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PRESBYTERIAN
FALL 2018
presbyterian.ca
Connection
JUSTICE
KAIROS Announces Women of Courage Program
With files from KAIROS Canada
KAIROS Canada is an ecumenical partnership of 10 churches and re- ligious organizations, including the PCC, working together in faithful ac- tion for ecological justice and human rights.
Recently, KAIROS announced a renewed collaboration with the Government of Canada to deliver theWomen of Courage: Women, Peace and Security program in Co- lombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Philippines, South Sudan and the West Bank. Global Af- fairs Canada will inject $4.5 million over five years to support the work of five grassroots women-focused organizations that help to heal female victims of war, while empowering them to be peace builders.
Matching funding from Global Af- fairs Canada by 25 per cent, KAI- ROS will invest $1.3 million into this program of transformative psycho- social counselling, legal accompani- ment and human rights training for women survivors of war and agents of peace.
KAIROS’ Women, Peace and Se- curity program will empower women to contribute to inclusive, equitable and sustainable peace with justice in conflict zones, where women are at particular risk.
The program resonates strongly with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, which identifies gender equality and the empower- ment of women and girls as the best way to eradicate poverty and build a more peaceful, more inclusive and more prosperous world. The femi- nist policy also identifies women, peace and security as core action areas.
Historically, women have played a key role in conflict prevention and resolution, as well as in building and sustaining inclusive and just peace, a role recognized in UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000). According to research by Inclusive Security, peace agreements have a 35 per cent greater chance of be- ing more effective and durable when women are key players in drafting them.
Yet men’s voices and experiences
continue to dominate peace-building processes. From 1992–2011 only two per cent of chief mediators and nine per cent of negotiators in peace processes were women, according toresearch from the International Peace Institute.
KAIROS’ Women, Peace and Se- curity program will support five of its long-term global partners: Ecu- menical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines (EcuVoice), Héritiers de la Justice (DRC), South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC), Organización Femenina Popular (Co- lombia) and Wi’am: Palestinian Con- flict Resolution Center (West Bank).
Despite limited funding, these partners have persisted in their pro- grams in contexts of extreme human rights and humanitarian crises, and KAIROS has maintained strong rela- tions of solidarity, providing moral, financial and advocacy support.
Today, KAIROS and its global partners welcome this renewed op- portunity to work with Global Affairs Canada on women, peace and secu- rity, particularly in the context of the feminist policy. This program, which
KAIROS Canada Members
The Anglican Church of Canada
Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace Canadian Religious Conference
Christian Reformed Church in North America (Canada Corporation) Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
Mennonite Central Committee of Canada
The Presbyterian Church in Canada
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
The United Church of Canada
An Organizacíon Femenina Popular (OFP) workshop for women in Colombia.
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requires critical support from donors to secure the KAIROS 25 per cent match, will allow partners to reach many more women and significantly boost their efforts to build sustain- able, just and equitable peace in countries that have suffered some of the worst and most protracted wars in the world.
To learn more about KAIROS, go to kairoscanada.org
An OFP sign reads, “Women, don’t be quiet! Your silence nurtures violence.”
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