White House Advisor Commends Counterpart’s Garima Project in India
Valerie Jarrett, middle, and to her left, Counterpart Country Director, Tara Sharma, are joined by other women activists.
By Maggie Farrand
Valerie Jarrett, the Senior Advisor to the United States President and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, accompanied President Obama on his trip to Asia this past week, making stops in India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan.
While Obama’s focus was developing trade relations and attending the G20 summit in South Korea, Jarrett used this opportunity to meet with several women’s organizations in Mumbai and New Delhi. At each location, Jarrett led a roundtable discussion with local women’s empowerment experts – social activists, development leaders – on the importance of empowering women as a way to improve their economic prospects and overall well-being.
Tara Sharma, Counterpart International’s Chief of Party for the Garima Project, attended the roundtable in New Delhi and presented the accomplishments of Garima in empowering women to take charge of their safety and health.
“It was wonderful to meet a leader with such great positive thoughts and veracity for the empowerment of women around the world,” Ms. Sharma notes.
Praise for Garima
Jarrett, in her most recent White House blog entry, praised the Garima project for its strides in empowering both women and men, girls and boys, on the issues of gender-based violence and laws in place to protect women’s rights.
Jarrett writes, “[Garima] focuses on Muslim women and gender-based violence from the human rights perspective. The Garima Project also focuses on men and boys as well….A significant part of [Garima’s work] work to eliminate gender-based violence includes raising awareness among doctors providing health services to victims of GBV, as well as targeting the judicial sector with legal awareness programs.”
Counterpart's Garima project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),works to provide institutional support to Indian government agencies and community-based organizations to further strengthen Indian women's ability to proactively fight against gender-based violence; support women's ability to address reproductive health issues more effectively; and to increase women's access to and information about the justice system.
Garima (“dignity” in Hindi) operates in Delhi, Karnataka and Rajasthan. Counterpart implements Garima in partnership with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). The project is Counterpart's first project under the Global Civil Society Strengthening Leader with Associates(LWA).
The full account of Valerie Jarrett’s trip can be found on the White House blog.
November 23rd, 2010 | Tags: | Category:
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