In the second episode of our month-long March4Women series, we speak with Meseret Haileyesus, who is the Founder and CEO for the Canadian Center for Women's Empowerment. Meseret is an economic justice advocate, change-maker, intersectional feminist, and entrepreneur. She discusses domestic abuse and how it's been exacerbated by COVID-19, and economic abuse—what it is, and why it must be addressed, and what we collectively can do about it.
In the second episode of our month-long March4Women series, we speak with Meseret Haileyesus, who is the Founder and CEO for the Canadian Center for Women's Empowerment. Meseret is an economic justice advocate, change-maker, intersectional feminist, and entrepreneur. She discusses domestic abuse and how it's been exacerbated by COVID-19, and economic abuse—what it is, and why it must be addressed, and what we collectively can do about it.
Hello, and welcome to 15 minutes to change the world. We're in 15 minutes or less, you can learn a bit more about the world and how you can help change it. This month. We'll be bringing you four special episodes as part of our March for women podcast series. Throughout the month of March, we'll be talking to four incredible women working in different sectors and with different areas of expertise to learn more about women's leadership here in Canada and around the world. As always you'll hear about how you can get involved by learning, from advocating for and supporting women to lead. Our guest today is the incredibly inspiring master at Haley issues, who is the CEO and founder at the Canadian center for women's empowerment master at is an economic justice advocate, a maker, an intersectional feminist, and an entrepreneur. Mister, I thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. I'm really excited to have you as our guest. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Ed, can you tell us a bit about the Canadian center for women's empowerment and the work that you do? The Canadian center for women empowerment is a national organization based in, in Ottawa. Uh, we are dedicated to empower domestic violence and economy abuse survivors. So advocacy, mentorship, and economy empowerment. We are the only organization dedicated to raise awareness on economy abuse and transforming response to eat. And then we work with collaboratively with a number of organization individuals, including survivors to develop a comprehensive approach that enables, you know, survivors to recover from economic abuse and, uh, our program ad phrase, you know, uh, some of the critical gaps, uh, especially the policy, uh, which are preventing survivors from recovering and being economically secure and independent. So right now we have three programs or the first program is education awareness. Every year we host a national campaign to educate Publix on, you know, economy could be used. And usually our purpose is, um, to raise our awareness specifically, uh, on this issue for survivors, financial institutions, policy makers, to show them the different economy challenge faced by, you know, survivors. And we have also a mentality and wellness program. Uh, we support survivors by finding the best way to take care of themselves. And we D we are right now developing some kinds of a trauma informed guidelines to promote a healthy lifestyle. And the other program is focused on policy and research. So right now we are advocating for policy change that reflect what economic abuse is, uh, imagine limiting someone's ability to access money and support and monitoring someone's communication location. Even after you leave that relationship is all about economy copies.
Speaker 2:We've heard a lot about the negative economic consequences of COVID-19 and how it's exposed and really widened economic and social inequality here in Canada and worldwide. Let's read. Can you talk about the impact depend DEMEC has had on women in Canada and particularly the women that you work with?
