Story type: Story

November 29th is the International Day of Women Human Rights Defenders, part of the 16 Days of Activism on Violence against Women and Girls. So it’s a good time to ask: how can the humanitarian sector better empower women – both within humanitarian agencies as well as local civil society activists – to address violence, and empower women and girls, in times of crisis?

It was 4pm and I was staying late in the office after work to do a radio interview about the humanitarian situation in Yemen. During the interview my phone was on silent, and when it finished I turned it over to see many missed calls and a message telling me that an airstrike had hit next to my house. The most terrifying part of that moment was thinking I might be about to hear the news that I’d lost one of my parents or siblings.

Movements like #MeToo, #YoTambién, #BalanceTonPorc, #NiUnaMenos and others have sparked widespread debate; violence and harassment against women is being exposed in more sectors, and the violence endured by women who are often less visible is gaining more attention; there’s one debate taking place that less people know so much about it, here’s why we should:

South Sudan and the bare landscape is shimmering with heat as temperatures are soaring above 40 degrees Celsius. Oblivious to the scorching sun, a group of women treks with their children to the community ground, which serves as a station for CARE’s mobile nutrition site.

Typhoon Haiyan, internationally known as Yolanda, has become a name that’s hard to forget. The super typhoon wiped out homes, killed more than 6,300 people, and devastated agricultural lands leaving those who survived homeless and without any source of income. But for the people who witnessed its wrath, the only way to move forward was to pick up the pieces and rise.

CARE Philippines, through its Typhoon Haiyan Reconstruction Assistance (THRA) project, launched the Season-long Training for Vegetable Farmers in Northern Iloilo in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, the Local Government of Lemery and Taytay sa Kauswagan, Inc (TSKI), as CARE’s facilitating partner in the Province of Iloilo.

CARE Philippines has ventured into cassava value chain development in Leyte, one of the most depressed provinces in the Philippines and the hardest hit by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Cassava is a perennial crop and traditionally grown for food and other food products.

Imelda, a 64-year-old vegetable farmer in Lemery in Iloilo, shared that farming has been part of her system. She learned it from her parents when she was ten years old.

Turkey is the largest refugee hosting country in the world, with over 3.5 million Syrian refugees registered in the country. Over 90 per cent of the refugee population lives in urban and peri-urban centres and not in camps.