirth, to the risk of HIV, psychological trauma and complications posed by FGM. As a young girl, Elizabeth saw what this did to girls in her community. She wants better for her child.

About 25 women from various Indigenous Maasai communities participated in the training to learn about their rights and how to protect them. As the women shared their hardships and hopes with one another, Elizabeth began to experience labor pains. The women immediately surrounded her with comforting words and helping hands. When the time came, they helped her to the clinic just across the street and waited while Elizabeth went into labor.

By afternoon, Elizabeth had given birth to a healthy baby girl.

Elizabeth was so thankful and proud of her experience with the women in the training that she named her daughter Rose Mulenkei, after MADRE partners Rose Cunningham of Wangki Tangni and Lucy Mulenkei of the Indigenous Information Network (IIN), two of the leaders of the human rights training.

“I was so happy to become a mother,” Elizabeth told MADRE. “Our life as Indigenous women is hard. First, we feed the whole family then we eat. We take care of animals, children, men.”

Elizabeth explained that education is the way forward; by participating in the training and connecting to IIN, she knows she can create a better future for herself and her daughter.

You can help support Elizabeth and other Kenyan women this month by purchasing beautiful handmade beaded jewelry and ornaments or an alternative gift from our partners in Kenya on the MADRE Webstore.

Indigenous women from around the world–from Canada to Kenya, the Philippines to Peru–shared stories about fighting gender-based violence at a panel hosted by MADRE’s sister organization FIMI on May 9.  They convened during the 11-day meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

The afternoon opened with a candle-lighting ceremony. “We are women of peace. Our work is illuminated by our commitment to our communities. Spirituality guides us,”  said Otilia Lux de Coti of FIMI, an Indigenous women’s rights group and MADRE partner. The panelists lit four honorific candles—yellow for sunrise, purple for sunset, green for all the life forms on earth and blue for our ancestors.

The flames shone brightly as the speakers talked about the many forms that gender-based violence takes. A young Ogiek girl in Kenya undergoes genital mutilation. An adolescent in Nepal is kidnapped and trafficked into a brothel. A mother is raped in wartime by guerillas to terrorize an entire community.  A 70-year-old grandmother withstands decades of domestic abuse.

Progress against these horrors has begun by calling them by their right name: human rights abuses.

Progress begins too when women break their silence about abuse, bring it to international forums and disavow shame. “We need to talk about our suffering,” said Silvia Perez from Mexico. Shimreichon Luithui of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact recounted some progress: A woman who attended one of her programs returned home to tell her husband that she had rights and that his rights did not include beating her. He stopped.

Progress begins with “building partnerships,” said Monica Aleman of the Ford Foundation (and also a longtime member of the MADRE family!), lauding FIMI and “each organization that has come forward to help.”  Mirna Cunningham, who just completed a term as chair of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, noted that the May session was complemented by at least 20 panel discussions on violence against Indigenous women.  Progress begins when women from across the globe call each other “sister,” as they did at the panel.

And progress begins with healing. So the meeting concluded with another ceremony: A life-sized image of a woman was laid on the floor like a rug, and participants strewed flowers over her, giving benedictions for strength.

A young Indigenous activist from Canada said, “I see all these beautiful women together, and I am really proud.”

Mother’s Day was conceived as a condemnation of war by the crusading reformer Julia Ward Howe and other peace activists back in 1870. Though the day has been much re-purposed since then, the Mother’s Day Peace Stroll held in Manhattan on Sunday, May 13, sought to “take back Mother’s Day.”

The event was the Sixth Annual Mother’s Day Peace Stroll, organized by CODEPINK NYC and the Granny Peace Brigade. Both are women’s groups dedicated to ending war. MADRE and protestors from the Occupy Wall Street movement also contributed to the day.

A three-block long cavalcade of pacifist strollers stepped off from Columbus Circle at noon, with banners and chants.  The Granny Peace Bridgade sang homemade protest songs with brio, wearing flowered hats.  The Rude Mechanical Orchestra played marching-band versions of traditional protest songs. “Occupy Wall Street, Not Palestine.” “We want Peace and Education. No More Wars and Occupations.”  “I’m a Raging Grandma.” “Democracy is Not a Spectator Sport.”  Such were the tee-shirts and slogans that abounded.

The day was breezy and sunny. Our spirits were high. We wended our way through the city’s Upper West Side, receiving “thank yous,” thumbs-up signs and pumping victory fists.  We trekked through two street fairs, a flea market and the grand fields of Central Park, filled with thousands of frolickers eager to see a parade. We distributed hundreds of leaflets containing Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation on disarmament. When the group arrived at the wide steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we read the words aloud.

“We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated Earth, a voice goes up with our own,” she wrote, with a sense of the connection between women, peace and the health of the planet, a connection that informs MADRE’s mission today.

“Disarm. Disarm,” Howe urged, so that “the great human family can live in peace.”

If you thought that more than 950 million people worldwide suffer from hunger because there’s not enough food, think again. The world is already producing 1.5 times more food than we need to feed everybody. The issue is not scarcity, but poverty and inequality.

Time and again, evidence has emerged to show that local farming is the key to ending hunger. Small-scale farmers worldwide, many of whom are women, already raise crops that help feed local communities, using organic methods that don’t pollute the environment.

What’s more, studies on crop yields* highlighted by Food First have shown that organic methods are just as productive as conventional, industrial agricultural methods—in good years. And in bad years, with droughts and other threats triggered by climate change, organic farming is better.

Organic farmers can raise healthier food and stronger crops, without the pollution of chemical fertilizers. They can even improve on land depleted by industrial agricultural methods, increasing productivity by up to 300%.

