 Thank you everyone. Ani Bojo. It's a privilege to be here. My name is Reverend Lee Kern and I'm an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Toronto. I am here to do the opening this morning. I'm also the Anglican Church of Canada representative on the Cairo Steering Committee. And it is a joint privilege to be part of Cairo's, a great network of ecumenical solidarity that connects us to each other all around the world. Here located on this land, in Turtle Island, I am on the territory of the Machisagig. The Machisagig are the southernmost nation of the Anishinaabe Three Fires Confederacy who have governed this land and these waters since time immemorial. The Anishinaabe made treaties with the Wendat Nation and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to peaceably share and sustain the life of the Great Lakes, caring for the land, and creating contracts and treaties of peacekeeping between nations. We acknowledge those foundations of peacekeeping on this territory and the structures of intercultural relation expressed in the treaties made between these different confederacies and nations, allowing diversity of languages and practices to flourish. I acknowledge the European invasion of these territories, that military invasion bringing with it patriarchal white supremacist Christianity and greatly disrupting matriarchal leadership on this territory with military invasion. I also acknowledge the ongoing displacement of indigenous people on this very territory. Here where I am at my work, we have an encampment of people that have been internally displaced by generations of colonialism. Here at this encampment, people take care of each other and support each other through mutual aid. We help each other survive this harsh winter. I also, as I acknowledge the territory of this land and indigenous sovereign leadership over this territory, I commit us to truth telling. We renounce the genocidal practices that continue to go on, displacing people from their territories and overriding their sovereign governance and leadership over their lands and waters. I also acknowledge the impact of the transatlantic slave trade and how that theft of millions of people from the continent of Africa built the architecture of our capitalist system that we currently live under. I also acknowledge how that legacy of violent military extraction of people and land and water continues around the world through global practices of extraction and military invasion of indigenous territories around the world. Today is a day where we resist that legacy of extraction, where we acknowledge the power that people living in Western privileged societies have that we have inherited through legacies of white supremacist practices. In this time, it is a space where we get to hear stories of courage, stories of change, where people most affected by extraction and military presence over their communities get to share their stories of resistance and stories of change and courage. It's a privilege to be here together in this good way to get to open our hearts and minds and all seek to build that strength of mutual aid and solidarity that breaks down the power binaries that continue to inflict harm and violence on our families and communities. Thank you so much to all the land defenders, defenders of each other, all the people who use their creativity to activate healing and solidarity in their communities. I offer my gratitude to you and thank you for your witness and for inviting us to listen to your experiences and build that solidarity. It is my honor and privilege at this point to introduce Jane Thericois. Jane is the Global Partnerships Coordinator at Kairos Canada. Jane is passionate about the work that supports social justice, equality, non-discrimination and respect for human rights. She has worked within Kenya's civil society in the USA and Canada. Jane Thericois is a gender and women's studies graduate from York University and also an Atlas Corps and Human Rights Campaign Fellow, USA 2014. Please join me in welcoming Jane. Thank you so much, Lee. It's such an honor that you were able to join us today and start us off in a good way. And for reminding us about truth telling, reminding us how we continue to resist as people for our land, for our water, and how all of these oppressions are connected and how we continue to resist. So thank you everybody for joining us today. This is the highlight of the year for me where we get to gather our partners and talk about their amazing work that they're doing for wherever they are in the world. So I have a couple of disclaimers just before I get into it. In the conversations today, there may be some references to some triggering language or events, and we do hold space for those who may be affected by this. Secondly, because of time constraints, we are unable to take questions today. We appreciate that you are able to join us today, but we will not be able to take your questions for the partners. However, we do encourage you to leave some messages for our partners in the chat box, and this will be shared with them. These messages could be pledges. They could be actions that you commit to take after today and elevate their voices and be an agent of change yourself from wherever you are. We ask that you be respectful in the comment box. If not, we will boot you out so that we have a safe space for everybody. So today we are very glad to have with us Adriana Contreras. She is a graphic recorder and illustrator from Drawing Change Consulting. Adriana is graphically not taking our meeting today. So I'll invite her to say a couple of things about the process. Adriana. Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Jane. And thank you to everyone who was here this morning. My name is Adriana Contreras. I'm based on the territories of the Moschromes, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. And I'm originally from the land of the Muisca people, which is Bogota, Colombia, or known as Bogota, Colombia. I am part of an organization that focuses on visual communication and visual storytelling. So today I'll be listening to the stories. I'll be making connections and creating a visual representation of everything that we'll be sharing here today. So in a moment I'm going to switch over my camera to my canvas that I'll be using digitally. So throughout the meeting feel free to find me in the gallery so you can see the process unfolding. And I will see you also at the end to do a recap. Thank you so much again. Thank you, Adriana. So today we're extremely grateful not only to the Cairo's partners that we have here today with us, but also to our listening panel who will be sharing with us in the second part of today's session. They're reflections on the stories of change that you're going to hear today. So we're honored to have with us Carla Wayne Ruffles. She's the Director General for Inclusive Growth, Governance and Innovation Partnerships at Global Affairs Canada, Partnerships for Development Innovation Branch. We also have Mary-Claude Manga. Mary-Claude is a member of the Cairo's Partnerships and Rights Circle and she has worked with us and our partners for many, many years and we're so glad that she is able to join us today. We also have Juan Facundo. He is a youth member of the Cairo's Atlantic Region Network and currently a student at Mount Allison University. Thank you so much to our listening panel. We cannot wait to hear your reflections at the second part of the session today. So also noting our partners. We have Organizacion Feminina Popular or OFP from Colombia. We have Eritier de la Justice from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We have South Sudan Council of Churches National Women's Program and we are Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center in the West Bank. So I'll give you like a general brief of the WPS Program. That's the Women's Peace and Security Program. This program supports projects that empower and improve the lives of women through education, through skills training, through capacity building and advancement of women's human rights through national and international justice initiatives. This program is supported by Global Affairs Canada and also individual donors, religious orders, some foundations, some Canadian unions who donate to the program and work with us for the sustainability of the program. So we are very grateful for all of the support that we receive. You know, for decades, women in these countries that we work in, in the territory have been working in the grassroots under extreme challenges of war and conflict. And they do feel the impact in their communities and the multitude of violence on their bodies, on their land, on their families and in their community. Women are disproportionately affected by poverty, by violence, by