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Monthly Archives: April 2015

“We need more women in politics” – Ellen Sandell

19 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by vositha in #WomenAtWork, Climate Change, Environment

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Australia, climate change, Ellen Sandell, Green Party Australia, Green Politicians, Members of Parliament in Australia

ellen

My first meeting with Ellen Sandell was in 2010, in Cancun. We were both part of the climate youth movement, and attending the Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC. She has come a long way since then to become the state MP for Melbourne, the first ever Greens MP elected to the Victorian lower house. She agreed to speak on her life, how career evolved, and how being a woman in politics has changed her life.

Climate Activist to Parliamentarian

I asked Ellen where her journey on work on environment and climate change began, and she replied “I started my career as a research scientist at CSIRO before deciding to dedicate myself to achieving policy change on climate change.”

Ellen has worked as the CEO of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, for which she focused on climate work in Australia and overseas. She has also worked as a climate change policy adviser in Victorian Premier John Brumby’s department, and was Environment Officer at the University of Melbourne. In 2009 she was awarded the joint Banksia Award for Young Environmentalist of the Year. These seem the first paving stones of a career creating policy change.

Choosing Policy Making

Ellen believes growing up close to the nature to have played a role in her choice of work and the motivation for it.

“I grew up in a rural area in Australia. Living so close to our biggest river, and with lots of agriculture and nature around me, showed me what a devastating impact climate change is already having on Australia. When I moved to the city (Melbourne) to study in university I learned more about climate change and decided I wanted to do work that helped solve this problem,” she said.

Ellen explained that her choice to run for Parliament was a choice to bridge the gap of lack of awareness of climate change among policy makers, and having politicians who are climate conscious.

“I worked for a while in the Victorian Government’s climate change policy team but had experiences that showed me our politicians cared more about their political future than our actual future. They changed reports to favour the coal and logging industries and weren’t serious about tackling climate change, so I decided to run a climate change non-profit and ultimately decided we needed people in Parliament that cared about climate change. I put my hand up for election and was fortunate enough to be successful,” she said.

 Thick Skinned?

Being the first elected from a party that is not the Conservative or the Labour has not made things easy for Ellen. She expressed the time consuming nature of her work which does not differentiate between weekends from working days and learning to be thick-skinned so as to avoid being affected by how others treat her.

“It’s a very demanding job, with lots of work during the weekend and evenings. There’s also a lot of scrutiny on you – the way you dress, the way you do your hair, what you sounds like. It’s made harder by the fact I was the first Green elected so the old parties are quite harsh on us because we’re challenging the status quo,” she expressed.

She also added, “There is a lot of bullying in Parliament which is hard, so you have to have a thick skin!”.

A Male Dominated World of Politics

Speaking on how she feels about women in politics, and being a female parliamentarian Ellen said, “It’s difficult being a woman in Parliament. We don’t get maternity leave or anything like that and there is also a lot of attention on the way you look, speak and dress, which men don’t face as much.”

She also stressed the need for the support of her family and friends in order to achieve success.  She believes that one needs a lot of family and friend support to be successful. She also commented that the world of politics is mainly male dominated.

“It’s also quite an aggressive male-dominated area, you get yelled at a lot in Parliament!”

Balancing Personal & Professional

For Ellen, balancing one’s personal and professional lives is highly important in order to be successful.

“We must balance our personal and professional lives or we would all go insane with stress and pressure!” she stated.

She also feels that there is the need for better government policies, especially in her country Australia and other Global North countries, to encourage men to take paternity leave, to have better flexibility, childcare and maternity leave for women in order to better balance our work and family lives. She wants also to encourage women to go into politics but to do it with their eyes open. “

“It’s not something that you can easily balance with a normal life, It isn’t a 9am to 5pm job. But we need more women in politics, and when we do I hope we’ll be able to change things for the better,” she highlighted.

