The Asian Pacific Research and Resource Center for Women

10.10.10 Photos

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WHRAP-South East Asia partner from Cambodia and China share their perspective in delivering project for young people in varied settings. In Cambodia our partner RHAC picturized how the reality facing by young women who become factory workers with small wages and often doesn't know about their Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Health. In China, our partner organization YHDRA was conducting research for young people in border area (with Burma) whom become ethnic minorities and facing fundamentalism. Nancy Zhang, is a passionate young activist whom leading the programmes.

About ARROW:


We believe that good health and wellbeing, and access to comprehensive, accessible and affordable gender-sensitive health services are fundamental human rights.

The Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW) was formally established in 1993 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as a regional non-profit and non-governmental organisation concerned with ensuring that development policies and plans influencing women’s health status included women’s and gender perspectives. Co-founded by Rita Raj and Rashidah Abdullah, ARROW’s vision is for women in Asia and the Pacific to be better able to define and control their lives, particularly in the area of women's health and rights. Since 1993, ARROW has been able to make significant progress towards this vision.

Prior to the establishment of ARROW, a survey was conducted among 20 key women NGOs in 20 countries to determine their specific information needs in the area of women and health, including their priority issues, types of materials required, the current sources of information and whether or not they had access to their own documentation centre or that of other organisations nationally. The findings confirmed that women NGOs were most interested in practical information from other countries to assist them in planning and implementing their activities, particularly related to gender-sensitisation, reproductive health and rights, and violence against women.

Areas and/or countries that your organization services? : Women Health's and Rights Advocacy Partnership (WHRAP) emerged as an idea from ARROW and her partners’ need to address the problems that put women’s health and lives at risk. WHRAP brings together women’s NGO partners who are committed to strengthening civil society capacity to effectively advocate for women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) at the local, national and regional levels. WHRAP was first implemented in 2003 in four South Asian countries- Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan and currently is expanding to include Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka to complete the project coverage to all of South Asia. Expansion into China was in 2008 and in 2009 six more countries in Southeast Asia and the Mekong region (Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam) were included.