Women Who Inspire Change: Cepoori and ElsaBy Jenny Shapiro, Board Member, The Rita FundResource Mobilization Officer, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region

“Do you have a problem with blood?”

“No,” I lied.

“Great, I have a woman coming tomorrow at 10 am.”

That simple exchange left me a changed woman.

I was 22 years old and traveling alone in Mexico. [...]]]>

 

Women Who Inspire Change: Cepoori and Elsa
By Jenny Shapiro, Board Member, The Rita Fund
Resource Mobilization Officer, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region

 

“Do you have a problem with blood?”

“No,” I lied.

“Great, I have a woman coming tomorrow at 10 am.”

That simple exchange left me a changed woman.

I was 22 years old and traveling alone in Mexico. I came to stay with a French-Canadian documentary filmmaker and his Mexican doctor wife, whom I’d met at a speaking event they held several months earlier at my university. We’ll call the doctor ‘Cepoori’.

Inspired by the message of Che Guevara in her youth, Cepoori decided in her teens that she wanted to become a doctor and help the disenfranchised. Living in a small town several hours outside of Mexico City, Cepoori is one of the only Mexican doctors who is willing to break the law to provide a clandestine abortion to any woman who needs one, regardless of whether she is able to pay.

Cepoori provides safe abortions out of her living room. She risks not only the loss of her medical license, but also incarceration. She traveled to the U.S. to learn the technique because it was not taught in her Mexican medical school.

At 10 a.m. sharp the next morning, a young woman arrived. Nineteen-year-old Elsa was smiling, but clearly nervous. I was introduced as a friend and assistant to the doctor, there to help and make Elsa more comfortable.

Cepoori’s name is known through the grapevine, but due to the illegal nature of what she does, she does not give any information over the phone. She explained to me that she has to make sure the woman is pregnant before she divulges any information because the woman may be an informant for the government or an anti-choice group.

“I will need to give you an examination,” Cepoori informs Elsa. She was wearing a flowing Mexican blouse and jeans, a far cry from a sterile doctor’s uniform.

Cepoori confirms that Elsa is indeed pregnant. The young woman and I were both surprised when Cepoori said the termination could begin almost immediately. But first, Cepoori wanted to have a conversation with the pregnant teen.

A complete departure from the businesslike abortions my friends and I have experienced in the United States, Cepoori sought to truly get to know Elsa. She wanted to understand who she was, what she liked, the details of her relationship with her family, and what her relationship with her partner was like. It came to light that her boyfriend was into drugs and talked down to her. Elsa lived with her controlling parents and gave them all of the money she earned by working hard sewing clothes.

Cepoori and I listened and explained to Elsa that she had options. We asked if her current situation was one into which she wanted to bring a baby. Ultimately, she decided it was not. It was only after Elsa made her choice that Cepoori excused herself to change into scrubs.

Controlled first by her parents and then her boyfriend, Elsa made her first autonomous decision that day.

Alone together for the first time, I could sense Elsa wondered who the heck I was and why I was there. I told her that not long before I found myself sitting on an exam table just like her. I assured her that the decision I’d made truly was the best one for me.

Two months later, before I left Mexico, I returned to Cepoori’s house for several days to help her husband with research for a documentary. I was fortunate to have the chance to cross paths with Elsa again when she came to Cepoori’s home for a follow up visit. As a result of her experience, she had became an avid promoter of the female condom in her community.

Every day, I am inspired by the bravery of Cepoori and Elsa. It is every woman’s right to have autonomy over her own body and fertility. Thankfully, for the hundreds of Mexican women who no longer have to put their lives at risk with dangerous abortion procedures, there is one courageous woman who is willing to put their needs first.

The Rita Fund joined hundreds of other non-profit organizations in Colorado for Community First Foundation’s second annual Colorado Gives Day. Thanks to our generous community of donors, The Rita Fund raised over $5,400 dollars — enough to expand our reach to a new women’s fund in 2012. Check out the list of donors who gave [...]]]>

The Rita Fund joined hundreds of other non-profit organizations in Colorado for Community First Foundation’s second annual Colorado Gives Day. Thanks to our generous community of donors, The Rita Fund raised over $5,400 dollars — enough to expand our reach to a new women’s fund in 2012. Check out the list of donors who gave big on December 6th! and check back soon to learn which new women’s fund we’ll be supporting!

