Summer Issue 2006

Issue 2, 2003

There are many people all around the world who make huge contributions to mankind just by the positions and decisions they have taken and their subsequent actions. Their great strength and dedication is enormously influential and it is a source of inspiration. The saying ‘Improve the world, but begin with yourself,' is still as valid and powerful today as it ever was.Human beings’ belief and spirit can move mountains.

Illustrative of this are the remarkable stories of two young women, who from their conviction and belief, managed to cause changes, often against all the odds. It is clear that women have a great deal to contribute to the world.

YOUNG WOMEN WITH A SPECIAL MISSION

Severn Cullis-Suzuki: Be the Change

When Severn was nine years old, she and her sister went on a visit with their parents to a friend, a leader of the Kayapo tribe in Aucre, South Para, Brazil. They spent two amazing weeks in the tribes village in the middle of the rainforest. On her way home Severn looked down from the aeroplane and saw that a part of the forest was on fire.

“The experience of being immersed in such an amazing world and then witnessing its destruction changed my life. I had to do something. When I got back to Canada, I started ECO, the Environmental Children’s Organisation, with my friends”.

When Severn was twelve years old, she and three Vancouver schoolmates raised money to go to the Rio Earth Summit. Her speech to delegates had such an impact, that she became a frequent invitee to United Nations conferences. She is now 22 years old, with a degree in biology from Yale University and she was part of the Kofi Annan’s World Summit advisory panel in Johannesburg.

In 2001, a university gave me a research grant to do biology fieldwork. I decided to do research in the Amazon, and found that there was a research station very near the same village of Aucre. So twelve years after my first trip, I returned.

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According to Severn it is not difficult to believe that you can change the world when you are young. In her speech for the Rio Earth Summit she said: “I am only a child, yet I know that if all the money spent on war, was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this world would be. In school you teach us not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share, to not be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do? You grown-ups say you love us, but I challenge you, please, to make your actions reflect your words”. She spoke for 6 minutes and received a standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. At that moment she felt that her speech had reached people and that it might actually spur action. Since this time there have been some small improvements, but no big changes.

Severn says, “As this 21st century begins, my twenty-something generation is becoming increasingly disconnected from the natural world. We buy our drinking water in bottles. We eat genetically modified food and we drive the biggest cars. At the same time, we are a generation aware of the world, of poverty and social imbalance, the loss of bio-diversity, climate change and the consequences of globalisation. However many of us feel we have inherited problems too great to do anything about. When I was little, the world was simple. But as a young adult, I’m learning that as we have to make choices - education, career, lifestyle - life gets more and more complicated. We are beginning to feel the pressure to produce and be successful. We are learning a short-sighted way of looking at the future, focusing on four-year government terms and quarterly business reports. We are taught that economic growth is progress, but we aren’t taught how to pursue a happy, healthy or sustainable way of living. And we are learning that what we wanted for our future when we were twelve years old, was idealistic and naïve”.

What Severn’s mission now?

“It is my mission to ask people the question: What kind of future do we want?

It is my mission to remind people that it is the finite resources of the planet that feeds us and keeps us alive, not the economy. I ask people to make connections between their individual lives and the local and globalised world around them, to realise that each of our actions have consequences, and to realise that we have to take
responsibility.

It is my mission to ask people to THINK about what is really important to them! In North America, it is very hard to live in line with your ideals. We have to really ask what our values are, and why they are.

It is my mission to empower people to realise that we are the ones who control our future; we must reclaim that power.

It is my mission to make people realise that as a human society we have to progress and evolve beyond our current want? destruction of the resources that keep us alive”.

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What do you want to achieve in the coming 5 years?

“I want to gain experience and understanding of British Columbia’s wilderness and am currently training to be a River Rafting Guide this summer so that I can work in Northern BC. In the next few years I want to find a Masters or PhD program in Ethnobotany that enables me to explore the interface between biology and anthropology, between science and indigenous knowledge, between environment and the formation of culture. I want to be working on a project that gives value and benefit to the knowledge of Indigenous people and I would like to spend time with the wonderful women that I know in the First Nations villages of BC, or with the Kayapo, in Southern Brazil”.

