Shadhika

The Time to Act is Now

By My Lo Cook, Executive Director

October 1, 2021

Reading Time: 4 minutes

The world is on fire. Quite literally. And everywhere, those fires – literal and otherwise – are particularly punishing for those who have the least, especially women and children.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is classifying the state of the Earth’s climate system as “code red”, warning of irreversible effects on human security, including quality of life and food systems. The UN estimates that 80% of those impacted by climate change are women, as caregivers and providers for their families.

The COVID-19 pandemic has killed over 4.7 million people globally. The World Health Organization warns of the inequity of current vaccine distribution efforts and urges vaccination campaigns to ensure equal education and access to women and other gender-diverse populations.

The global refugee crisis is at its worst in human history with more than 80 million people displaced worldwide, a staggering number that more than doubled over the last decade. Women and children are bearing the brunt of the widespread violence in these precarious conditions.

And here, in the U.S., a person’s right to choose their family planning method is being effectively challenged with over 500 anti-abortion bills introduced nationwide and 90 “heartbeat” state laws passed in 2021. Poor women of color are disproportionately penalized by these abortion restricting laws.

The world is on fire and there is urgency to respond forcefully so the inequities exposed by these crises do not deepen further.

In a recent symposium of international grantmakers, the most poignant moment involved a call to action to ignore gradualism. The order was to reject the idea that meaningful change is the result of gradual reform because it implies a position of power.

When you are not suffering, you have the privilege of time to wait for incremental change.

When you are suffering, you cannot wait. 

At Shadhika, we know that people hold the power that can be harnessed for change. We feel that same urgency in the stories we hear and tell, and the partners and the Scholars are taking the reins to respond with purpose and intensity. 

With the support of Posner’s International Collaboration Fund, Shadhika Scholar Saba Rehmani is educating herself about the immediate impact of climate change on girls’ rights. In just a few months, Saba has found power in knowledge and produced a video to inform her community about the risks of water shortage.

In collaboration with Direct Action for Women Now, Shadhika is supporting Asian Bridge India and Gramin Purnirman Samiti to vaccinate nearly 3,000 people in rural villages in Uttar Pradesh, prioritizing women in their campaign efforts through local health camps.

At the virtual 2021 Leaders for Change Summit, Shadhika Scholars and Alum led sessions on advocacy and how to leverage their individual power for collective action, rather than wait for others to act.

As we support partners and Scholars in their response to immediate crises in their communities, in parallel, Shadhika staff and board have embarked on a strategic planning process to re-imagine how to do our work with more purpose and intensity so we can rise to the occasion. 

The world is on fire and we cannot afford to pull punches in our pursuit of justice for gender and, thereby, risk the rollback of modern feminist victories. Neither can we allow ourselves to become new gatekeepers over the course of our power shifting mission. As Women’s Funding Network CEO Elizabeth Barajas-Roman says: “In our move forward, we want to go far, we want to go fast – and this time, we won’t leave anyone behind.” 

The time to act is now and it is time we make good on this promise.

Help us make good on that promise with a donation to our FundHer circle.

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