IWHC shapes international policy and builds local capacity for women’s health and human rights in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  We leverage our work in these two very different, but critically linked worlds – to change thinking, redirect funding and motivate action by people and institutions that can secure rights and health for women. 

For more information, please visit the website.

 And we invite you to have a look at our new site.

Feel free to send us any feedback and comments.  And follow us on twitter, "like" us on Facebook.

Our new email address is:  choices@arts4choice.com

Thank you again to all those who donated.  We appreciate it more than we can say. We look forward to keeping in touch with all of you and continuing to be a part of the struggle for choice in Canada.About Arts4Choice

Arts4Choice is artists and activists who firmly believe that every woman should have the right to a timely abortion on demand, no questions asked. We also believe that no woman should be made to feel fearful or ashamed for having exercised her right to reproductive freedom.

We want people to see the real faces of reproductive choice in Canada. We want to show Canadians that women who have had abortions are their mothers, sisters, neighbours and friends.

Our current project involves taking documentary portraits of Canadian women who have had abortions--women young and old, of different backgrounds, language groups, cultures and geographic locations. These portraits form a traveling exhibit that has been shown across the country and in the United States.

Our hope is that this exhibit will become a book that women will be able to see and read in clinics and women’s centres across the country.

Issues of fear , intimidation and shame continue to surround the question of abortion as do the perrennial problems of access and funding. Let's keep the right of all women to safe, accessible abortions in the public eye. Let's talk about women's real experiences.

Stirrups and Stories is a grassroots initiative to improve health outcomes and the care women receive in the OB or GYN office by collecting women's stories to educate and empower both patients and providers.

The purpose of Stirrups and Stories is multi-fold: first and foremost, to give space to women to talk about their experiences. Who really asks, 'so how is OB/GYN care for you, ladies?' Not usually the providers or medical establishment, and other women tend to ask (in our experience) in one-on-one or friendship settings. But this information is valuable! If we start listening to the women, and collecting their stories, we can discover reasons women do or do not seek care, what concerns women actually have, how providers can improve the care they give their patients, what's going divinely right and what's going egregiously wrong.

See the online gallery of photos and stories on the website here.

The Women’s Court of Canada is an innovative project bringing together academics, activists, and litigators in order literally to rewrite the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms equality jurisprudence. Taking inspiration from Oscar Wilde, who once said “the only duty we owe to history is to rewrite it”, the Women’s Court operates as a virtual court, and ‘reconsiders’ leading equality decisions. The Women’s Court renders alternative decisions as a means of articulating fresh conceptions of substantive equality.

Looking for new bloggers. koshan@ucalgary.ca ;megan.evansmaxwell@utoronto.ca.

"4000 years for choice" is a new arts activism project developed by University of Illinois student, Heather Ault. It's a project to send, weekly, an educational, encouraging, beautifully designed pro-choice postcard to the 165 reproductive health clinics targeted by the Right wing for harassment during their current offensive campaign.  

4000 Years for Choice develops visual narratives about the practices of contraception and abortion from around the world for the past 4000 years. The project hopes to celebrate, inspire, and empower women and men in their reproductive lives!

Check out the website to see the postcard designs (you can buy poster-sized versions to support the project), the clinics receiving the cards, and a timeline of 4000 years of information about technologies of contraception and abortion.

To assist countries and practitioners, UNIFEM is launching a global virtual knowledge centre on how to address violence against women and girls.

This is a one-stop centre to support practitioners around the world in effective design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes that aim to end violence against women and girls. The web-based site brings together lessons learned to date and recommended practices gleaned from initiatives large and small, whether originating from the women's movement, civil society organizations, governments, the UN System or other actors. While capturing the leading experiences from all regions of the world, its primary intended audience is in developing countries and other resource-poor settings.

Available in English, Spanish and French at this website. 

Antigone Connect is an online site working to engage women's organizations and feminists across the country to work collaboratively for women's rights and equality in Canada and around the world.

