Advancement of Women Halton (AWH) is using every avenue available to advocate for women’s issues — at home and abroad.
The AWH is dedicated to developing and implementing strategies to make gender equality a reality.
The steering committee met recently at the offices of SAVIS (Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Service), a member agency.
The group is comprised of 25 local women’s organizations that joined together in 2008 to form a “critical mass” of women to put pressure on decision-makers.
“We keep reminding them, ‘Have you looked at this from a woman’s point of view,’” said Tina Agrell, a representative with Reclaim Our Democratic Canada (RODC). “They get a bit irritated with us, but we keep on doing it.”
Among the activists at the table was former Oakville MP Bonnie Brown. She explained the need for the group was realized in 2007, when she was still in office.
Brown said once a year, she would invite the heads of all the local women’s groups to a round table meeting so she could keep her “finger on the pulse” of women’s issues in Halton, and take the information back to Ottawa.
“What happened was, a lot of [the groups] who were struggling alone were absolutely thrilled to find out that there were other people who were nearby interested in the same things and working on similar projects,” said Brown.
“I was thrilled to get the information to take back to Ottawa, but they were more thrilled to encounter a support group,” she added.
The AWH, a non-partisan organization, was founded in January 2008.
According to Teri Shaw, its steering committee chair, key issues currently on the radar include democracy, poverty, childcare, violence against women and pay equity.
“Women’s issues are all issues and all issues are women’s issues,” Shaw said.
While the AWH fights for women here in the community, it is also vocal on the international and national stage.
It has been backing one of its member organizations, Grandmothers Advocacy Network (GRAN) Oakville, advocating sending drugs to Africa to treat HIV/AIDS and malaria.
It has also been monitoring the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union, which its members say could have a profound impact on local governments.
Nationally, the AWH has focused on missing and murdered aboriginal women, pushing for lawmakers to call an inquest.
With respect to government partnership, the AWH members were critical of the federal government for not supporting women’s issues and more enthused about provincial support.
“You can’t imagine the brainpower in the room when we have our meeting,” said Ancilla Ho-Young, coordinator of the Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence Care Centre at Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital. “All the women are so knowledgeable and so involved and so engaged. I learn so much.”
“Our main problem is trying to decide what to push on because any month when we have a meeting we could have 10 issues,” said Brown. “We have to decide, are we going to have an impact here or are we going to be spinning our wheels.”
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http://www.insidehalton.com/community-story/5608844-advancement-of-women-halton-is-leveraging-power-of-numbers-for-women/