Vegetable gardens bring veritable gains for women in climate-struck Cambodia

Date: Friday, December 6, 2019

On the road winding into Chreng village in Cambodia’s Pursat province, a group of boys are playing volleyball on an arid plot of land as villagers watch and cheer. Around the corner, 24-year-old Lang Sokang is knee-deep in mulch, unearthing weeds and planting herbs in her garden. Her younger sisters are perched precariously on a wooden platform that serves as a makeshift greenhouse. The girls are carefully transplanting the saplings into little organic cups. In two weeks, the saplings will be ready to be planted in the ground. The sisters tend to the garden after returning from the rice fields in the morning. While they work steadily, a group of men from the village are drinking nearby in merry revelry.

Asia-Pacific countries adopt declaration to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment

Date: Friday, November 29, 2019

Ministers and high-level officials from 45 countries in the Asia-Pacific region have committed to intensify priority actions towards realizing women’s rights and fundamental freedoms for an equal future. The Asia-Pacific Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Beijing+25 Review was adopted after intense negotiations at a three-day Ministerial Conference, organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific this week.

EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN Journeys out of the Ordinary

Date: Thursday, November 28, 2019

In the exhibition, women migrant workers from Indonesia, Myanmar and Philippines share the coping mechanisms they developed to adapt to their new cultural environments and how they overcome the barriers and challenges they encountered during the migration experience. They also send clear and powerful messages addressed to the future generation of women, to their employers or to duty bearers to ensure that violence against women migrant workers is addressed and this shows the need to strengthen labour migration governance and changing social norms perpetuating violence against women migrant workers.

Equality beyond reach for many women and girls in Asia-Pacific UN Ministerial Conference opens with urgent call for change to make gender equality a reality

Date: Thursday, November 28, 2019

Over 500 Ministers, senior policymakers, UN officials, civil society, youth and private sector representatives from across Asia and the Pacific region today gathered in Bangkok to chart out priority actions to support accelerated progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment. The three-day Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review, organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and UN Women

Journeys out of the Ordinary | Bunga

Date: Tuesday, November 26, 2019

I first decided to go abroad to work because I was separated from my husband and wanted to support my mother, my siblings and my young son. I found a job announcement on Facebook for work overseas as a waitress in Malaysia, and I contacted the person who placed the announcement. The job looked legitimate. There were administrative requirements and procedures, and I had to provide certificates and even a sponsor letter from the head of my village. I was told that I could go in two months.

Journeys out of the Ordinary | Yati

Date: Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Before I migrated, my husband gambled, and we were in debt because of it. People kept saying that I could earn a lot by working abroad, and they encouraged me to go. I thought maybe it could solve all our problems. My daughter was four at the time. I worked as a domestic worker in Malaysia, imagining that I would earn a good sum of money and build a house back home. I thought, “I'll have a good employer who will treat me well”.

Journeys out of the Ordinary | Jejen

Date: Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Like many other women migrant workers, family was my motivation to migrate. My husband had no regular income and was not paid well enough to support our two children, my sisters and our sick father. I migrated to Qatar to work as a domestic worker. When I first arrived in Qatar, I felt like I was walking into darkness. I also thought that that was normal, however, and it was okay to feel that way.

Journeys out of the Ordinary | Namwaan

Date: Tuesday, November 26, 2019

I left Myanmar to go to Thailand 16 years ago because I wanted to have a better job and better wages. I could do many tasks, but there was no job in my village in Kayin State that provided enough income for me to support my family. At the time, information about migration was not as easy to find as it is today, especially in my small village.

Journeys out of the Ordinary | Ida

Date: Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Like most people, earning money was my motivation to go work overseas. My first job was in Malaysia and it was not a good experience, but I lasted three years with the same employer. The second time I left was for different reasons. My husband had been unfaithful, and when I confronted him, he beat me. We divorced and he took my children from me. I thought my life couldn’t get any worse, but then my husband’s best friend raped me. I didn’t report it because I knew I would be the one who was judged.

Journeys out of the Ordinary | Nurhayati

Date: Tuesday, November 26, 2019

I was the first person in my family to go and work abroad and I was excited and eager to help my parents build a house with the money. I went to Saudi Arabia in 2003 and worked there for three years as a domestic worker. My employers were kind to me, but after a year the younger brother of the employer came home from college, and he started to harass me and touch me. And then he raped me. I told my employers, but they didn’t believe me. And I couldn’t leave because they had...