Women with no fear

MANILA, Philippines — For almost a century, Zonta International quietly worked in uplifting the status of women by providing assistance like scholarships and healthcare, fighting for leadership positions in the workplace and in politics, to achieve its goal of a “world free of violence against women.”

To date, 30,000 accomplished women from 1,200 Zonta clubs in 63 countries, including the Philippines, continue to devote their time, talents and resources to activities that advance women’s rights in male-dominated societies.

“Our vision is a world free of violence for women, a world in which no women fear violence, this is (our) ultimate goal,” says Susanne von Bassewitz, incoming president of Zonta International and Zonta International Foundation.

Bassewitz flew in from Germany to attend the 19th Zonta International District 17 Conference at the New World Hotel in Makati City the other week.

Zontians from District 17, which is composed of 51 clubs from the Philippines and 25 clubs from Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, participated in the conference.

Zontians also believe educating women is good for the economy, Bassewitz says.

“Education will raise the status of women. Give her more choices in the world, make her more healthy, make her family more healthy, make her self-sufficient. In other words, education is the key,” she says.

Since 1919, Zonta International has supported international service projects that seek to improve the legal, political, economic, educational, health and professional status of women around the world, including, among others, preventing the practice of female genital circumcision, preventing violence against women, eliminating maternal and neonatal tetanus, preventing human trafficking, reducing obstetric fistula and preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

In June 1952,  the Zonta Club of Manila 1 was chartered, making the Philippines the 12th country to become part of the Zonta organization.

In 1969, Zonta International was granted by the United Nations the General Consultative Status, the highest status a non-government organization can have at the UN.

Zonta International has spent roughly $33 million on projects across the globe, serving more than two million women, according to Bassewitz.

Much more has been spent by the members locally or donated to local projects by the members of its 1,200 clubs, she adds.

“So these figures alone plus the advocacy status (from the UN) we achieved can be considered as a success,” she says.

District 17 governor Primitiva Perez-Sison believes the best way to end violence against women is to make them economically empowered.

“In the Philippines, we have found out that there are so many abused women who just keep quiet because they are afraid not to be able to fend for or support the family in terms of money and education. So when we learned about it we gave them the tool to be able to be economically empowered. We teach them livelihood projects and I believe that we have helped so many communities with our haircutting, cooking, bag making, rug making and so on and so forth,” Sison says.

District 17 is the biggest district in Zonta International.

“For married women, for example, we give them the tool to be able to speak out and know their rights. But it does not end there because we give them legal assistance as well,” Sison says.

Zontians also teach women, especially those who live in slum areas, how to adapt to impacts of climate change, says Imelda Gomez, co-chair of the Zonta International Service Committee.

She says mothers, for instance, are taught about practical tips to prevent dengue by simply keeping their surroundings clean.

Endowment fund

District 17 is planning to put up an endowment fund to ensure all its projects will be implemented.

The endowment fund is a project of Zonta International Foundation, Sison says.

“Normally, Zonta International Foundation raises money of around $5 to $6 million to support our Zonta International projects. We would like to at least make sure that the future programs and projects of Zonta International would not stop, especially the scholarships,” she says.

Zontians are encouraged to donate to the endowment project.

“Our target is to raise some $15 to $20 million by year 2020 to sustain all the projects of Zonta on a yearly basis without really necessarily raising funds every year,” she says.

Young Zontians

Zonta’s initiatives have inspired young women, including Sison’s 35-year-old daughter Dianne.

Dianne is the incoming president of Zonta e-Club Philippines, the first Zonta electronic club in Asia.

“I joined Zonta mainly because I grew up with Zontians. When I was in elementary I used to go with my mom to some Zonta events and I met the kind of people that surrounded her and I saw the woman my mom became,” she says.

The Zonta e-Club Philippines was chartered in 2015.

“As a new club we are encouraged to have our own advocacies and projects. Zonta is very much rooted in empowering women through service and advocacy. So one of our service and advocacy projects is the ‘no to violence against women’. We did a 16-day advocacy campaign through a photo campaign in social media,” Dianne says.

Rita Dy, president of Zonta Club of Makati Ayala, says Zonta is not purely social events.

“Our work is to help all the women in the world, those who cannot help themselves,” says the former airline sales and marketing manager.

For the past 98 years, Zonta worked hard with the UN Commission on the Status of Women for Sustainable Goal No. 5, which is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Bassewitz noted that 19 countries in the world are currently led by women, including her country, Germany.

Globally, women’s participation in parliament is 23.4 percent in 2017, 10 percent higher than in 2000, she says.

She also cited Helvi Sipila, a promoter of women’s rights, as the first woman to hold the rank of assistant secretary-general at the UN. When Sipila was appointed in 1972, 97 percent of the UN senior management was male, Bassewitz says.

She also noted significant reduction in the cases of female genital mutilation and early marriage between 2000 and 2015.

In terms of legislation, she says the world’s most comprehensive framework to combat violence against women was signed in Istanbul, Turkey in 2011.

“These could be seen as fast but it clearly says it’s far from being enough. When we think of early marriages, one in four girls in the survey countries is still one too many, and in fact the figure 23.4 percent of women representation in parliaments suggests stronger political commitment to boost women political participation, the 15 to 30 percent management position shows that women are still largely underrepresented in the leadership of companies,” Bassewitz says.

“There’s still a long way to go. Hopefully, not another 100 years,” she says.