I rummage around in the garage and find an old blanket box. I open it, and inside is a treasure trove of images and objects that represent the life of my great grandmother Nora Bletchington.

Several images depict a beautiful young woman standing in the searing Australian sun, dressed in the long heavily corseted outfits of the early nineteenth century. The children are held tightly by a servant girl wearing a mop cap and apron. My Great Aunt proudly tells me that Nora was a suffragette and that she was strident in her desire for women to have the vote.

When I visit her gravesite at Waverly cemetery I find many neighboring headstones bearing the names of babies, infants and young women in the prime of their life. It causes me to think: “how hard and uncomfortable life must have been for women born in these early times.”

Women such as my Great Grandmother did not have equal rights and were discriminated against. Our history books are full of the tales of poor working conditions and wages for women, limited education and employment opportunities. Greater vulnerability to abuse, and sexual exploitation were also common predicaments. Today certainly things have changed for the better. But for many young women in our world, particularly in the developing world, the situation is still bleak for millions of girls?

Through our reading of the Gospel, our understanding of Catholic Social teaching, international legal instruments or our own awareness of what is right and wrong, we recognize that everyone has human rights. Similarly we have a duty to ensure that these rights are upheld, so we can truly respect the life and dignity of all humans.

Human rights include not only our right to food, water and shelter but also our right to participate fully in the economic, social, cultural and political life of our community free from torture, slavery, and discrimination on the basis of race, sex, age, colour, or language.

Unfortunately despite our struggles for women’s rights, discrimination of women and girls remains deeply entrenched. For many, this abuse of human rights begins from the time they are conceived.

Pregnancies are terminated on the grounds of gender, with boy children favoured above girls. In many communities girls are seen as a financial burden as they will ultimately leave the home to join their husband’s family. Estimates of the number of “missing girls” and women due to female foeticide practices vary, but some are as high as 100 million.

In the home, girls are often undervalued and treated as inferior to their male siblings. They may receive less nutritious food or care, and be allocated heavy domestic duties from a very early age. They may be required to walk long distances to fetch and carry water, cook, clean work in the fields and look after younger siblings from morning to night.

Rebecca, a young woman from Tanzania told me that boys and men will carry water and firewood, only when an income can be generated from such activities. It is seen as the man’s role to earn an income, not a girl’s, with domestic duties being viewed as inferior to the “real” work undertaken by men.

Girls may also be forced to marry and have children at a young age. It is estimated that over 80 million girls in developing countries will be married before their eighteenth birthday.

They may also be vulnerable to physical, emotional and sexual abuse. If you are disabled you are particularly vulnerable to abuse or neglect. Children with a disability are often hidden away behind closed doors, experiencing several layers of discrimination. Mary from Kenya suffered polio at the age of 10, and is permanently paralysed from the waist down. Her mother could not afford to buy her a wheelchair, so she would spend entire days in bed lying in urine soaked sheets suffering terrible bed sores.

Recognising her level of disability as well as her level of ability workers from Pendekezo Letu, one of Caritas Australia’s partners, provided her with access to medical treatment and rehabilitation. With improved health and a greater level of independence and support from Pendekezo Leto Mary was able to gain an education. When she graduated in 2003, Pendekezo Letu provided Mary with a business loan, so she could buy a knitting machine and wool. Today her business is prospering.

In the face of abuse and discrimination girls are less likely to go to school than boys and are more likely to be illiterate or innumerate than boys when they grow up. Without education women have far less of an opportunity to earn an income, avoid HIV/AIDS, access the legal system, or raise healthy children, there being a strong correlation between under five mortality rates and the education of the mother. Women, especially young women are more likely to be unaware of their rights and thus unable to stand up for them.

Given all of these circumstances it is also not surprising that women make up 70 percent of the world’s poorest people, with poverty itself making them more vulnerable. In families who are desperately poor the only option may be for a girl, as young as 10 or 12 to leave her village and try to find a job in a bigger town or city. Desperate and alone a young girl will trust anyone who offers to give her a lift and a promise of employment. Unfortunately the promise is often hollow and results in sexual exploitation and trafficking of women.

In an environment of poverty mothers may be malnourished lack access to health clinics or hospitals and give birth in unhygienic surroundings. In such circumstances not only is the life of the newborn at risk but also that of the mother.

Other cultural and traditional practices which perpetuate a violation of human rights abuses against women and girls include such practices as widow inheritance and Female Genital Mutilation.

Widow inheritance occurs in situations where a family may have paid a bridal dowry for a woman to marry one of their sons. If this son dies, in order to avoid having to pay another dowry a younger or older son may “inherit” the widow as their wife. In such cases the woman is treated as a possession with no power to object. Female Genital Mutilation (or Female circumcision as it is more commonly known) has been outlawed in many countries but continues to affect an estimated 2 million girls ach year. Waris Dirie in her beautiful book “Desert Flower” poignantly describes the lifelong humiliation and pain that she has experienced as a victim of this practice. Instead of hiding away Waris has chosen to speak out, bringing this shameful practice to the attention of the world.

All of these risks to women are increased in time of war and disaster.

As I write about these circumstances that are affecting women and girls around the world every day I am almost overwhelmed by the enormity of the task we face in eliminating such discrimination and abuse, but at the same time I am uplifted by stories of hope that things can change, just as they did from my grandmother’s day.

This week in our Project Compassion Lenten Appeal we visit Korogocho slum, in Nairobi, Kenya, where Caritas Australia is working together with Pendekezo Letu to support a rehabilitation program for girls and families. There we'll meet Monicah Kavenge who left a home life of violence and abuse and was provided with the opportunity to study and plan a different sort of future for herself. Her story illustrates many aspects of abuse and discrimination that we have discussed above. But it also offers hope that when we create an environment where someone can heal, and create and maximise opportunities for young women and girls to speak out on their own behalf and participate in decision-making that affects their own development, they can begin to overcome discrimination and adversity.

To read Monicah’s story go to www.caritas.org.au.

If we are to act as role models for our sisters, daughters, grand daughters we must not look away. We must stand up for the rights of all women around the world. And men have an important role to play here as well.

In Australia we must ask ourselves how are women and children affected by the decisions I make and the social structures I uphold? We can lobby our government to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, six of which directly affect women and girls, and we can support projects which directly affect women and children who experience discrimination and abuse.

Anna Orchard
Communications Officer, Caritas Australia