Protected: Of Lips & Smudges (the unexpected ones)

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by vositha in Random Moments of Life, Relationships

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Tags

Breakups, dating, love

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“Passion is what drives you to work for a cause, being a happy person increases your commitment.” – Sarah Soysa

11 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by vositha in #WomenAtWork, Features

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

abortion, gender, inspiration, reproductive health, sexual rights, violence, Women a Work

Photo provides by Sarah Soysa

Photo provides by Sarah Soysa

Sarah Soysa is passionate about her work, a feminist working in the field of sexual and reproductive health and gender issues, she is currently reading for her masters in gender and development studies at the University of Melbourne. She is the initiator of the first hotline in Sri Lanka which provides information on safe medical abortion as a way to provide accurate information to women and girls on safe medical abortion and contraceptives. She spoke of what inspired her to choose her career, and volunteering for causes she believes in.

Experienced Turned Aspiration

Sarah says that the experiences of gender inequality and injustice that she experienced throughout her childhood and youth motivated her to choose the human rights sector to work. “As a young person had limited access to accurate information and health services, specially sexual and reproductive health services and my knowledge on my bodily rights and the law of the country was very low. I am now working passionately to

make things different for the current and future young people so that they would be able to make informed decisions in their life defending and enjoying their rights,” she added.

Education & Passion

She further spoke no how education and passion could be linked, not disconnected.  “In order to work in any field, especially in a country like Sri Lanka educational qualifications play a role. So the link between education and what one believes in plays a role and experience in what you choose as your cause matters,” said Sarah.

Among the organisations for which she has volunteered are national and regional organizations such as IPPF, Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka, South Asia Regional Youth Network, Commonwealth Gender Equality Network, YPEER Sri Lanka, Young Women’s Christian Association Sri Lanka and Australia,  as well as Asia Safe Abortion Partnership.  She is also a current advisor for FRIDA Feminist Fund.

“I started volunteering for the youth technical advisory committee of the Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka and YPEER Sri Lanka as a peer educator and a youth advocate passionate on SRHR and gender equality. I read and keep myself updated on current issues related to my area of work and always take necessary action where interventions are needed. I am surrounded by amazing young feminists and human rights defenders who makes me and keeps me motivated to do what I do,” she added.

A Woman Talking on Sex

“As a young woman I have faced many difficulties working in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights because of the taboo associated with it. I was judged, criticised and also challenged when people learnt that I advocate for safe abortion rights with a restrictive legal environment in the country,” explained Sarah.

She also added that the continuous threats and challenges on social media when discussing women’s rights, safe abortion rights, issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity is a challenge for the ensuring that the sexual and reproductive rights are protected.

“It is disheartening to see how lightly young women are taken in decision making fora, merely as a token of representation for the gender balance. To date young women are completely or partially neglected inn the discussions on policy changes, and designing of programmes that affect them. Decisions on women are taken without their active participation in the decision making process. This leads to neglecting the real issues, concerns and challenges affecting young women as well as to aggravating the situation that persist on rights violations aushc as increasing of violence against them, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, psychological stress, increasing HIV and STI infections,” she pointed out.

Balancing Professional and Personal

Sarah believes that personal life is not a barrier for a woman’s professional life but mentions that your family and friends understanding what you do is important.

“Personal and professional life can be very well balanced for it to be the case, it is extremely important that your family members and friends know what you are working on. If you decide to work on a sensitive topic or an area such as sexual and reproductive health it is very important to start the sensitisation from your home and then move to your close friends and then to the community,” she added.

She also pointed out that it is important to acknowledge the support of one’s family and to find time for them while pursuing what one believes in.

“Making time for your loved ones and for you to take a break is very important. It increases one’s creativity. On a personal level it has helped me put things in perspective as well as be a better person.  Passion is what drives you to work for a cause, being a happy person increases your commitment to it.”

Sarah wishes her work to improve the availability of safe, legal and quality abortion services for women in Sri Lanka especially for young women and other disadvantaged groups creating a space for them to enjoy their rights freely without discrimination or violence.

Protected: On Epiphanies and Moving On

11 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by vositha in Fiction, Random Moments of Life, Relationships

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Tags

dating, epiphany, love, moving on, relationships

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