“I’ll also continue working with my think tank, the Skyfish Project; its beginnings look promising! Before graduating I worked with the Yale Student Environmental Coalition to draft a pledge for young people to sign. We called it the ‘Recognition of Responsibility.’ The pledge is a commitment from our generation to be accountable and is a challenge to our elders to help us achieve this goal and to lead by example. It includes a list of ways to live more sustainably by doing simple but fundamental things like, reducing household garbage, consuming less, not relying on cars so much, eating locally grown food and most importantly, getting out into nature. (For more information go to www.skyfishproject.org)”.

Do you see a particular role for women to fulfil to achieve change in our world today?

"If you are a woman, you have a stake in the future. Women are the childbearers. Women are also the community builders of society. Women are the caregivers. Women are the peacemakers. Women are
the problem solvers. Women know that for the sake of their children, they must work today for the future. Men know this too, but with women I think that it’s much closer to the surface. Women know that if you want something, it won’t just come to you, you have to take a stand. I think women can play a huge role in returning people to what’s important, for the health of future generations”.

Lastly

“In the ten years since Rio, I have learned that addressing our leaders is not enough. As Gandhi said many years ago, "We must become the change we want to see." I know change is possible, because I am changing, still figuring out what I think. I am still deciding how to live my life. The challenges are great, but if we accept individual responsibility and make sustainable choices, we will rise to these challenges, and we will become part of the positive tide of change”.

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Perivan Kum: “When the situation of women improves, society improves”

Perivan Kum is 23 year old, a Turkish Kurdish woman studying in Istanbul to become a teacher. Two years ago she established an organisation called, Katagi which tries to improve the situation of Turkish, Kurdish, Turkmenian and Armenian women. She recently organised a march for women across Turkey, to focus public attention on the issues that are important to them. Perivan sees a crucial role for women in helping to engender stability and understanding in the world and between different races. Women from many different ethnic backgrounds get together and are often amazed when they hear each other’s stories.

Perivan says that, “in the West of Turkey for example, people have no idea what happened to the Kurdish people in the East. In the war against the Kurds, 3,000 villages have been destroyed and the soldiers raped many women. Also our own surveys show that sexual violence within Turkish families takes place on a large scale, but it is rarely talked about. Women need to feel safe to break these taboos in order to bring a stop to this”. ‘More knowledge leads to more understanding and solidarity,’ is her motto.

Two years ago, when Katagi heard about an upsurge of suicides amongst young women in the small Kurdish village Batman, they decided to investigate. In just three short months, more than a hundred women had committed suicide. A group of women from Katagi discovered that suicide was the only escape route available for these women.

Perivan explains. “The war which has raged in the East of Turkey over a long time has broken the spirit of many women. Like in every war, these women become victims of sexual violence. They were not only raped by the soldiers, but were also ‘offered’ as trophies by their own families. Rape and incest within their own family is also quite widespread. When they go out, (if their husbands let them,) they also run into prejudice because they are Kurdish”. Katagi contacted gynaecologists, psychologists and the local authorities and managed to establish a Centre for Women in Batman as an alternative for these desperate women and where they could receive
much needed help.

What is Perivan’s mission?

“ Until I went to elementary school, I was not aware that as a Kurdish girl, I was‘ different.’ Teachers made a clear distinction between Turkish and Kurdish students. I wanted to do something about this disparity and visited many organisations, looking for one I could join. They all told me that they first had to find me a husband before I could become a member. In Turkey what a woman thinks or wants is not considered important. You have no identity; you are only ‘the daughter of’ or ‘the wife of’. This was how I was raised, so there was no option left but to start my own organisation. Its aims are to improve the circumstances of all women, because, when the situation of women improves, society improves”.

Sources:
Time Magazine, Sept. 2002, The Young Can’t Wait
Volkskrant, 27 Jan. 2003, Passanten