Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM:
.... spectrum of issues affecting widows....include discriminatory land, property and inheritance laws, as well as cultural practices that undermine the basic principles of non-discrimination and equality reflected in international Conventions and agreements adopted by governments worldwide. The continued surge in violent conflicts as well as the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which have led to a dramatic increase in the numbers of widows, further raise the urgency for action.
International Action
Indonesia Photographying Poverty and Exclusion
Information on the work of PEKKA (the Woman-Headed Household Empowerment Program)
PEKKA is the first development project in Indonesia to address the needs of widows and women living in areas of conflict. The group helps women like Sudarmi organize themselves to overcome their isolation, and provides them job training and small-scale loans.
Widowed women living in war-torn regions rank among the poorest of Indonesia ’s 28 million people living in poverty. In a number of villages in Aceh, for example, 40 percent of the households living on less than $1 a day are headed by a woman. When a husband dies, families often plunge into a cycle of poverty that can last for generations. Children are often pulled from school to help support the family. Impoverished households must sell whatever meager assets they hold.
It is part of Indonesia ’s Kecamatan Development Project, a World Bank-funded program that allows communities to choose and help implement future development projects in their region. It is one of the largest community development programs in the world.