environmental degradation. All of these oppressions that are connected and they're often victims of these social exclusions. In situations of conflict and post-conflict women can be victimized many, many times over through gender inequality, through poverty, through racism, military conflict, patriarchy, sexual violence as a strategy of war and resurgence and upsurges of fundamentalism and conservatism in their communities. However, they are crucial agents of change and sometimes they do this at great risk of their lives. In the current global context, as we know, the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled existing volatile situations for women and girls and intensified gender inequality, increased violence because of the lockdowns where some women are locked in their homes with their abusers. And in post-conflict situations and the humanitarian crisis that has been created in this context, women are largely ignored even though they're the ones who carry the burden the most in their communities. It is important to note that this October, the world marked the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and this resolution does affirm the important role that women play in the prevention and resolution of conflicts in peace negotiations, in humanitarian response. However, as you know, it's two decades after even though women have been doing this work for decades. And despite this important progress here and there, women do continue to face gender-based violence and other global security threats such as climate change. So again, today we are extremely grateful to our partners who in their different time zones have made time to come and share experiences, to share their stories, to impact knowledge. And we do celebrate their courage, their conviction as human rights defenders, as peace builders, as conquerors. You will hear from partners who work at the grassroots level and from women who through participation in the WPS program have attained some leadership roles in their specific context, even though they do not really intend to do that at the very beginning. Some of these women would identify themselves as peace builders by default, while others would say, you know, we are just going about our daily life, but they are impacting meaningful change in their community. So while each story focuses on an individual woman, it's important to remember that these individuals are just members of larger networks of women working for peace and justice and doing amazing work wherever they are. So while we do recognize that their experiences of gender-based violence are traumatic and they have serious consequences on women and girls, we do also recognize that these experiences do not define the individual or limit their self-agency. But rather, these are pieces of a larger self-identity for these women and girls. So we do encourage you to listen to really hear these stories of change as being transformative to these women's identities as empowered individuals. So our first speakers today are from South Sudan. South Sudan, for context, despite peace agreement signed in 2015, the upsides of ethnically motivated violence in the country and the humanitarian situation have had women and children being the most affected by this conflict. Millions of people have been displaced internally and elsewhere, and there are more refugees in neighboring countries in millions. I will now welcome Moni Tabitha Immanuel. She's the interim coordinator of the National Women's Programme of the South Sudan Council of Churches, and she will be followed by Dominica Antony, who is a participant and beneficiary of the Women of Courage Programme. Just a quick note, I note that Agnes Wasouk, Petia, is also on call today. She's the coordinator of the Women's Programme, but she is unwell, but we do thank her for joining us today and for being here, and we'll be represented today by Moni. So Moni, over to you. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening everyone. This is Moni Tabitha from South Sudan, and I'm here to speak on the changes or rather the advancement that has taken place from the time of implementation. The implementation of the Programme in partnership with Kairos Canada. First and foremost, I would like to talk about the impact of the monthly fasting and prayers that the women have been engaging in before the women did not have so much unity among themselves. Like an ordinary woman could not sit down with a parliamentarian in the same room and feel like they are in the same level because they looked at parliamentarians as people of higher standards than them. But when we had this monthly fasting and prayers, we come together under the same parliamentarian as mere women. So the fasting and prayers every month has brought unity among the parliamentarians and the women of South Sudan. The other second impact that we have seen as the Council of Churches through the monthly fasting and prayers is that we have all seen the prayer that we had last year in the palace of South Sudan has really created a very big impact. It is one of the reasons why today we already have the peace agreement that was signed and the whole world can attest to it that South Sudan has not been like how it was before. We already are total peace, though we cannot say it's 100% sure, but at least people are moving freely and the people who are in the POC can come out to participate in the monthly prayers in fasting. And another great impact that I have seen is that women voices have been heard, like before women did not know their rights as women, they looked themselves as housewives and people who could just give back. But after getting empowerment through the training on the UN Security Council Resolution 1325, where it talks about the participation of women at all levels, we have seen women at the grassroots who have been appointed as chiefs before. They were looking at themselves like this position belong entirely to the men, but after getting the empowerment, getting the knowledge about their rights, the promotion of gender justice, this women have been able to participate in Western Equatoria entirely, where I went to conduct a training on leadership and good governance. I have seen like the entire training was filled with women who are chiefs in their local areas, and they had great experiences that they were sharing since they are coming into those seats, what were the impact that they have seen through their work. The other impact I would like to talk about is the awareness on GBV. Our women have been trained on GBV, how they're supposed to support their fellow women. So the training that women receive from the South Sudan Council of Churches with the support from Kairos Canada, it has really empowered the grassroots women to come out and speak on the evil act of gender-based violence which has been inflicted on them. It has given them the courage to come out and speak before women were scared of coming to talk about the acts that were being inflicted on them, because they looked at it like they were being blamed for whatever that was happening to them. But after our women go out and do outreach to the community, talking to the women about the dangers of GBV, about the importance of speaking out, it has enabled many women who are victims of GBV to come out and speak about the act that were being inflicted on them. I would also like to talk about the trauma, as we all know South Sudan has been through a lot of difficult times, and everybody is traumatized. But now I can say, through the support that we are having from our partners, we are able to have women who are trained on psychosocial support, they're able to give the support to people out there, and many of our people are getting healed from this trauma. We also have this center here, which is providing counseling to people. You call in and speak about your problem, and you get someone who can be able to support you in order to heal you from the trauma that you have been going. The other thing I would like to talk about is also the empowerment of women. Before, as I said earlier on, most women do not know their rights. But as we speak now, during the review of the Constitution, women came out to speak about the Constitution, because entirely they looked at the Constitution. It was lacking a lot of, you know, the aspect where women's rights were included. So the women supported by SACC women came out to speak about the review of the Constitution. They need for the government to put some of the articles that talk about women. So these are some of the changes that we have seen at South Sudan Council of Churches through the program which have been supported by the Cairo's Canada. Over to you. Thank you so much, Moni. So we are going to move on to Dominica Antony from South Sudan Council of Churches. She is a