Biennial Report 2009-2010
Key to Attaining the "Millennium Development Goals": Investing Further in Women and Girls
The Women's Federation for World Peace (WFWP) is a women's NGO, founded in 1992, with the motto, "Humankind is a family living in one global home, the Earth." Since 1994, WFWP has been dispatching volunteers to countries throughout the world. WFWP is committed to the achievement of freedom from poverty, as well as to the implementation of activities aimed at improving the financial wellbeing of women and families, based on local needs.
Since the year 2000, WFWP, as a UN NGO, has sought to contribute to the attainment of the UN Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, which is a goal of the international community in the 21st century, through its activities.
The 21st century has been called "The Era of Women." In response to this emerging era, the United Nations established a new organ, UN Women. Women and girls comprise 70% of the poorest in the world, defined as those who live on less than a dollar a day. This is because the women and children of the world are faced with realities that are far from the ideal of gender equality in all areas, including politics, economics, education, medicine, and so on. In order to resolve this problem, women must rise up, speak out and help one another. This problem cannot be tackled by one country, but must be approached as a global project. Against such a backdrop, the founding of the entity, UN Women, is a strong and positive step forward, which makes us feel the determination of the United Nations to realize world peace through the empowerment of women.
The gender equality that WFWP seeks, is an equality based on the Asian philosophy of harmony, in which men and women complement one another, and bring out the best in each other. This is derived from the perspective that men and women are equal as sons and daughters, created by the same parents, God. It is our desire to work together with men to build sound families, nurture our children properly, which in turn will lead to the building of a sound society, nation, and world.
It is not too much to say that, the attainment of world peace, which could not be fulfilled in the 20th century, centered on men, has now been entrusted to women. It has indeed become an era in which women will also create history, an era of transition from 'History' to 'Herstory.' Women, who give birth to and nurture life, instinctively live in a way that sacrifices the self. Women will change today's world, in which self centeredness is the norm, by living for the sake of others. That is precisely why women can become the key to a family, which is the basic unit of human society. Success and development will inevitably come to areas in which the perspectives of women are adopted.
From this point of view, WFWP continues to assist with the education of girls who are unable to attend school, and continues to offer support for the financial independence of women in developing countries. WFWP has not spared its investment in women and girls in order to make the future of developing nations a more solid one. Yet, as long as there are women who suffer, so much more has to be done. We will continue to do our best to promote the improvement of the status of women and girls.
This booklet is a summary of some of the activities by WFWP overseas volunteers sent from Japan and local WFWP members, carried out in cooperation with various chapters of WFWP International, UN organizations and other NGOS. We hope that this will help you to better understand our endeavors to realize the Millennium Development Goals.