• Emily Davis
• Lisa Mainka
• Sylvia Studt
• Elizabeth Martin
• Ellen Weinstein
• Jill Slansky
• Erica Grossman
• Simeon Bankoff
• Frampton Tolbet
• Diana Chen
• Nina Morrison
• Trena Moya
• Peggy Kurland
• Jaine Moretti
• Richard Goldsmith
• Penny Zemp
• Shelly Grossman
• Beatrice Lindower
• Steven Wolitzer
• Tahlia Bear
• Nancy Sarubbi
• Nikole Maxey
• Tracy Condon
• Robert Martin
• Suzanne Slansky
• Mark Kurland
• Carrie Pearse
• Diana Little
• Ashley Kayser
• Julie Zias
• Samantha Kurland
• Scott Firle
• Catherine DiTuri
• Julie Ferrara
• Heather Kurland
• Spencer Barbeck
• Tina Rodia
• Yvonne Moore
• Karen Winston
• Cynda Collins Arsenault
• Janna Sharp
• Dani Ferrigno
• Mary Gillen
• Carianne Laguna
• Lisa Koch
• Lauren Lausten
• Pam Richer

The Rita Fund is proud to announce the addition of Trena Moya to our team! Trena comes to TRF with an extensive administrative and financial background. Her “first career” was in the banking industry, where she filled a variety of positions over fifteen years, ranging from teller [...]]]> Trena Moya, TRF’s new Chief Operating Officer

The Rita Fund is proud to announce the addition of Trena Moya to our team! Trena comes to TRF with an extensive administrative and financial background. Her “first career” was in the banking industry, where she filled a variety of positions over fifteen years, ranging from teller to loan reviewer. After leaving the financial arena in 1997, she obtained a B.A. in Spanish and worked for a Latine-focused non-profit organization in Denver, CO. Trena then spent ten years as the Director of Finance and Operations at Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights where she helped grow the organization budget from $300,000 to over $2 million dollars. Outside of working in support of women’s rights, Trena enjoys outdoor activities such as biking and snowshoeing, is an avid reader, and a music and movie buff. We are thrilled to have Trena here at TRF!

Back in February, as the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak was falling, the world was watching the Egyptian people’s quest for a democracy. As the world watched, something else became alarmingly clear. For Egyptian women, the crime against CBS reporter Lara Logan was all too [...]]]> Grantee The Mediterranean Women’s Fund Supports Local Group in Egypt

Back in February, as the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak was falling, the world was watching the Egyptian people’s quest for a democracy. As the world watched, something else became alarmingly clear. For Egyptian women, the crime against CBS reporter Lara Logan was all too familiar. Logan, who was reporting along side the more than 100,000 people celebrating in Tahrir square, was sexually assaulted by a mob of male protesters — And for the first time, many outside Egypt had a glimpse of the threat Egyptian women experience in their daily lives.

“Suddenly, before I even know what’s happening, I feel hands grabbing my breasts, grabbing my crotch, grabbing me from behind,” she told Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes.”

A 2008 study determined that 83% of Egyptian women and 98% of foreign women in the region have experienced sexually harassment, with about 45% of both Egyptian and foreign women noting that the harassment takes place on a daily basis. According to this study, sexual harassment affects all women: Egyptian and foreigners, veiled and bare headed, young and old. And these consequences are not limited to the negative impact on women’s psychological and physical well being. As with crimes against women globally, there is evidence that sexual harassment is blocking Egyptian women’s progress in participating in public life and thus in development processes. The global struggle for women’s rights is about equality and justice, because it is a basic right, but as the case in Egypt highlights, it is about combatting the daily practices that keep half of the worlds population from from contributing to society.

In 2010, five years after the start of their campaign against sexual harassment, EWRC, with support from the Mediterranean women’s fund, launched a campaign, ‘Safe Streets for Everyone’. This campaign consists of three components: research, intervention in schools, and an advocacy and media campaign. The campaign puts pressure on the Egyptian government to recognize the need for a law criminalizing sexual harassment, EWRC has begun a study titled, ‘De jure versus de facto’, which addresses features of sexual harassment from a legal perspective by covering the role which addresses features of sexual harassment from a legal perspective by covering the role of judges in the implementation of the existing penal code. EWRC will organize a seminar to debate articles of the penal code that apply to sexual harassment.