Speaker 1:What we have seen from our work is the rapid increase in unemployment rate increase means controlling behaviors toward the scene or their partners. So even as, you know, the government are spending a lot of resources, too. I just unemployment and economic distress at the household level, but still this issue is, you know, it triggers the other partners to control into abuse, more so as you know, family violence, especially, um, in racialized community and marginalized community to taboo, and also talking about money and finances, also a taboo. So the chance of having, you know, women to get economic abuse is like more even during this pandemic. Um, and also we have seen a lot of people are reaching out and then to have that, but, you know, our capacity was limited even to address some of this stuff, COVID it hits everybody else. We know that, but women are disproportionally impacted, especially survivors. And also one of the challenge, even for most survivors is a mental health aspect. Some people, especially women, uh, they may have a pre-existing post traumatic stress syndrome because of this, uh, you know, violence and imagine coverage by itself. It just keeps them somewhere. And then that's also, it's a huge impact even for us, for service providers and for advocates. And of course, uh, one of, even the challenge of unlike, you know, uh, for women even to get the resources like the social support or it's mobile economy, uh, imagine if you don't have any laptop and phone access, computer and everything, it's very hard for a women. And the other also aspect of this COVID is, uh, especially single mothers, as you know, the childcare cost is very high. It's very discouraging for a women to go back, you know, to work force because they have to take care of the child. And usually the government, they just give only$600 for single mothers. That's$600 is not even enough for most women. You know, that's what we have seen and in Ottawa is, so what we seen is, um, we have a shortage of food, especially food banks are sometimes running out to food. Uh, some women they can't afford, you know, uh, so this is a reality, and then it affects, you know, everything. Can you tell me
Speaker 2:Right about the, the structural financial obstacles and barriers in Canada that hinder women's economic empowerment and specifically the economic empowerment of survivors of domestic violence?
Speaker 1:So one of the challenges housing, so finding safe and affordable housing is a huge problem for survivors. And the second challenge is like limited access of money because of their abuser, especially survivors. Uh, they don't have the right even to access some of the financial assets, which is very hard for them to rebuild their life, uh, because we don't have any system somehow in Canada, uh, to control and, uh, to help women. That's why my agency right now advocating for this, uh, so that women, they can kind of like, you know, start their own life shortly after they leave, especially as a shelter and the other challenges, of course, mental health. You know, the mentality is very, very challenging for many people, especially indigenous and black community. Um, you know, uh, there's a stigma associated to that and services not even accessible. And the other challenge of course is like, you know, the legal system is also, it's a very complex, it's not accessible for most women. Uh, especially if you are a victims of economic abuse, you may have assets with your abuser. You are not eligible to get some of the legal services. And the other challenges of course, is a banking system. Uh, so, uh, in, in, in, in Canada, uh, right now the banking, most of the banking's right now, they don't have any family violence programs. For example, for women stay in shelter, uh, you know, uh, the bank, what they do is right now, if she skipped two, three payments, they will suspend their account. But that account is maybe associated with her abuser. So some abusers are smart. Uh, what they do is they don't touch physically. What they do is like they just take your bank information. They will commit a lot of route paved and everything, but in Canada, we don't have a clear program right now. So my agency right now is creating this ecosystem to support the banks, to develop a family violence program so that women still, they can protect it. And the other challenge, of course, some women, they may have a chorus if dates, uh, chorus, if dates, um, is, uh, it's all about like, you know, it's to their credit. And, um, it comes in make, it's more challenging to secure housing, buy a car or land a job. We believe that economic abuse is a systemic problem in our society, which we are severely lacking the infrastructure to address.
Speaker 2:Why do you think that Canada is behind in this area?