participant of the WPS program. And we want to hear from her if she can share some insight about what the program has impacted for her to share that with us today. Dominica? Yes. Yes. With you. To me particular, the program has changed me in a lot of things. There are those changes that comes when we are together. We know women from other states which were not friendly to us and from other churches that we were not united together with them. But with this program, we came to know ourselves and unite ourselves as women of South Sudan. Now we call ourselves women of South Sudan. Not to the particular church or the particular party or particular group, but all of us are women of South Sudan. That is the impact it has given us. You go everywhere, you are known, you are a woman from this group of women linked. And the women link really linked all the women in South Sudan. In our time state, we have executive body of women links which shared that program with us in Cuba. We know what they are doing on the ground and they know what we are doing in the main office here. And the story that I want to share is when the women started praying. The prayer which Tabita was talking about, we started praying. We went to the state, especially the state of Parigazal, which is mellecal and poor. Those are the places where the IDPs are there under the control of UN. Through this prayer, the women came out to realize that the war fought is not for them, it's not to divide them. Now the United, the women from inside can come out, they share what they have in common. If others doesn't have certain items, they bring, they share it together. Anybody having a problem in the POC, those who are outside goes there. They share a lot of things. So it gives me an impact that the program should continue so that we go further than what we have done. So far, we toured all the 10 states with the program of prayer and fasting, and talking about trauma healing, and talking about the GVV, which in our culture, some of these things are not supposed to be talked about, but through the program. We are not talking about it. If a man beats you in our culture, they say that is a norm. That is the tradition. That is the love shown to a woman by beating. But with this program, women came to know how that beating is not one of the good things a man can display on a woman. That is her right to have a free environment for life. So the GVV program is going on even after now, as we are talking, we have women going from house to house. Talking about the child marriage, the first marriages, the earlier pregnancy. We are talking about the GVV. We are talking even about those who are overlooking the women. When talking, many are giving in, giving a positive response. That, you know, we do not know that this was supposed to be like this, but now they are opening their eyes. And these programs unite really all the women from the churches and the government together. And at the same time, this program educates many of us. Many of us have gotten out the skill of trauma, cancelling. We know how, even to solve our problem. And we can also consult and cancel ourselves. And the most part now is when the COVID-19 came out, this woman came out broadly talking about GVV. We have the road and market campaign. And now we are moving from house to house talking about the danger and the preventive measures. And what the consequence that the COVID-19 has brought to the community. Because there are a lot of bad things that happened during this COVID-19. We have children confined in the home. They are not going to school. So there are a lot of atrocities happening to the children. Some children are stolen when their mother is going to look for food. Some are killed. Some are raped. So a lot of things. We are also, this program gave us an ample hand to talk about the importance of keeping the children's childcare program is there. How we can keep our relationship. And how we can manage with what we have. And the leadership skill also is given. So we are trained also on leadership. We are trained on trauma cancelling. Though not deep, but still we have the ABCD of it, which is better than nothing. So we can do it. We are ready and we are continuing doing it. So the program itself gave us an ample opportunity of seeing things that were not seen by women. And things that women does not know that it was their role. And it gave us also ample time and knowledge that women can do what men can do. Because our women are backward. If you go to the grassroots today, they give in easily. Though it is the right, they cannot open their mouths. Our tradition say women cannot speak in front of men, cannot discuss. But nowadays with this program, our eyes are open. We are doing it. And we say thanks to that. And we are asking that let those programs continue to open the eyes of women in the grassroots. Very few are participated. They know what I'm saying. But now we need to go to the grassroots. There are those women there who are digging in the field. You go and fetch water. How many miles? You carry a child on your back. And on top of that you say nothing. So I say thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much Dominica for sharing that. Just a quick note for listeners. There was reference to POC. That's protection of civilian sites for internally displaced persons in South Sudan. And GBV is gender based violence. Thank you so much Mona and Dominica for sharing that with us. We will move on now to our partners in Colombia. In Colombia, despite the peace accord that was signed in 2016, the country continues to experience humanitarian and human rights crisis because of the prolonged conflict. There has been spikes in attacks against the human rights defenders and those who are working for the implementation of the peace accord. I'm trying to go slower so that the translators don't miss anything. So we have had reports from the OFP that since the accords were signed over 300 social leaders have been assassinated. And I would like to remember and honor the life of Carlotta Isabel Salinas Perez. She was a member of the OFP and she was attacked and killed in March of this year. So we remember her life and she rest in power. According to the OFP, this rise in violence against women is fueled by misogyny and patriarchy that is stigmatizing women, human rights defenders and peace builders who are promoting critical peace efforts. I will now welcome Gloria and Paro Suarez, the leadership team of Organization Feminina Popular in Colombia, and she will be followed by Isabel Caestando, a participant and beneficiary of the WPS program. Gloria, I pose the same question to you. In your context in Colombia, what changes have you seen in communities that you work that have significantly impacted your work at the OFP? Welcome, Gloria. Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you, Cairo, for your support. What we've seen here is the intensification of gender violence. We've seen that the number of cases of gender violence have increased during the pandemic. We've also seen that assassinations, murders of leaders of both men and male leaders have increased, and we've also seen an intensification of humanitarian crisis and impoverishment of women. Women are the heads of these households, which have to look for alternative solutions. And during this time, that has been very difficult given the pandemic. In terms of significant changes, I have to say that we're profoundly grateful for the guidance for your support during this program, Women of Courage. And I'd also like to say thank you for giving us the opportunity to find a way to continue forward with the project. Because this project was supposed to have taken place through workshops with women face to face. And we're very grateful for the support we received to now be able to work in these new modalities to work virtually. Thank you so much for your patience and for facilitating support so that we could adapt. Our learning has been absolutely essential in learning for the women in terms of how to work with internet connections. Zoom with ritual tools so that we can continue our work, the training for women has made it possible to empower them not only so that they can learn about their rights but right now. In such a difficult situation. This is played a key role. Women are situations of isolation so by having access to these skills. By be having access to accompaniment circles of protection prevention. We're also working with. It helps us to identify which women are risk of femicide and we see that women have become empowered and have the seat training. This has been an essential part of our work. The women let us know for example to say certain women is going through this kind of experience they took her phone away they're not letting her to communicate with anyone