For Logan, the nightmare ended when she was rescued by a woman dressed head to toe in black religious robes. “Just her eyes, I remember, I could see just her eyes,” Logan said. “She put her arms around me. And oh my God, I can’t tell you what  that moment was like for me. I wasn’t safe yet, because the mob was still trying to get at me. But now it wasn’t just about me anymore. “It was about their women and that was what saved me, I think,” she said. “The women kind of closed ranks around me.”

Read about Egypt’s first female presidential candidate…

Right now are extremely dangerous times for women’s reproductive rights and for progressive institutions in general. From all out assaults on planned parenthood, to the successful smear campaign against community organizer, ACORN — we must stand up and be heard. — enough is enough!

Earlier [...]]]> How the Radical Right Wing is targeting Women, Labor and Low-income Communities

Right now are extremely dangerous times for women’s reproductive rights and for progressive institutions in general. From all out assaults on planned parenthood, to the successful smear campaign against community organizer, ACORN — we must stand up and be heard. — enough is enough!

Earlier this year, right wing politicians moved to strip funds from Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of reproductive health care, as part of their budget bill, regardless of the fact that Federal funds are already restricted from being used to pay for abortions.

“Where do they expect these millions of women who come to our health centers, or who are relying on the national family planning programs, where do you expect them to go? They’re not going to disappear,” said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards.

In fact, if politicians were serious about reducing the number of abortions in this country, says Lindsay Miller of The Atlantic, they would “focus on preventing unwanted pregnancies by eliminating abstinence-only sex education — which studies have shown leads to higher rates of STDs and teen pregnancy. They would also support more readily and cheaply available contraception” — which is  the exact opposite strategy they are employing. In a sign of just how brass some politicians have become, when recently asked whether Texas’s anti-family planning efforts were “a war on birth control,” [Texas Rep. Wayne] Christian replied, “Well of course this is a war on birth control and abortions and everything.

Texas has taken the lead on some of the most severe threats to women’s health. With Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) at the helm, the State has passed an “emergency” law forcing women to view a sonogram before an abortion, threatened a poor women’s health care program over Planned Parenthood funding, are seeking to restrict hospitals and physicians over abortion procedures, and has cut funding for family planning clinics by two-thirds.

Without our voice standing-up and putting a stop to a radical agenda, things could get a whole lot worse. We must make it clear that women’s rights will not be used as bargaining chip, as leverage for securing hard earned rights.

From ACORN to Planned Parenthood to attacks on teachers, nurses, and the latest, postal workers — make no mistake, the ultimate goal is to break the back of the progressive movement. Each of these institution works for people in their daily lives, whether it’s Planned Parenthood serving over 3 million Americans yearly or ACORN, serving the nation’s poor people, dealing with with issues like mortgages and housing forms.

As Ilyse Hogue of The Nation recently put it “The nexus of service and advocacy is a powerful place to stand: simultaneously addressing direct needs and advocating for systemic redress of those needs is a winning equation for progressives. Yet we have precious few progressive organizations left in that spot at the national level, and the ones we do have are under attack precisely because our opponents understand their power.”

Ultimately, in this year’s budget fight, and because of the tremendous efforts it’s supporters, the federal budget does not include cuts to Planned Parenthood funding — but members of Congress were able to use the fight to force new burdens on women seeking abortion services in Washington, DC — and congressional republicans are already gearing up for their next attack on the organization. Stand up and tell your representatives that women’s rights are not a bargaining chip…

Click Here to Take a stand!

HERFund funds women speaking up for pension rights

With the Economic Downturn now reaching nearly every corner of the globe, women continue to be disproportionately affected. Hong Kong is one of the few places in the world that place the future of aging citizens in the hands of private sector pension funds. [...]]]>

HERFund funds women speaking up for pension rights

With the Economic Downturn now reaching nearly every corner of the globe, women continue to be disproportionately affected. Hong Kong is one of the few places in the world that place the future of aging citizens in the hands of private sector pension funds. Women are often employed as domestic workers, part-time employees, or underemployed. Making them ineligible for pensions.

TRF grantee HERFund and their partners are determined to change that. The fund has started a program to support three organizations working to raise the voice of women in the debate over pensions.