We are hoping to create a powerful online network that will be able to help lead the Canadian women's movement forward in the coming years. As we approach Canada's 150th Anniversary, we are all aware that there is a great deal more to be done in Canada to ensure women's equality. More women in politics and managerial positions, accessible child care, changes to the Indian Act, equal pay, and equal pensions are just a few of the things that the Royal Commission on the Status of Women identified as necessary for equality nearly fifty years ago. They have still not been fully realized and this is going to take cooperation and coordination to accomplish.

Visit the site here: http://antigoneconnect.ning.com/

CPHA, a voluntary, non-governmental organization, was formed 100 years ago by a small group of doctors who were concerned about the state of public health in Canada. CPHA was constituted through an Act of Parliament and held its first annual conference at McGill University in December 1911, attended by the Governor General, the Prime Minister of Canada and the Premier of Quebec.

Visit the site.

A few days ago Amy Allina brought this new product line, "My pink Button" to our awareness with a listserv post titled "[NEWVIEW] "Restore" your sexual confidence. Dye your vagina pink." thanks, Amy.!

Now the indefatigable Betty Dodson has written a sarcastic yet informative response to the pink button product line, do have a look:

http://dodsonandross.com/blogs/christina-cicchelli/2010/01/move-over-labiaplasty-now-theres-pink-button

Leonore Tiefer, PhD

ltiefer@mindspring.com

212-533-2774

Please update your links and bookmarks to our new address: www.womencan.ca.

And please also update your listing on WomenCan.ca!

Listings in the Directory of Canadian Women's Resources are free, and there are now more than four thousand entries available to help Canadian women. To be listed, or to make a change in your listing, e-mail: info@womencan.ca. Please include any information you would like in the listing, such as a short description of the services you offer, location, or telephone number.

The WomenCan website has a new look as well as a new name! There is also a new Newsletter Archives section, where you can view old newsletters and refer a friend to subscribe to the newsletter.

We have a Links Section with thousands of links to Canadian as well as international women’s sites. We also frequently update our Bulletin Boards, on which we can post upcoming events, calls for volunteers, job postings, conferences and more. Our Community News Section contains news from each province, and our Resource Section contains many books, brochures, studies and other publications organized by topic. Send us any information you would like to have listed at:  info@womencan.ca!

We welcome those of you who are interested to participate in the Remember Our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE) virtual community. ROSE is dedicated to supporting and mentoring the development of women*s memorial making and the prevention of violence against women. The ROSE website was created to contribute to feminist efforts to counter the denial of violence against women that is so prevalent in
societies here and around the world. We envision that the website will provide a participatory, multi-dimensional forum for exchange and support among women and men in Canada and around the world who are working to stop violence against women.

To join ROSE, please go to the website and click *Sign Up* (upper right, below the banner) and follow the directions from there.

If you are interested in networking with other researchers, professionals and agencies in the addictions field, and would like to receive practice-related, clinically relevant information on serving women with substance use issues, then we would like to introduce you and your agency to Connections! Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Connections is a new knowledge exchange network for agencies across Canada that serve women with substance use issues. We believe that women with substance use issues will receive better services if researchers and service providers work together to share information, network, and collaborate.

Please visit our website for more information.

The primary goals of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Canadian Best Practices Portal are to:
- Develop and disseminate best practices information for chronic disease prevention and control interventions

- Provide decision makers with a comprehensive and standardized resource about best practices for chronic disease prevention and control

- Create awareness of the overall Canadian Best Practices System through communication and marketing activities targeted to key audience:

Visit the Canadian Best Practices Portal.

CWHN is seeking a Director of Communications, bilingual preferred. One of Canada’s top sources for women’s health information and action seeks an experienced national media relations and communications leader. The position is full-time until March 31, 2010, with possibility of extension, depending on funding renewal. This would be ideal for someone with a commitment to change for women wanting to work on a national stage. For the complete ad, see our website.

Our Bodies, Our Blog is a daily dose of women's health news and analysis. The blog is produced by Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS), also known as the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective (BWHBC), a nonprofit, public interest women’s health education, advocacy, and consulting organization.

Read the blog.