and we're talking with the neighbors about how to make this more visible. They're the ones who notify us and this has helped us to save some women's lives. Unfortunately, in some cases we've had to remove women from the sites where they were located. This was important because we save their lives and the lives of their children but in any case we have to move them out of their context we have to move them to another city. And that's not ideal but that's sometimes the only way that we can save that woman's life. And that has also helped us to have better communication with the authorities and many women who have received training have been able to call the police in the middle of the night and part of the organization. I'm a leader and this is what's happening here with the women and we need you here present with us. And there we have a network of accompaniment to call different women. But it's been possible for the police and women to arrive at one in the morning, and they have support through that network of support and help and they've made it possible for authorities to be present when they need them. Those situations have been very important examples in the development of this program. Also being able to talk about new infinity, new behaviors of men, we've talked about protection of women women for example who say it. Midnight and four women here protecting a woman. We're up here and it's raining, but we're not going to leave until we know that she's going to be safe. The work of this accompanying this program has been very important. It's been very important source of support, not only for the empowerment of women but also to expand protection and create safe spaces for women, especially circles of protection and preventing threats. I'll stop here to let Isabel speak and then if there are any questions you can let us in the chat. Isabel says good morning everyone. I'm very grateful to have been invited to participate here today. On behalf of OFT, and we're very grateful for the support that guidance has given us and we're also grateful for the opportunity to participate in this program and to help each other. We work with women that are suffered violence and abuse. I would like to say that as a result of the training that we have received through Kaido support, we have become empowered. We have learned about laws. For example, 1250 law 1257, which references the protection of women. We have participated in campaigns. One of those campaigns focuses on protection. We have participated in important campaigns to accompany women when they have suffered violence, such as Gloria was saying women that are alone and defenseless, but that as a result of this group of women that we have formed through the training. We are united and we're in touch with women and we're able to provide accompaniment legal accompaniment psychological company. We have access to counseling and legal support. We have also organized campaign is a campaign called juntas nos cuidamos we take care of ourselves. Today, we had a very strong campaign. All the women were present to commemorate November 25, the International Day against violence against women, and this training that we have received. We're very grateful for it. It gives us strength every day. It gives us tools to be able to help women. And in spite of everything that is happening with a pandemic. Where we've seen an intensive intensification of violence. The situation is critical for women as a result. We truly are very, very grateful for guidance and for all the people who have provided support this empowerment is tremendous. We hope it will continue because there are many women, many women who are interested in this process here in Colombia, but against women. Every day there are more women who are victims of violence and now with COVID. It's even worse. Thank you. Thank you for the training. Thank you for the workshops. This has helped us to create change in our community. Thank you for the accompaniment. Thank you for the circles of protection for women. Now we know where we have to go to who we have to contact how we can report incidences of violence so that women can create reports and how we can accompany them in that process. All of this is very important. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much, Isabel and Gloria for your share today. We do acknowledge that women do this work under great risk. And we appreciate for them being at the forefront of continuing this work, despite the challenges. We will now move to. Eritea de la justice. I hope that they're able to hear us clearer now. So for just a bit of context in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the United Nations Security Council, some 4.5 million people have also been internally displaced there. Over a 1 million women and girls have been victims of extremely brutal and widespread sexual violence, permanent displacement, kidnapping have been reported to human trafficking. And the proliferation of foreign and local armed groups, especially in conflict over exploitation of mineral resources. The DRC is quite rich in natural resources. We will hear today from two shantals from DRC. First, we'll have Shantel Bilulu, who's the program coordinator for women and children with Eritea de la justice. And then we will hear from Shantel Bahoya, who's a participant in beneficiary of the program. So I now introduce Shantel in five minutes. Shantel, share with us the significance of the importance of your work that has kept you motivated to keep moving forward in courage. Hello, everybody. Welcome to all partners from courage programs in the Congo, everything that we have experienced, the impacts of war and the impact on women and young girls. With this war, the women were the primary victims. This militarization was greatly impacted by a lot of armed groups, national groups, guerrilla groups. So these armed groups means that these women were very much impacted by sexual violence and gender-based violence. So in terms of gender-based violence, the women were impacted in their areas of work, sexual exploitation. So they're coming in either pregnant or with illnesses or dying as a result of this violence. And then for their families, after these experiences of rape and sexual violence, they often experience rejection from their families. People that they cannot, you know, they're rejected by their families. They can't live with them. And so being able through these programs to get access to medical and psychosocial support has been enormous. So these government and military groups that are creating violence, there's also gender-based violence that is taking place. Right. They're taking place just at the community level, you know, that they don't have the right to have grounds, like the land ownership. Women not having access to the right to voice and opinion. That they are completely at the mercy of men and even young girls with relation to their education and access to education. So for girls from primary to secondary school, the numbers are reducing in terms of girls that are actually getting access to education. So it's either that there needs to be work, you know, the women are either needing support with work at home or they're needing to go into the fields and the young girls are being asked to stay at home and tend to the house. So doing domestic, you know, various domestic responsibilities. Right. So girls are not able to follow through with their education, even if at one point they had begun. A lot of the customs here says that women cannot speak in front of men, that it's not her place to speak in front of men. Yeah, where there's decisions being made in the village. There's no place. There's no place for their voice, no value placed to them and their experiences and their wisdom excluded. When it's issues that have to do with them and it has to do with their own experiences, there's no place for their voice. So the women and the young girls, they have to stay in the kitchen. These decisions are being made without them. And so, thankfully, due to this project, it has given us the opportunity for women and young girls to galvanize. And bring greater awareness for the rights of women and girls at a national level and the importance of their rights. We're starting to do sensitization and new information sharing about the human rights, the rights of children, rights around peace, equity, about the importance of women, the value of women, being able to speak to authority that women have rights, that to place women outside of what is important is never going to work. It will not lead us to peace if we keep excluding women, that women are critical to the solutions that are being sought in terms of the peace building that is taking place. They need to be a part of these meetings. They have a clear role. They know how to play