• In-media Women and Universal Pension Scheme Reporting and Educational Project – $30,000
• Hong Kong Homemakers’ Alliance Homemakers Sing for Universal Pension Scheme – $30,000
• New Women Arrivals League New Arrival Women Strive for Universal Pension Scheme -  $13,195

“Rewards from the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) scheme hinge on one having a job and a stable income, and that poses great disadvantages to people in poverty, particularly women,” says Damon Wong Chun-pong, editor and contributing reporter of In-media. “MPF is not retirement welfare. It is just a scheme that asks people to look after themselves,” says Wong.

Although there are now more women in the working population, many of them – particularly those of the older generation – are still significantly underpaid. Also many of them work part-time and don’t have an occupational pension scheme for their work.”

Adding to the disparity is the common practice for women to take breaks in employment due to family responsibilities, for instance bringing up children or caring for the elderly. Not only are their domestic efforts are not recognized by society, but their ability to build up pensions is significantly reduced.

In-media, on of three grantees selected for the project will use HERFund support to interview women of different socio-economic status – from residents of elderly home, grassroots housewives, middle-class professionals, women from the post-80s generation and renowned female politicians – to bring in different perspectives to the debate.

“We want to look into the issue from different angles. When mainstream media talk about this issue they just focus on reporting the misfortunes of women. But what do women of the post-80s generation think? Also how do women with higher income think about universal retirement protection?” says Wong.

Also the design and management of different pension systems overseas will be discussed, compared and reported. Wong believes inmediahk.net, launched in 2004 and now has a hit rate of 10,000 per day, can be an ideal platform to stir up discussion and to create a database of in-depth reports for future references.

Read more about the Universal Pension Scheme project and grantee-partner HERFund here.

Grantee-partners and donors come together in New York City

This May, The Rita Fund was proud to bring together grantee-partners from around the world, as well as our donor community for a champagne brunch at Zaitzeff in New York City.

The event was a chance for Rita Fund supporters to meet activists from India, Serbia, [...]]]>

Grantee-partners and donors come together in New York City

This May, The Rita Fund was proud to bring together grantee-partners from around the world, as well as our donor community for a champagne brunch at Zaitzeff in New York City.

The event was a chance for Rita Fund supporters to meet activists from India, Serbia, Chile, and Nicaragua. Attendees had the opportunity to speak with representatives from each fund and ask questions about current political situations in their countries, the work the fund’s are engaged in and what support from The Rita Fund means to groups on the ground.

In addition to our grantee partners, activists from Mongolia, Australia and The Republic of Georgia were on hand to answer questions as well. The exchange was valuable for both TRF donors and grantees. Bringing together people from all around the globe and sharing stories from activists on the ground is what we’re all about. Thank you to everyone who participated and to those who donated as well. We raised over  $2,000!

Click here for more photos of the event

Introducing Lisa Mainka, Director of Marketing and Communications

The Rita Fund is proud to welcome Lisa Mainka to our team! Lisa will oversees the Fund’s strategy to broaden TRF’s base and raise the profile of the work of our grantee partners. Prior to joining The Rita Fund, Lisa worked for Nike [...]]]>

Introducing Lisa Mainka, Director of Marketing and Communications

The Rita Fund is proud to welcome Lisa Mainka to our team! Lisa will oversees the Fund’s strategy to broaden TRF’s base and raise the profile of the work of our grantee partners. Prior to joining The Rita Fund, Lisa worked for Nike Inc. on the North America Direct to Consumer Marketing Team in a role that supported retail brand marketing efforts. Highlighting key sports moments such as the New York and Boston Marathons, World Cup and the U.S. Open, Lisa created strategic integrated marketing programs that delivered premium brand experiences while driving traffic and revenue for Nike Stores. Prior to her role in New York, Lisa worked in the Nike offices in Miami, FL where she focused on implementations in the southeastern region.

Lisa obtained dual bachelors degrees in Marketing and Advertising at the University of Colorado at Boulder and went on to work in corporate sponsorship for some of Denver’s largest professional sports organizations. She graduated from Denver University’s International MBA program in 2007, where she was a co-founder of the Daniels Graduate Women in Business group and co-President of the Graduates Involved in Volunteer Efforts (G.I.V.E.) organization.

Along with her professional background, Lisa brings her passion for international affairs and for creating positive, sustainable social change.