For a decade, the Victims of Trauma Treatment Program has worked with Sri Lanka to heal the psychic wounds of war and natural disaster. When Covid-19 arrived, the pieces were in place to tackle the trauma of lockdowns.
Lotus Circle
Wall Street Journal Highlights Lana Condor’s Vietnam Girls Scholars Program
Tuesday, August 11th, 2020August 11, 2020 — The Wall Street Journal features The Asia Foundation in a profile of 2019 Lotus Circle honoree Lana Condor. Since 2017, Condor has worked with the Foundation to support female scholars in Can Tho, Vietnam. And you do philanthropy work for the Asia Foundation too. [Condor has supported the organization’s girls scholarship program since 2017, financing education for girls in Can Tho, Vietnam, where she was adopted from as a child.] My scholarship is like my baby. The most important thing I’ve done in my career thus far is to put Vietnamese girls through school and give them education, because [for girls] in Vietnam education is not a right, particularly good education. Obviously knowledge is power and girls are vastly intelligent. Just open the door a little bit and they’ll knock it down. Watch a short film of Condor’s recent visit to Can Tho on IGTV.
The Visa Foundation and The Asia Foundation Partner to Respond to the Impact of Covid-19 on Women and Girls in Asia
Tuesday, August 11th, 2020August 11, 2020 — The Visa Foundation and The Asia Foundation launched a new partnership to support women’s economic advancement and address rising incidences of gender-based violence (GBV) across Malaysia, Myanmar, and Nepal. This partnership is part of The Visa Foundation’s commitment to support small and micro-business that aligns with its long-term focus on women’s economic advancement and inclusive economic development, and to address urgent needs from local communities following the spread of Covid-19. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic continues to play out in countries and communities across Asia, with acute effects on women and girls. The gendered challenges that women entrepreneurs ordinarily face, including accessing capital, markets, and technology to sustain and grow their micro and small businesses, are exacerbated in the face of the pandemic and associated stay-at-home orders and economic slowdown. The financial strain put on many families, as well as the fear and anxiety arising from extended lockdowns, have exacerbated unequal power relations between women and men and has contributed to a severe increase in GBV, including domestic violence. At the same time, the services for survivors of violence have been weakened or disrupted or are at maximum capacity. In addition, many survivors face economic insecurity and lack of livelihood support, creating more barriers for them to escape safely. In partnership with The Visa Foundation, this multi-country initiative will respond to the heightened risk of GBV among women and girls, especially women entrepreneurs and informal workers, as well as to support women to increase their economic security. The project will provide women entrepreneurs with targeted training, mentoring, and networking activities to improve digital and financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills to improve their business models and access new markets. In responding to the GBV crisis, the project will support community outreach and education activities on the nature of GBV and prevention strategies, provide critical assistance to service providers, and provide psychosocial counseling in communities. Across these interventions, The Asia Foundation will build in a learning and sharing component that allows us to identify key high-impact materials and rapidly translate and adapt them to other Asian contexts…. Read more
Funding Women Entrepreneurs on Mongolia’s Covid Front Line
Wednesday, July 8th, 2020Mongolia has been a Covid-19 success story, but the early lockdown that kept the virus at bay has also battered the economy, and no one has felt it more than Mongolia’s small businesswomen.