it. They have clear voice in the face of authority. They have things to share that are important. And so, Erité de la Justice is creating the chance for these voices to be heard. Thank you so much, Chantal. I couldn't have said it better about how women are disrupting the norm and being at the forefront of elevating their voices in the fight for their rights. I have a story concerning change. This is the sensitization of Erité de la Justice. There is a family of Mr. Malekera with his wife, who lives in the neighborhood. The woman was also arrested and she was also followed by the sensitization. And after the sensitization, she came to see us in our city. We also, as a beneficiary of the Women, Peace, Women, Peace, Courage and Security project, we went to the farm there and we went to see the husband and his wife. We tried to advise them, to advise them like everyone else, and to encourage them to change. So that there was change in the whole family, including the man of the household. There was a strong issue of alcoholism in the family. But after receiving counsel from us, he started to change his behavior as well as a result of coming into contact with our programming. And so the kids who were not accessing education before are now going to school and receiving education. There's been a big shift in the family, in the relationship within the family and the safety and opportunities. I want to thank Iros, around the work that's being done around women's rights, children's rights. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Shantel. So we're now going to move to WIAM and for context. So the Israeli-Palestinian relations remain tense and international efforts to revise negotiations have failed over the years. With Israel continuing to develop illegal settlements on territory it occupies. There are now over 500,000 settlers in the West Bank. Almost 40% of the West Bank consists of settlements, military bases and other Israeli-controlled areas. In these times of political and economic turmoil, oftentimes it is the women who feel these harsh economic, social and cultural impacts of this occupation, as well as now the rise of conservative, patriarchal, extremist groups within the Palestinian society. So we were supposed to have had from Lucy Taljeh, who's the women's coordinator at WIAM, but she unfortunately called in this morning ill. She's feeling unwell. So in her place we will have Tarek Al-Zubi. This is the youth and project coordinator at WIAM. So we will ask you the same question, Tarek, in your context. What impacts you have seen of the program and working with beneficiaries and women all around the West Bank. I want to share that with us and we will hear today from two beneficiaries at the WIAM Center, Nazreen Hajizin and Loreta Lama. But first, to Tarek. Thank you so much, Tarek. It is great to be here with you and it is especially great to be able to be gathered via Zoom with this meeting in support of justice and specifically that is because tomorrow will be the new wave of lockdown because of the rise in the number of COVID cases that we have been experiencing. So since the start of the COVID pandemic, Bethlehem and the Palestinian territories entered into a lockdown during this time, we saw a sharp rise in unemployment with Bethlehem having the greatest in the West Bank reaching around over 80%. This also as a consequence caused great food insecurity and further poverty to the marginalized community. And we saw as a result, a rise in domestic violence and domestic abuse and in violence in general. So since then, WIAM has been active and continuing to work in WS with a special focus on conflict mediation and mediation as well as psychosocial support for women and families and for the community. But throughout the years and thanks to the support of Kairus and with partnership with Kairus, WIAM has been able to continue its work with women and women empowerment. So one of the things that we try and measure is women's participation and ability to participate in the political processes but also in civil society. One of the things that we have seen over the past three works with our work with Kairus is increased confidence rates. And this isn't just the ability to speak but it's also the way that people feel that their voices are heard and that there is this place for their voices to be heard. And this also includes the ability to interrupt during conversations, the ability to come and exude passion and speak passionately, but it's also the ability to speak about contentious topics that are important. As a result, one of the things that came out just a few months ago was this new campaign in Bethany, one of the most conservative areas of the West Bank, against sexual harassment. And of course, this is a topic that is generally very difficult to talk about and taboo in society. But through this program and through the work that we have been able to do, we have been able to establish this campaign and we've had women participate and take the lead initiative on this. Another thing is we've had different organizations and different networks were currently working in eight different communities across the West Bank. And we are currently in the finalizing processes in one of the communities of establishing a civic society organization for women. And that is a way to take the work that we am has been able to do in these different communities and transfer more formally ownership over this program and project. So that work towards gender justice towards women empowerment isn't just coming from we am, but it's also coming from the training of trainers programs that we am does. It's coming from the women in these communities, and they're able to take ownership and increase the longevity and sustainability of these programs. The other thing that we are seeing is when it comes to political participation, we are hopeful that we will be having new elections within the coming year or two years. And there is a new call that we continue to receive from schools from universities and even from municipal councils, asking us as a center to help network with them and do some gender sensitivity training and some gender justice mainstream mainstreaming training with them so that we are able to assure more effective participation of women in local politics and national politics. And maybe to give you a bit more of the programs that we have, we have some of the beneficiaries who would like to speak and share about their experience with us. So we have Lorette Milias, then we have Nasril, and we have Samah. So I will transfer the mic to them. I am Lorette from Beit Lahah. One of the projects here in the women's center The lives of many women have changed through the support and empowerment of women. We have participated in many conferences. And workshops and conferences that take place through this program. We have trainings inside the center and outside it. And conflict resolution. And issues concerning women and other issues. We have learned in the trainings and the meetings. Part of the feminist movement. Of the reform committee that has women and men. The problems that women face. And it has helped given material and other kinds of help as well. We participated in many campaigns to help and advocate women's rights. And we had a lot of campaigns and activities take place in the center. Also we participated in the campaign for 16 days to end violence against women. And we are now trying to support and provide work opportunities for our families. And other activities that women can do. I would like to thank you all for inviting us over. We are from the village of Thabra. We got to know the We Am Center through, that wasn't clear. We learned a lot through the meetings and workshops that took place through the We Am Center. We are now have more confidence. We got to meet with many other groups from different cultures. Through the We Am Center we have witnessed a lot of meetings. We learned about a lot of different conventions and agreements including the ones concerning all kinds of violence against women. Also we had meetings about how to deal with the corona pandemic. They helped us to create a women's association in the village. We could support our rights as women in that village. Also we got to learn about Security Council Resolution 1325 about the role of women in security and peace. On a small project, on basket weaving from straw to increase families incomes. And I give the microphone to my friend. I would like to talk about the role of the center as women of the village. And there is a lot of meetings and activities. Through which we learned about the Sidao Agreement. Which is about ending all kinds of violence against women. All the meetings were mainly about community participation and also about bringing those who are responsible for