Our work focuses on amplifying the voices of marginalized women in rural and urban areas.
We work with communities to facilitate transformative and sustainable change. We seek to address the systemic and structural barriers that continue to perpetuate gender inequality and discrimination. We collaborate with survivors and collaborate with other organizations to strengthen movement building.
WCK fully endorses the mantra “It’s not feminism if it’s not intersectional.” We recognize that systems of oppression impact people differently based on their social economic status, race, class, (dis)ability, sexuality, and other characteristics.
WCK is actively committed to struggling against socio-economic/structural violence, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, especially among women informal settlements and rural areas.
WCKs understanding of feminist intersectionality is informed by the simultaneous experiences and intersectional identities and realities of these women. We seek to identify and address the source of discrimination and structural and behavioral violence. Our feminist intersectionality approach supersedes individuals and identities, focusing on power relations, dynamics and impacts
Movement Building on Reproductive Justice
Through this strategy WCK intends to facilitate an organic, holistic and inclusive grassroots reproductive justice movement. This entails approaching at Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights (SHRH) from a movement building and social justice framework. We seek to link individual rights to an inclusive vision of better lives for women and sustainable communities.
We bring various constituencies who are marginalized and vulnerable, mostly rural women and women in informal settlements eg survivors or at risk from unsafe abortions, sex workers, teens and adolescents. We look at reproductive oppression holistically including not only lack of safe abortion access and post abortion care but also access to contraception, comprehensive sex education, safe homes and domestic violence assistance.
Women’s reproductive and sexual health is critical to the realization and enjoyment of other rights such as right to life and health. Yet due to societal norms and attitudes, as well as a restrictive policy, legal and medical environment many women who undergo unsafe abortions, or even miscarriages do not have access to proper Post Abortion Care (PAC). Reducing maternal morbidity and mortality arising from unsafe abortion is a priority in improving access to health by women and promotion of sexual and reproductive health. Further, women who undergo unsafe abortions are at risk of discrimination, shaming and prosecution.
Safe abortion and Post Abortion care will also reduce the burden on the health system. Many of the current efforts to address unsafe abortion has focused on national level policy, legal and medical frameworks but little on grassroots-based efforts. Most women who undergo unsafe abortions are poor women in rural and urban counties, who often have no voice in ongoing discussions. It is thus important that this important perspective be added to this ongoing discourse.
WCK seeks to raise the voices of low-income young women, girls and adolescents, sex workers, and queer people around their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Although these demographics are disproportionately affected by laws and policies about access to health care, reproductive choices, and sexuality education, their voices, perspectives and interests are rarely heard.
Initiatives
Campaign on Safe and Legal Abortion Access: The action will target those whose voice are missing from the reproductive justice discourse mainly low-income women and girls in informal settlements.
Reproductive Justice Watch Coalition: Working collaboratively on action with other grassroots actors, we seek to promote reproductive justice though advocacy, policy and lobbying
Stakeholder and Allies Engagements: This entails conversations and other engagements with key stakeholders in SHRH including leaders of sex worker organizations, youth and teenage groups, local Queer formations, local clergy and community health workers in order to persuade and influence them to engage in the reproductive justice agenda with a focus on safe abortion
Grassroots Reproductive Justice Advocacy: This involves an advocacy campaign deploying progressive, effective and impactful messaging to change and positively influence the conversation on safe abortion access, decriminalization and stigma. Specifically, production of IEC materials, online messaging and media engagement will be undertaken.
Mentoring Grassroots Reproductive Justice Advocates: A number of potential mentees will be identified from the various formations/allies and taken through a comprehensive process of mentorship over a period of one year. The action will equip them with knowledge, skills and well as inculcating values that will be useful in building grassroots movements and formations on reproductive justice and radical feminist theory and practice.
Community Protection of Civic Space: This will involve strategizing and conversations on local methods of protection of civic actors and organization against attacks, threats and incidents, as well as case referrals to existing protection mechanisms for reproductive justice actors at risk and monitoring of risks, threats and opposition.
Ecological and Climate Justice
There are increasing calls for more locally led climate actions. This is informed by the evidence that local decision making and financing is key to addressing climate change and economic (in)justice. Community level resilience and adaption are critical to empowering communities to shape, manage and implement a climate risk and disaster agenda that is sustainable, scalable and long term. Building local level resilience requires an inclusive, gender responsive and intersectional approach.
Women in particular face higher and greater risks from the impacts of climate change due to existing poverty and inequalities, discriminatory laws and policies, as well as social and cultural norms. WCK seeks to bring an intersectional approach that analyses the unequal power relations particularly on gender, sex and social status. We leverage grassroot actions for advocacy on addressing the gender differentiated impacts of climate change and on the appropriate mitigation and adaption approaches. Our actions feed into local/county policy, legislative and regulatory processes with a view to making them more gender responsive