CWHN invites you to search our newly updated and improved women’s health database, a comprehensive bilingual collection of women’s health publications and resources from across Canada and the world. With more advanced search options, the CWHN women’s health database gives you access to over 13,000 resources – publications, research, articles, organizations, reviews, and projects covering a wide range of information on women’s health and women’s lives. Search our database here!

Check out the Canadian Women’s Issues blog, with frequent posts on women’s issues – politics, health, education, feminism, as well as links to many resources for feminist, women’s issues and and women’s history sites.

See the blog here.

In celebration of International Women's Day - March 8th, 2009 - The Women's Health Research Network is launching a new series of podcasts. The WHRN is pleased to offer this new resource to women's health researchers around the world! Follow this link to listen online, download a podcast, and leave a comment -

For more information about the WHRN, please visit our website.

The Bone Health 4 Women website (bonehealth4women.ca) was developed using a participatory approach that engaged women from the community and registered dietitians as peer collaborators. The overarching goal of the website is to bring forward bone health-promoting messages in a manner that closely meets the needs of end users of this resource – health professionals, their clients, and the general public – that will help increase the attention given to bone health.

We hope you will enjoy your visit! Let us know what you think!

Visit the Bone Health 4 Women website.

The fourth and final week of the blogging carnival is kicking off on kickaction.ca, so come by to check out what our six guest bloggers have to say about pop culture, media, and that thing some people call ‘hypersexualization.’

For more information about the blogging carnival or to read the blogs, check out the website.

Communities Achieving Responsive Services (CARS) project has launched a new website to provide resources to help rural and remote communities in Canada build more responsive local community programs. CARS cultivates local leadership by providing training, support and mentoring to communities through site visits, group gatherings, web-based supports and distance training sessions. The goal is to support networking and local leadership that will help communities work together to ensure that local services are accessible, responsive and culturally appropriate in communities across this country.

The website was developed by Rural Voices for Early Childhood Education and Care in partnership with the Canadian Women's Health Network and funded by HRSDC Social Development Partnership Canada.

See the new website.

It is with enthusiasm and excitement that POWER Camp National-Filles d’action officially announce our new name:  Fondation filles d’action – Girls Action Foundation.

 POWER Camp National-Filles d’action has filled an important gap in girls’ education across Canada, becoming a leading national organization for girls and young women in the process.  We have chosen to bring our English name in line with our French one as “girls learning through action” is truly at the heart of the work that we do. From girls programs and media arts trainings to leadership skill-building and train-the-trainers programs, action has always been a central element of our approach, who we are and what we are known for.

By adding “foundation” we are also reflecting our active role in providing resources to girls’ programs and young women. We believe that “Fondation Filles d’action – Girls Action Foundation” better communicates and makes clear to our community, our friends, our supporters and the community at large what we are about.

As we continue to grow and increase our impact, engaging girls and young women in finding and using their voices, we contribute to building a world of social justice and hope for the future!  Come take a look at our new Website.

The Miss G_ Project for Equity in Education is a grassroots young feminist organization working to combat all forms of oppression in and through education, including sexism, homophobia, racism and classism.

Dedicated to feminist anti-oppression politics with a strong focus on education, our mandate is to provide young people, particularly young women, with the opportunity, support, and resources necessary to analyze and influence issues that affect their lives and futures. This includes acting as a community resource and mounting political actions towards the ongoing improvement of publicly funded education to meet its own policy commitments to equity in education, respect for diversity, critical thinking, and the provision of a safe and secure environment.

Our current objective is to get a Women's & Gender Studies Course into the Ontario Secondary School Curriculum.

WHEN E-Newsletter won’t fill up your inbox but it will provide you with timely and relevant information on the issues that matter you. This is a quarterly publication that combines facts, commentary, interesting links and fun!

No One is Illegal-Vancouver is a grassroots anti-colonial immigrant and refugee rights collective with leadership from members of migrant and/or racialized backgrounds. Our collective is predominantly people of colour and women. We are an all-volunteer group; none of our organizers are paid.

The No One is Illegal campaign has two goals: to attain concrete victories for immigrants and refugees and to develop the communities’ own capacity to attain justice and dignity for themselves and their families.