certain actions into the justice system. Also we had initiative to clean the village and solving the water problem. Also we coordinated with other institutions to solve our problems in the village. We believe that the economical empowerment of women reduces chances of violence against them. And through that, based on that we asked the William Center to have workshops to empower women economically. Through the straw basket weaving workshop that took place. We also formed a group of women and we targeted young women and girls. And we created a women's association to develop the village which suffers from a lot of problems. And we started to have workshops. And meetings to raise women's awareness. And raising their awareness relating to the rights. And thank you all. Thank you, thank you so much Eric. And for your insights, I didn't get the name of the third one, I'm sorry about that. But thank you so much for sharing that with us. So we're going to move on to the second part of our session where we will welcome our listening panel. So we will hear first from Marie Claude Manga and then Carla and then Juan at the end. So quickly about Marie Claude. She's a member of the Cairo's partnerships and rights circle. She's a social worker at Quebec provincial local community service center in Montreal, working with among others, immigrants, families integration and adaptation to Canada. Marie Claude has been on two Cairo's delegations, one to the DRC in 2013 and one to the Philippines in 2014. She's also an ordained United Church of Canada minister at Mount Royal United Church in Montreal. Marie Claude. Thank you so much for joining us today. In five minutes, please share with us what your reflections are from the stories that you have had today and how you intend to continue with this accompaniment and commitment. Thank you. Thank you so much. I am just still so grateful for all that I have heard. I listened with a lot of attention to the presentations based on your life experience and the experiences that women and young girls who are living in fear and who experience so many different impacts in their communities. What hits me the hardest is the similarity in these situations and the challenges that these women are facing that you're facing in your respective contexts. While I was listening to you, I was making links in my head, my mind. The precarity of the situation of women in this time, at this time. When my dad's, when I was young, my dad used to say, you are right, you are someone whole. We're working towards a vision of women as whole. What has happened, whether it's in the countries of the south or that of the source or of the north, but that the issues of women are not being respected. More and more women are living in precarious situations. More and more women facing violence. Who are victims of exclusion. Children are being killed as a way to punish women. What's happening? I'm so impressed by the profoundness of your experiences and the courage that you are showing in the middle of all this. In the middle of violence of war, of sexual violence, military violence. Sorry for saying this from the same. When I was a little girl of 18 months, I was hospitalized for being sexually abused or being abused. What, what is going on? In the north, we have the chance to denounce. Even if it keeps happening, we can go and get support and denounce these acts and to get community support. And that we have justice systems that function. But in the south, from what I'm hearing, what I just heard, there's still hope. And there's still lots of hope, but the situation is much more constrained. And you're doing so much, you're all doing so much to respond to these situations. To find processes for healing. Congratulations. Bravo for your effort in finding a way through this and to those men that are supporting that are also willing to support. My dears, every woman and young girl was impacted. You are a source of inspiration and hope. And I say thank you, thank you for being available for your commitment. Thank you for all that you do. For responding to these insecure conditions and militarized conditions. Your efforts offer empowerment to these young girls to play. And for these women to be able to provide opportunities for their girls. And to have the chance to actually denounce this violence. And to live with dignity. I'm going to finish with this. I was sharing a bit about my experience of my travels to the Philippines in a region that is has similarities to your context. And a question was asked to me, how are you in these areas that were so militarized and that you are not afraid. Okay, I won't go into all the details, but I said, there are people who are there who are intervening who are doing things it is it is worth the effort to to go and see them. So you're talking about women who sacrificed their lives. You know, for this work that they do, you know that are there to protect the lives of young girls of women of the communities. Okay, final words. My last sentiment. It takes just one seed for a forest to grow. And so that you are that in your communities you are the seed of hope. Continue your efforts for it will ripple outward. It creates change. Thank you. Thank you so much, Marie Claude. Thank you for your vulnerability with us for your remarks, and we do hold space for you in power and solidarity. Thank you so much. We'll now move to Carla Hogan ruffles. It's a great pleasure to have you with us on our panel. Carla is currently the director general for inclusive growth governance and innovation partnerships in global affairs, Canada's partnerships for development innovation branch. Since joining the Canadian International Agency Cedar Development Agency Cedar in 1995. Carla has served as forestry advisor, senior project officer, and as manager in Cedar and gax policy global issues and development partnership, Asia and America's branches from 2016 to 2019. She was the high commissioner for Canada to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Carla was the government of Canada representative at the Canadian Embassy to Nepal between 1999 and 2003. And prior to joining the government of Canada. She worked at the food and agriculture organization in Rome in 1992 1993 as both an international forestry consultant and volunteer between 1983 and 1990. Carla gender equality and empowerment of women and girls is a key action area in Canada's feminist international assistance policy. Indeed, the Cairo's WPS projects with our partners is supported by GAC. What are your reflections on how we can continue to work together to support this work and other priorities of and policies at GAC. Thank you very much. So, well, first of all, thank you very, very much for inviting me to to participate in this in this learning and listening session. It's really been it's such a privilege really and and a luxury to to be asked to listen. And, and I feel very, very, I'm very grateful for this opportunity. And I'm also very, very humbled by by what I've heard this morning. And I agree very much with with money clothes observations of the the shared challenges across the across such different contexts right across such different parts of the world and it really really builds a solidarity, a global solidarity I think amongst us all. I wanted to touch, as was mentioned, we have a Canada has the feminist international assistance policy, and we're striving to play a leadership role on issues of gender equality, women's empowerment and sexual health and reproductive rights in in among other other things. And we really believe that civil society organizations, including faith based organizations play an essential role in advancing the objectives of the feminist international assistance policy, as well as the goals, the sustainable development goals. So, it's indeed inspiring to hear your personal stories, and to also better understand the, the impacts, and the, the results that are being achieved through about, as we're about halfway through implementation of the, of the women peace and security program with Kairos. The, the women peace and security program is key to ensuring that women have full voice and presence in peace and reconciliation processes. And, and your what you've spoken about this morning is has really underpinned that. I'd like to, I'd like to stay within my time to quickly go to what I, what I heard this morning. And I really think the results can be bundled in three areas from what we heard across the four, the four, the presentations from the, from the four different areas. I would say that the three, the three kind of bundles are number one breaking down barriers. Number two is voice and empowerment, and number three is awareness and action. So, so under breaking down barriers. You know, I was really struck across the board, every, every one of