But there’s not enough support—as Food First points out, funding for industrial agriculture outstrips that for organic methods by 99 to 1. Meanwhile, “the bulk of industrially produced grain crops goes to biofuels and confined animal feedlots,” rather to feed the hungry. (For more on MADRE’s stance on biofuels, click here).

To fight hunger in their communities, MADRE partners – like Zenab for Women in Development in Sudan and Wangki Tangni in Nicaragua – are supporting women farmers in impoverished regions of the world to farm in eco-friendly ways that boost local markets.

In Sudan, Zenab and MADRE are providing women farmers with the support and necessary resources to provide food for their families through our project Women Farmers Unite. Together, we furnish women farmers with seeds, tools and training to bolster their harvests.

On the North Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, Wangki Tangni and MADRE are combating hunger, poverty and unemployment through our project Harvesting Hope. This project provides resources and trainings to Indigenous Miskito women in organic farming, women’s health and Indigenous women’s rights. Thanks to Harvesting Hope, women are even able to sell surplus crops for profit.

To combat world hunger, we should take a lesson from our sisters in Sudan and Nicaragua, and focus our attention on the real reasons it exists. Only then can we effect real change.

*“Crop yields” is a term used to describe agricultural output, specifically the amount of a crop harvested per unit of land.

Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate mothers and to honor the invaluable work they do—at home, in the workplace, in the public sphere, everywhere. Here at MADRE, our work to advance women’s human rights is shaped by the realities mothers worldwide face daily. We work together with mothers to change these conditions and to demand their rights. We start by listening to their stories.

This Mother’s Day we’re sharing these inspiring stories with you. Today’s story comes from Yanar Mohammed, the leader of MADRE’s sister organization, the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI).

As an Iraqi women’s human rights defender, Yanar advocates for peace and equality, facing conflict and discrimination, and often even risking her life.

Here, she reflects on how her experiences as a mother have prepared her for the complexities and dangers of this work. As Yanar explains it,

“Becoming a mother changes you from an individual into someone who is inextricably connected to—and responsible for—other people’s lives. Being a mother is about making the connection between the life you have brought into the world and all life. It’s about stepping up to meet the needs of those who are vulnerable. Developing that capability prepares you for the even bigger mission of creating social change.  You see that any big, positive change needs to be birthed, nurtured and committed to with constancy.  I see this in the women of Iraq.  They are more prepared for the challenge of living through this difficult time than their men, more resilient because of the experience of being mothers.”

In partnership with MADRE, OWFI builds on these connections and works for social change. Yanar’s organization serves the needs of Iraqi women and their families by providing them with shelters that help to shield them from the rising violence against women brought on by the US occupation.

OWFI’s Al Mousawat (Equality) Radio is a force against the fundamentalist mindset of Iraqi mainstream media. It connects Iraqi women to one another, letting them know that they are not alone, while making a space for their voices, introducing progressive ideas and offering information on human rights.

This Mother’s Day, let us celebrate motherhood’s ability to build strength and alliances among all women–from Guatemala to Sudan, from Iraq to the United States–in our struggles for environmental and economic justice, health care and peace.

You can support this work by buying a gift for the mothers in your life on the MADRE Webstore, or by making a donation in her name.

Yesterday, US President Obama affirmed in a television interview his support for same-sex marriage. MADRE applauds this announcement, coming on the heels of similar statements from members of his Administration.

Polls show that US public opinion is shifting to support marriage rights for all. However, MADRE also underscores that the right to marry is an internationally-recognized human right that must be upheld. We call on the President to advance policies that put his words into action.

Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate mothers and to honor the invaluable work they do—at home, in the workplace, in the public sphere, everywhere. Here at MADRE, our work to advance women’s human rights is shaped by the realities mothers worldwide face daily. We work together with mothers to change these conditions and to demand their rights. We start by listening to their stories.

This Mother’s Day, we’re sharing these inspiring stories with you. Today’s story comes from Marie*, a member of our sister organization in Haiti, KOFAVIV.

Marie was a single mother raising three girls when the catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti on January 12, 2010. Though she worked as a street vendor, her sister was the primary breadwinner for their family. Her sister died in the earthquake, leaving behind Marie’s nephew for her to care for.

Photo credit: Daniel Smith

Marie’s home was destroyed. She was left without a means to support herself or her children. So Marie moved to a camp in Fontamara. Then, two days after the earthquake, she saw two men raping another woman.

She confronted them and told them to stop, but instead they turned on her.

Marie didn’t go to the police. She was afraid of retribution from her attackers. She also knew that many reports of rape went un-punished. She went for treatment to the general hospital, but it was so overcrowded that all they could give her were some pills and a prescription she could not afford. The doctor there threw away the evidence of her rape.

Marie’s experiences left her with recurring nightmares, suicidal thoughts, extreme anxiety, trouble sleeping and a fear of being alone. She was unable to work to support her family.

A couple of months after the attack, Marie found KOFAVIV, a MADRE partner and Haitian grassroots organization created by and for survivors of rape. The women there provide the access to health services, food, emergency shelter and counseling to help rape survivors recover. It is a place where, as Marie says, “women feel safe.”

When Marie got the vital support she needed from KOFAVIV, she changed her life. They gave her care and support to rebuild her life—and the lives of her children. Today, she is working again, and she returns often to KOFAVIV’s Women’s Center, an oasis of safety.

This Mother’s Day, you can help support a mother like Marie by making a gift to our Mother’s Day Emergency Fund. Click here to learn more.

You can also purchase these handmade items for a mother you know through the MADRE’s Webstore. There, you’ll also find handmade items from the women and mothers of our other sister organizations.

*Not her real name.