Speaker 1:That's a good question, actually. Um, in, uh, I'm not a legal expert actually, uh, but the family violence, even in the definition, uh, we couldn't find a clear definition of economic abuse. It just, they put it like a general definition. Uh, we don't have a specific program. We don't have a national data for economy abuse. Uh, and also, uh, the, we spoke to many agencies, especially frontline workers and people who works with violence against women organizations. So they don't have the capacity to provide all those tools because, you know, if you don't have any data and if you don't have any policy, if you don't have a financial abuse and economy abuse code of practice, uh, it will be challenging. I think maybe that's maybe one of the reasons. And the other reason is also, there's a lack of awareness. So the awareness of economy and financial abuse, many women, even, they don't recognize. There's a huge lack of awareness. That's why we start this conversation. And right now we work, uh, and also we learn from many agency, especially there is one agency United Kingdom. Uh, they do a lot of research on this aspect. They have interesting program to educate banks, to educate police, to inform also policy makers, even that developing the financial abuse prac is for the bank right now. So in Canada, we don't have that. Tell
Speaker 2:Mr. Ed, how does intersectionality relate to your work and why is it such an important part of the conversation when we talk about the challenges women face? And when we talk about the solution city show,
Speaker 1:Yeah, intersectionality, it's a way in which aspects of our identities like, uh, it may be gender, race, class location ability, and the life experience of our lab to create, you know, discrimination and disadvantages disadvantage. So of course, intersectionality allows us, especially for advocate for program leaders, you know, to understand how a person or a group of people or, uh, social issues such as like gender based violence is affected by, uh, different factors that exist in unhealthy and call dependent relationships, such as racism, sexism, colonialism, you know, there's a lot of things associated for that. So when this factors, you know, intersect, for example, uh, women identified as indigenous, uh, she may live in remote area. So, uh, this woman may have increased the risk of, you know, gender as violence. Uh, because as you know, in 2018, the police also reported that the homicides rates for indigenous women and girls was nearly seven times higher demands on indigenous, you know, women, right? So it's kind of intersectionality means, um, when addressing gender based violence, we must recognize of course, and most marginalized women, including indigenous racialized women, immigrant refugee women with disability, gender diverse people, uh, and also, uh, girls and children, uh, this enables us to design intersectional program. And plus it helps us to acknowledge and recognize that, uh, addressing the root cause of gender based violence and advancing, uh, equity. It's also one of our, um, priority in our organization.
Speaker 2:That's right. Do you have a message for women who are, who are listening today and for maybe to Canadian policy makers as well?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So for the survivors or victims of violence, uh, I have one message actually, uh, look out the warning signs of economy abuse, uh, put a plan together. Uh, if someone you are living with is, uh, and also get information about your assets and liability before you leave that relationship, get a copy of your car, house, key extremity, emergency phone numbers. And also if your partner controls the money, uh, look for a way to find more information about his or his, her income and, uh, financial property, real estate property, and also date. It's very, very important for a woman. You know, as a wise, it would be very complicated for a woman if she don't have those kinds of things. And of course, uh, it's also very important to get your copy of your credit report for any of the three major credit Bureau in Canada. And also if you have any questions, you can check our websites, the Canadian center for women empowerment, WW dot CCF w.org or policymakers economy could be used is, has to be recognized as a part of family violence. And we need to see, uh, the government to expand the federal strategic plan. Uh, we know that the national gender based violence strategy right now is implemented, uh, which is very interesting, but we went to see economy copies has to be included. We went to see an ecosystem for a woman to rebuild her life. In any ways it may be economy compartment. It may be a scholarship fund for a women. And of course the government's also, um, start to think about on how we could address the coercive control. It has to be criminalized otherwise without criminalization and without taking an action, uh, addressing this issue, uh, it may not be, you know, uh, we may not be successful. So that's what I would like to say. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And last semester, what can our listeners do to help empower women and advance gender equality, whether at home here at Canada or abroad.
Speaker 1:So for any Canadian, who's listening this in order to engage women, we need to take action from day one today. Not tomorrow we can encourage our children. We can educate our women. We have to also encourage women to take some of the leadership role in our community and never underestimate the power of women wherever you are. There are women, they may not have a voice. They may be in a trauma. They may be in an abusive situation. They may be in shelter. So that situation, it doesn't define who they are. So just try to recognize a situation. Let's support them, let's stop the stigma and discrimination, and let's, let's help them, their mentality, what they have been through. Let's create them, the opportunities. And finally for the policymakers, definitely gender equality, it needs diverse. And also it needs a collaborative effort. We need to engage banks. We need to engage, you know, advocates. We need to engage also survivors for any kind of intervention.[inaudible] thank you so much for speaking with us today. So yeah, it's my pleasure. Thank you to each and every one of you for tuning in as well as always, you can stay up to date and share the latest tips. So it's a 15 minutes to change the world on Spotify, iTunes and on care.ca/podcasts.
Speaker 3:[inaudible].