the presentations that we heard talked about, about this aspect of building bridges between, between women and between different government organizations and women's organizations. So, for example, the South Sudan example of, you know, united as women of South Sudan, and the bringing of parliamentarians and, and South Sudanian women together to dialogue how powerful that it that is as an example in Columbia, for example, the better communication with authorities and, and police. And in the DRC, the, the national level awareness of the rights of women and girls and children, and the need to include women and peace building processes. Even in the West Bank, the, the work that's going on, you know, the combined and joined up efforts of working with other with a number of different organizations to solve problems at, in particular, I heard this morning at the community conference, but various kinds of problems, problems are related to, to addressing sexual harassment, but also issues around, around the environment pollution and, and water. So, you know that, you know, the breaking down barriers is a key takeaway for me this morning. The second one being voice and empowerment. And, you know, with a real, you know, you, you so well articulated the, the so what behind training, you talked about the training in human rights and in laws, regarding the protection of women. But how that, how that led to or has led to empowerment, which has increased the participation of women in, in discussions and dialogue on, on the Constitution, for example, in South Sudan. It's increased leadership skills. And it has, it has increased the role of women in peace building, as I mentioned, in the DRC and also political participation in, in the West Bank, so really, that the increased voice, confidence, leadership and empowerment, you know, that big basket of results. And then finally, the awareness and the action and, you know, the, you know, the, you know, I was really struck by, especially the honesty and the, and the gravity of the, the stories that we heard this morning. And stories is too light of a word but about the, the issues around the gender based violence and violence against women and children. The, the barriers to access to education. The issues around, around land rights, for example. But on the other hand, so the awareness and how, and how that voice and empowerment is leading to greater awareness, but also action. And the work that, you know, the participation in campaigns, for example, against gender based violence. The support that's being given to, to address trauma to help to help families and communities and individuals deal with trauma. And the, the psychosocial support that's being provided, and that accompaniment, you know, accompanying individuals and families to address systemic challenges to that will then result in long term change within families and within communities. So, I'll just, I think I probably come to the end of my timeframe, but I really wanted to reflect those, those, those key areas of results and impacts that I, that I heard you talking about this morning in, in, in your presentations. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Carla. And we do look forward to our continued collaboration with GAC. So last but not least, we welcome Juan Facundo, who is among others, Cairo's Atlantic Atlantic region network member. One is currently a student at Mount Allison University, finishing an honest degree in philosophy with a major in politics, philosophy and economics. He's a president of the Amnesty International chapter at Mount Allison, and was awarded the LR Wilson internship this summer, where he worked with the organization Feminina Popular on their first ever crowdfunding campaign to amplify the voices of women in America through their up and coming community radio station. He currently resides in the traditional unceded territory of Volostokinik, and a MiKmak people, and is considering a career in law to fight within the system for a more transparent feminist black indigenous people of color, friendly, the colonial state. Young people are not only uniquely affected by gender based violence, war and conflict, but they're also crucial in affecting positive transformative change based on what you had today. What are your reflections, including perhaps the involvement of youth in the movement against gender based violence and involvement of men at that. Okay, thank you. Well, first, I just want to thank everybody for being here and, you know, everybody that shared their story. It was very powerful. So, yeah, so there's kind of like three, three big branches that I saw throughout the stories as well as Carla. And this kind of this reminded me of a story that of an interview that I heard from from Gloria of the OP, where she talked about like the necessary response to fear, and to kind of patriarchal logic. And this is one of the big themes that I thought I saw throughout all of the stories, which was as soon as there was communication between women, this fear was kind of confronted with solidarity and that way it was surpassed. So that was one of the biggest kind of things that I saw throughout the stories and how communication between women is fostered through the kind of programs at Kairos and global affairs Canada and other other institutions are able to bring forward. And so that's, that's really amazing because if they don't have that avenue, then those kind of conversations aren't aren't able to happen. So there is a there's kind of a change that I saw from an inner trauma that women have. And then that inner trauma being, you know, dealt with through the communication in these in these kinds of workshops and in these kinds of actions between women. And that then led these women to have the courage to deal with their private trauma of gender based violence and change the type of patriarchal logic that that a lot of men have within these communities. And then that in itself then led to kind of a wider public denouncement of, you know, white supremacy, kind of inequalities or structures of power that are that are suppressing women. And so that kind of approach from the grassroots I think it's really important. And, and it starts with, with this kind of empowerment of women, and how does that help, or how can the youth change that I think I think just the examples that they're seeing in their household. And in these networks of care are the, are the kind of important facets of of changing their minds and, and, and, and kind of being a role model to the to to up and coming generations I think that every upcoming generations are very open to this type of change that is happening within women's inner inner psyche and also with with the inner psyche of the society as a whole. And so, yeah, those were the three kind of branches that I saw was communication, the allow the women being allowed to speak to each other and being having those resources, and then the transformation of norms and hierarchies and empowerment of of of a new social order. So, so I think that we just have to be really grateful for these women and the way that they're able to transform societies from even though societies have been suppressing them for so long, and that this fight keeps on going on and and thinking institutions like ours and local affairs Canada to, to facilitate that transformation. Thank you so much one for your service for a different voice in all of this mix we appreciate that you're able to be here with us. So we're heading towards the end of session today, we might go a little bit over the time we might not be able to finish at noon. Because we're running a little bit behind and partners in South Sudan have had to leave. It's heading to 8pm their time, and there might be security reasons because of curfews because of COVID-19 so we do appreciate the South Sudan Council of Church members for being here with us. Unfortunately, they couldn't stay on to the very end. So we are going to hear some closing remarks from our partners. We will invite one representative from each of the organizations to give us their closing remarks. And truly this, this are just a message from them, a message to Canadians and to the Canadian government based on what you have had today, moving forward and what your projections are with this project moving forward. So we'll start with Sylvia Yanis from the OFP. Sylvia, welcome. Hi everyone. On behalf of the OFP, I think today's meeting gave us a greater understanding of all the shared challenges that we have in different organizations around the world. There are many points and aspects that we have in common and helps me have a better understanding about the importance of women's fight for justice and for defending life. For us, it has been very important to make our work visible. And I think everything