Women's Empowerment


Clip by VivaPlus VideoProductions


Women's Empowerment

 

Microjustice4All (MJ4All) has existed for almost twenty years and had established MJ4All Country Organizations on three continents: Latin America (Peru, Bolivia, Argentina), Africa (Rwanda and Kenya) and Europe (Serbia and Croatia). MJ4All Country Organizations work with a methodology that makes quality legal services affordable and accessible for marginalized people whilst at the same time ensuring the replicability, scalability and sustainability of the services.

 

Working with marginalized and poor people, MJ4All and the MJ4All Country Organizations have a strong focus on working with women as they often are the among the most excluded and vulnerable groups. The sections below provide an overview of the MJ4All Services the MJ4All Country Organizations provide to women and the considerable achievements the MJ4All Network has been able to build thus far.

 


Areas of expertise in Women’s Empowerment

 

MJ4All has a strong focus on women, as they are often the most vulnerable and excluded in societies. Through its work in Bolivia, Peru, Rwanda and Kenya, MJ4All has built up expertise in the following areas:

 

1. Legally empowering indigenous and migrant women (Bolivia and Peru):

 

These women, which tend to receive double discrimination, seeing that they are both women and indigenous/migrants, often do not have their basic legal documents in order and are legally illiterate. They are often discriminated against by government officials, who refuse to properly attend to them and give them proper guidance. Language barriers also tend to complicate things. Many times, they are also victims of extortion practices from lawyers, who take advantage of their lack of legal knowledge The MJ4All Country Organizations help them obtain their legal documents and explain to them what their basic rights are and how to claim these.

 

2. Economically and financially including women (Bolivia, Peru):

 

 

MJ4All helps women to obtain their identity documents, and to register their home or land and their small business MJ4All also collaborates with microfinance institutions to train women about how to strengthen their business and to obtain a credit. It also collaborates with microfinance institutions to make sure that women have the documents needed to obtain such credit.

 

3. Reaching extremely poor and vulnerable women and children in urban slum areas (Kenya):

 

MJ4All reaches a lot of women and children, especially vulnerable and poor women who are often: single mothers, widows, HIV-affected women, casual labourers, those affected by gender-based violence, orphans, abandoned children and children born out of wedlock.

 

4. Participation of women and women’s groups in the democratic process (Peru and Rwanda):

 

 

Even more than men, women in vulnerable groups in society, for example indigenous women living in rural areas, tend to be excluded from political decision making and cannot claim and defend their rights and interests. MJ4All provides these women with the basic legal documents that are a requirement for participating in democratic processes at the local and national level: identity documents and legal personality of their businesses and community organizations. It also provides these women with the knowledge and skills they need in order to promote their interests, claim social benefits, prepare project proposals, and participate in local public budget making sessions.

 

5. Prevention of domestic violence (Bolivia, Peru, Kenya, Rwanda):

 

 

Vulnerable women without ID or property papers are more likely to be subjected to domestic violence, as they have no option to leave abusive relationships and be economically independent (Bolivia, Peru, Rwanda and Kenya). MJ4All provides these women with the legal documents they need to get a stronger position in the household and helps them to claim the alimentation for their children. In addition, it collaborates with microfinance institutions to help women become more financially independent, through formalization of their small businesses and improved access to credit.

 

A key strength of the MJ4All Methodology is that MJ4All Country Organizations partner with organizations and institutions in different sectors and at all levels, as women’s empowerment is a cross-cutting issue. The MJ4All Country Organizations partner with local chiefs, local government and government institutions at a national level, NGOs, CBOs, MFIs, women’s associations, SME support structures, universities, and lawyers.

 


Awareness-raising and Capacity Building

 

MJ4All does not only provide legal solutions and documentation to women. An important part of our work is also to provide capacity building among women and thus raise awareness about women’s rights. In our capacity building workshops with mixed groups of participants (men and women) attention is paid to and emphasis put on women’s rights, as in our view, men and women are equally important partners in the advancement of women’s rights thus requiring awareness, knowledge and skills on both sides.

 

The main topics of our capacity building workshops were civil documentation, property rights, legal personality, inheritance, family rights, public participation and legal organization in general. The following number of women were reached through capacity development in the MJ countries:

 

 

 


Value Added

 

In conclusion, our added value in women’s empowerment is sixfold:

 

  1. MJ4All raises awareness among women about the importance of having valid legal documents for being full citizens in society and to partake actively in political and administrative decision-making processes and economic development opportunities
  2. MJ4All trains women on how to obtain these documents
  3. MJ4All gives personalized advice on legal issues and obtaining documents
  4. MJ4All solves cases for women, through which it obtains specific basic legal documents for them
  5. MJ4All works together with relevant government institutions and lobbies to remove obstacles and make the process of obtaining documents easier
  6. MJ4All works with strategic local partners, including microfinance organizations and NGOs that give business development services or technical training to entrepreneurs to ensure that women receive comprehensive services and access to additional opportunities serving to economically empower them.

 

Contact Form

Contact us, send us a message.

SP Quick Contact

Our Address

Mikropravda Serbia/Croatia
Gajeva 12,
Vukovar 32000 Hrvatska

Contact e-mail.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Connect With Us