Caring for the needy with a focus on women, children

She is one of the main faces behind the success of CARE Regional office in Dubai. Associated with 'CARE', a not-for-profit organisation for more than four years, Maya Lahham, regional director of Gulf Partnerships at the organisation, was inspired to join it because of its commitment to end poverty by focusing on women and children.
She has been in the UAE for almost 10 years and before joining CARE, Maya worked for the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children. She has also worked for United Way Bay Area/ Silicon Valley as a public policy director and she is the founder of Spark, a non-profit organisation in San Francisco, focused on building a community of young, global citizens investing in grassroots women's organisations.
"CARE believes women and girls aren't just the faces of the poverty; they're also the key to overcoming it. This really resonated with me as I believe women and girls too often bear the burden of poverty and yet they are the catalyst for positive change whose success benefits everyone around them. Before joining CARE, I worked at the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children, the first non-profit shelter for women and children, who are survivors of child abuse, domestic violence and human trafficking in the UAE," noted Maya.
"With more than 15 years experience in non-profit organisation work, my biggest accomplishment is founding Spark, which aims to increase investments in women's organisations around the world and to increase the number of young people who contribute to women's causes now and in the long-term. Spark is now the largest network of Millennial philanthropists in the world with over $1.5 million in small grants and services to 150 grassroots women organisations globally."
Giving back to society
According to Maya, her father has always been civic-minded and his commitment to the community actually taught her to help others.  During her childhood, she not only learnt the lessons of giving but actually started practising it. It has given her strength and direction to work for the noble causes in her life. It gives her immense pleasure and satisfaction in working towards the betterment of the society and the community.
"The Year of Giving is a remarkable initiative that truly reflects the identity of the UAE in its generosity and concern for humanitarian relief across the globe. I believe the initiative will also bring together private sector, public sector and civil society organisations in an unprecedented way."
Initiatives in the Middle East
"In the world's poorest communities, girls and women bear the brunt of poverty. Unfortunately, women and girls make up the majority of the 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty. Fighting poverty in those communities requires focusing on girls and women. At CARE, we are committed to ending poverty - by attacking its root causes, not only its consequences. In practice, this means that we can't just build a school - we must ensure girls' rights to education," said Maya.
"When families struggle to grow enough food to eat, or earn enough money to send all their kids to school, it's the girls who are often the last to eat and first to be kept home from school. In these communities, it's the women who are frequently denied the right to own the land they've farmed their entire lives. And where girls and women are denied freedom to leave their homes or walk down a street, they struggle to earn a living, attend school or even visit a doctor. CARE's seven decades of experience makes clear that when you empower a girl or a woman, she becomes a catalyst for positive change whose success benefits everyone around her."
Helping refugees
Maya said CARE works to raise awareness about sexual exploitation and other forms of gender-based violence to protect refugees from any and all forms of abuse. Through psychosocial programmes, the organisation is assisting Syrian refugee women, men and children in coping with their experiences of war, violence, flight and the loss of family and friends. CARE offers psychosocial support groups, various recreational activities and also provides individual psychological counselling.
Psychosocial sessions are focused on trying to find solutions, developing problem solving skills and stress relief techniques, identifying the source of the pain and trying to ease it. Women can talk freely about their challenges in the new environment, threats they are facing and about the difficulties of bringing up their children while on the run. The groups offer them a safe space for them to talk about their sorrow and violence they have been or still are experiencing.
Gender-based violence
According to her, gender-based violence (GBV) is both a cause and a consequence of poverty and gender inequality. "At the household and community levels, threats, harassment or actual violence in and around schools limit the mobility of women and consequently their livelihood opportunities and ability to access education, health and to participate in political processes. Gender-based violence also has enormous economic cost in terms of health services, police and legal services, decreased productivity, family income and food security. CARE's holistic approach to gender-based violence combines prevention with comprehensive service delivery and addresses root causes driving various forms of gender-based violence and gender discrimination."
She highlighted: "In more than 40 countries around the world, CARE works with issues of gender-based violence, including providing critical medical, legal, psychosocial and protection services to people experiencing violence (primarily women and girls), and provides local activists with assistance and support to link with others to provide case management to survivors, advocate for improved policies and laws, raise awareness and change local norms that perpetuate violent behaviour. So far, we have trained 834,000 people in the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence. Our research advances understanding of the complex causes and consequences of GBV, what strategies work to prevent violence and how this information can be used to improve programming. CARE has developed innovative tools to help staff and communities understand and clarify their own values in relation to gender societal norms that influence violence.
Economic empowerment
Women's economic empowerment is critical for achieving gender equality. So far CARE has empowered 1.8 million women by expanding access to financial services, employment and equitable wages. CARE recently announced that it aims to economically empower 30 million more women by 2020.
Where formal banks aren't an option, CARE savings and loan groups, financial training and market linkages help families, farmers and small businesses succeed. It takes money to make money. And CARE takes the concept of microfinance further, helping women and families improve income via better access to financial services, training and village savings and loan associations. This organisation also links smallholder farmers in poor rural communities, the majority of them women, with the goods and services needed to run their businesses and provide for their families.
A 7-decade humanitarian journey
CARE works around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. Founded in 1945, CARE is a non-political and non-sectarian not-for-profit organisation operating in 95 countries in the United States, Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
It is on the frontlines of emergency response and delivers lasting transformation in communities around the world.
Its vision is to seek a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and all people live with dignity and security.
CARE has been operating in the Gulf since 2010, promoting its humanitarian and development efforts and building sustainable partnerships. CARE Gulf Regional Office is based in Dubai and is a proud member of the International Humanitarian City (IHC).
ankita@khaleejtimes.com