that has been said today about what we do and the impact that it has on individuals helps it to be more visible. As organizations and as women, our focus on care, on protection and on security, it helps us achieve well-being, a state of well-being where we can protect life. And this is something we can achieve in spite of lockdowns and chaos and pandemic. And even though there are a lot of doubts and uncertainty during this pandemic, we're still hopeful. We're still hopeful to keep moving forward. We're hopeful that we will see progress around the world. And we're very grateful for the help received from Kairos and from the government of Canada. And what stands out the most for me from these gatherings is to see the butterfly effect, how one action and have a small impact in one community. We see it at a local level, but at the same time, it repeats, it replicates, it expands in other places. Places that I've never been to personally, but that feel very close and dear to my heart. This feels like a global home, like a shared land amongst all of us. And therefore, I'm very grateful for Kairos and for the Canadian government. We're grateful to have this opportunity to hear experiences from all over the world. It encourages and motivates our hope and our momentum and our impulse to continue doing the work that we do. Our work has to continue. I'm so sorry, Sylvia, I'm going to have to interrupt you in the interest of time. I'm so sorry, but thank you for your remarks. We will move now to Airtidia de la Justice. Is Gérald or Chantal, who is making a final remarks. And please try to keep it to about a minute each in the interest of time. Okay, I would like to thank Kairos for this occasion. To be able to share with other partners about the change that we're experiencing. And where everyone has the opportunity to share what they have been doing to create impact. And seeing that together we're making a change. We're having an impact on the rights of women. This program of women, peace and security. Thank you to Kairos and the government in Canada. We see that our actions are like snowballs. That they're small and are growing and having greater impact. We are reinforcing the capacity of our beneficiaries and upholding uplifting the rights of women. Thank you to our partners at Kairos, women, peace and security program. And for me, there is no development without peace. We need peace. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good night. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you to Global Affairs. Thank you so much. Right. And now to we all. We welcome Zubi Zubi to make final remarks. Welcome Zubi. Nice to see you. Thank you. It's great seeing you all. Thanks and appreciation for the Canadian people, institutions, Canadian government, churches, as well as Kairos for such continuous support and meaningful partnership. Such a partnership with you has empowered our walk and talk towards empowering women, strengthening gender justice and mainstreaming. Your agape and your sense of justice for the liberation of land and people, your rigorous spirituality and advocacy for the rights of all people, nations and women and girls is an epitome to us and we are. Your unconditional support and love encourage us and for us and foster non-violent struggle all over the world, regardless to faith, nationality, gender and country. Together we work for a mosaic culture, as I see in this gathering in the world as well as to work for diversity in unity as citizens of this global village. As the world marks the International Day for the elimination of violence against women, let us think of the female Palestinian prisoners who are still subjected to cruel and human degrading treatment. Pablo Noredo says, you can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming. Indeed, no one can keep spring from coming. Do you know why? Because Kairos people, the Canadian people, the governments and their partnership all over the world keep watering the roots of the flowers through their agape, empathy and perseverance. This thing will continue to come through you, through your prophetic voice and prophetic action. Thank you. Thank you so much. We always so powerful to hear from you. And now off to our closing, I'm going to invite Rachel Worden who's the partnerships manager at Kairos Canada to do the thank yous and closing. Rachel. Just want to end with a big, big thank you. There isn't time and there aren't words to thank with justice, everybody who participated in the event today. But I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for such an inspiring event today. Thank you to the partners for sharing and the participants for sharing your courage, work of courage and transformation, and for sharing these stories of such inspiration and resilience and tenacity. Thanks to the listening panel for your reflections and your thoughts and your messages of your critical messages of hope. Thanks to Global Affairs for your support and partnership and ongoing partnership in this program to all of you for your support for all the participants and all the audience for your support and your solidarity and donation for the amazing team at Kairos. And there isn't time to name everybody but I want to thank, thank you, Jane for such wonderful moderation. Thank you. Thank you to the partnership team to Gabriella and Jim for bringing the partners together. Thank you for the technology and all the technical support that enabled this to happen to Gabriella again to Giselle, to everybody who's recording it and who had a role in this thank you. And thanks to the translators who allowed us to communicate and to share stories in four languages and to communicate across the world. And thank you, Lee. Thank you so much, Lee, Karen, for for starting us off in in a good way and reminding us of the history of the land and the history of struggle. Before we close with a final video from the South Sudan Council of Churches. I just want to invite Adriana Contreras, our graphic recorder to show us a bit of what she's, how she's depicted our event. Here you can see it. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much, Rachel. Thank you everyone for for taking, well for everything that you share with us today. This image that you see on the screen right now is a summary of some of the final remarks and the what was shared by the listening panel, and two things I want to highlight. That was kind of like a common thread throughout the throughout the session is this idea of planting seeds for change. And it was repeated by Marie Claire, when she said that it takes one seed for the forest to grow. And I was very inspired by a lot of the metaphors that were shared by everyone, looking back at the land, looking back at nature, the butterfly effect, the ripple effects, the snowball, like knowing that that power that comes from the land is being projected through all of us. I also created specific portraits for each of the for each of the partners. So this will be shared with all of you so I won't go through all of them but I'll maybe just give you a sneak peek of each one. So highlighting some of the some of the successes and the power that you that you share with us the strength that has come from from your work this past year or two years. And something that came across in all of your interventions is is the importance of coming together of strengthening the networks of support and something very important that was shared as well is how we will not able to reach peace, or the piece that we desire if our voices are absent. And I think that's the one that that stayed with me the most and and I think the work that is that is being done by everyone here is to ensure that our voices are heard and that we, we can, we can really, we have a, we as women have a lot of wisdom to be heard and it's important that we all have these dark voices. And I will leave it at that thank you again so much for inviting me to be part of this and and I'm leaving this session very inspired and looking forward to learning more about your work. Thank you so much, Diana. Thank you for illustrating and capturing our, our meeting and our work and the work of partners in such a, in such a beautiful and powerful way. And yes that we will be, we will be posting that and illustration and we will also be translating it for for in four languages for for the all the partners. So everybody, that is it thank you for joining us today, we invite the partners who would like to, it's not it's optional partners who'd like to stay for debrief after this meeting. Also any staff Cairo staff who were involved in the planning and execution of today if you want to stay for debrief you are more than welcome, but it's optional will be doing quick, you know, 1015 minute debrief, and everybody else thank you for joining us.