- The IFWF
develops international relations and strives for international
co-operation.
- The IFWF
shows true solidarity with women who face unjust treatment as a result of
wars or within the family.
Our
goal is to achieve real solidarity with all women who are facing problems and
to create the international cooperation required in order to achieve this
goal. Apart from this goal, it is one of our basic aims to show solidarity
with women who have undergone damage, lived in pain, or lived as refugees as a
result of wars. Because of the wars that have lasted for years in the regions
where Kurds live, millions of people have been forced to leave their country
and live as refugees now. Most of these refugees have left their country for
the Western World. Other people live in exile in their own country. The
difficulties of life, which the war has brought, are the reason the refugees
have had to leave for the West. The social, economic and psychological crises
of the war have had their effect especially on the women and the children.
Almost
70% of the people living on or below the poverty line in the world are female
and the main reason for this poverty is in almost all cases some war. Also in
the West, women make up the poorest part of the society. They are the ones
working in the low paid and less secure jobs. ILO statistics say that women
and girls do 2/3s of the world’s work and 2/3s of this work is unwaged.
Women and girls actually get only 5% of the income from all this work.
This
inequality in sharing income is one of the reasons for the ever-growing army
of young children who work from a very young age at extremely demanding and
frequently dangerous jobs. These millions of children have no education
opportunities, live on the streets and have no real future or a life with any
form of guarantee. This is in spite of the fact that prosperity for some has
risen to a level five times higher than 30 years ago. The distance between the
poor and the rich has grown exponentially.
While
the term "globalisation" and inventions in the realm of information
and communication technology such as the internet may often lead us to believe
that our world has "shrunk", with virtually no limits to the
exchange of information and opportunities, we are still a far cry from a world
where all people can benefit from such innovations. Disparities between the
rich and the poor as well as gaping regional and political circumstances do
still have a decisive impact here. Women in particular are still often
disadvantaged when it comes to the distribution of resources or the access to
educational facilities and knowledge, are often completely excluded from
health care and social sustenance. In many places, it is therefore twice as
hard for women to emancipate themselves from dependence and patronization. And
yet women in many places in this world have started to build up initiatives
and projects in which they support each other - only relying on their own
power, and under the most adverse conditions. There are many examples of women
exploring ways out of poverty, oppression and isolation which we hardly know
of.
The
IFWF supportes projects that are aiming on providing information on the social and individual living conditions of
women in different countries in order to make their attempts to find a life in dignity accessible to a larger
audience, and
of course with the intention to contribute to the perpetuation and
dissemination of their activities by financially and ideally supporting them. It
is within this framework that we seek to contest growing loneliness,
profit-oriented thinking and disparity of opportunities by establishing links
of mutual international solidarity that will help us to work out common,
practicable solutions to the problems we face.
Between
1993 and 1995 more than 17.000 Kurds from the Turkish-Iraqi border region were
forced to leave their homes due to military operations and the destruction of
their villages. Within 10 years the refugees have been forced to change their
place of abode seven times. Each time they had to reconstruct their tents and
shelters and establish living conditions for thousands of people. Since May
1998 a population of over 10.000 Kurdish refugees, the majority of which are
women and children, has been staying in a camp under the protection of the
UNHCR. Located in the vicinity of the town of Maxmur, the camp is situated in
the middle of a desert, short of water and plagued by scorpions. The area is 2
km to the south of the 36th latitude, i.e. outside the area known as the
“no-fly zone” and under the control of the Iraqi central authorities.
Despite all obstacles the refugees have been trying to build up a little
infrastructure, social institutions and schools by their own means and
efforts.
In
summer 2001, the Women’s Center of the refugee camp of Maxmur addressed the
International Free Women’s Foundation with an application for financial and
professional support for their activities.
„Let
us come together to get rid of the shackles that have bound our bodies and souls
for thousands of years. Let us spread solidarity, so that we can live more
happily.“ This was the motto of a series of events the IFWF organized
in January 2003 in order to make the activities of the women's initiative KATAGI
(Initiative for the Advancement of a Women’s Point of View) from
Turkey known in Europe.
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