Our “Save a Widow” Campaign is giving Genji hope and help
“Genji” is an eighty year old widow, and virtually blind. She has lost her husband and her son, both to prostate cancer. Today, she is in pain and entirely alone.
Genji’s husband passed away fifteen years ago from prostate cancer. She remembers how her husband used to wake up often in the night to use the bathroom. She asked her husband to go see the doctor, but he comforted her saying said his incontinence was just because he was an old man. She knew the real reason he did not want to see the doctor is that they did have not enough money. When he finally went to see the doctor, he was in the terminal stages of cancer. She couldn’t hold her grief inside and cried loudly during the funeral. She said her husband worked so hard every day of his life. He didn’t even have one day to enjoy a happy life since they were always suffering financially.
Genji had one son. Even though her daughter-in-law didn’t get along with Genji, her son would sometimes give her a little food and pocket money secretly. She couldn’t believe that her son died with prostate cancer six years ago, just like his father.
Because of cataracts, Genjui has almost lost her vision. She also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis.
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is helping Genji. Our fieldworker visits her every month to let her know that we care for her, even if everyone else has abandoned her. With our help, she knows she is loved. With the $25 a month we give her, she has the funds to eat better and heat her little room in the winter.
Won’t you help abandoned widows in China?
Watch our new “Save a Widow” video.
To learn more about the Save a Widow Campaign, click here.
Posted inUncategorized|Taggedwidows China|Comments Off on This Blind, Abandoned Chinese Widow Has Hope With Your Help
Panelists from left to right: Lois Herman, Director, Women’s United Nations Reporting Network (Moderator); Littlejohn; Mohinder Watson, Founder of ACE & FM (addressed a related Panel on Child Widows), Margaret Owen, Director of Widows for Peace through Democracy. Photo courtesy of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, JUNE 27, 2019. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers co-hosted a Panel at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, together with the Women’s United Nations Reporting Network. WRWF President, Reggie Littlejohn, stated, “It was a great honor, and indeed a minor miracle, to co-host this landmark Panel, highly critical of the Chinese government’s record on women’s rights. China sits on the Human Rights Council in Geneva and has veto power. I don’t know how our Panel seemed to slip through the cracks!” The venue was packed, indicating the high level of interest in hearing the truth regarding the abuses against the rights of women and girls perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party. Littlejohn’s remarks focused on several ways in which the Chinese government has violated the Beijing Platform for Action, whose 25th anniversary will arrive in 2020. Specifically, Littlejohn focuses on the continuation of the sex-selective abortion of baby girls and forced abortion under the Two-Child Policy, as well as the unimaginable suffering of abandoned, elderly widows in the Chinese countryside. Her full Address can be found below.
It
is an honor to address you concerning one of the greatest women’s rights issues
of our day: the abandonment of
baby girls and elderly widows in China – unintended consequences of China’s One
Child Policy.
Next
year will mark the 25-year review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for
Action, adopted in 1995 at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on
Women. Since this Platform was
adopted in Beijing, the Chinese government should have been a world leader in
the advancement of women’s rights articulated in that document. Instead, Beijing itself has been
the most aggressive violator of the Platform that bears its name. The Chinese government needs to be held
accountable for its massive violations of the rights of women and girls, from
the day the Beijing Platform was adopted until today. The Beijing Platform at Paragraph 115 states unequivocally:
115. Acts of violence against women also include forced sterilization and forced abortion, coercive/forced use of contraceptives, female infanticide and prenatal sex selection.
Rather
than fighting against these practices, the Chinese Communist Party has
systematically implemented them.
In so doing, it has committed violence against women in unprecedented
proportions.
Gendercide
The Beijing Platform states that “discrimination and violence against girls begin at the earliest stages of life and continue unabated throughout their lives” and characterizes prenatal sex selection is an act of violence against women. This violence begins with the termination of girl children, followed by a gender imbalance where, in China for example, there are an estimated 37 million more men than women. This imbalance is the driving force behind human trafficking and sexual slavery, not only within China but from the surrounding countries, and from as far away as Africa and the Americas.
There are an estimated 200 million women and girls missing in the world today, because of sex-selective abortion, abandonment and fatal neglect. That number, 200 million, is greater than all the casualties of all the wars in the 20th Century. This is the true War Against Women.
Gendercide continues under China’s Two-Child Policy. Because of violent son-preference, second daughters are especially vulnerable.
For
example, after the institution of the Two-Child Policy, a woman from Anhui
Province was forced by her husband to abort four baby girls. The couple already had a daughter, and
when China shifted from a One Child to a Two Child Policy in January 2016, the
husband decided that they should have a second child, and that their second
child must be a boy. In July 2017,
the woman died after
these four abortions in quick succession, trying for a son.
It is this problem of violent son-preference that we have sought to through our “Save a Girl” Campaign, which has saved hundreds of baby girls from sex-selective abortion, abandonment or extreme poverty in rural China. We are the only organization in the world that has boots on the ground in rural China, going to the doors of women, offering them words of encouragement and financial support to empower them to keep their daughters, instead of being pressured to abort or abandon them.
We
recently released a video about our “Save a Girl” Campaign. It really brings to life the struggles
of women in the Chinese countryside to resist pressure to abort or abandon
their daughters, and how Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is providing them
with a lifeline.
Gendercide in China; “Save a Girl” video (7 mins)
In China, there are an estimated 37 million more men living than women. This extreme gender imbalance is driving human trafficking and sexual slavery, within China, from the surrounding countries, and from as far away as Africa and the Americas.
Senior Suicide and Abandoned Widows
Another
unintended consequence of the One-Child (now Two-Child) Policy is its impact on
the elderly.
The
One-Child Policy has decimated Chinese family structure. In rural China, couples would have
large families and elders were venerated, so when a couple got old, their
extended family would care for them.
Now, with no extended family to take care of them and no means to
support themselves, many elderly in the Chinese countryside are left destitute. China’s senior suicide rate has
skyrocked 500 percent in the past 20 years. Elderly rural women are particularly vulnerable. 590 women per day end their lives in
China. In the Chinese countryside,
three times the number of women as men end their lives.
Our
unique network inside China is able to reach these elderly widows. We go to their doors, offer them
encouragement and much-needed financial support, through our “Save a Widow”
Campaign.
“Save a Widow” in China (7 mins)
We
have been saving girls in China for years. Only recently have we begun to save widows. We have found that many people want to
support our campaign to save girls, and relatively few our campaign to save
widows. Why?
Some
of our widows can hardly walk, some have failing vision. They can barely take
care of themselves, much less anyone else. Their long lives of laboring for their families are over,
and now many are abandoned by those for whom they sacrificed so deeply.
I
believe this is the measure of whether we, the international human rights
community, have a true commitment to the dignity of every person. Will we commit precious resources to
those whose destiny will not be economic productivity, but death? Will we sacrifice to help someone
whose life has been unimaginably hard, so that when she passes on, at least she
will do so knowing that someone, somewhere cares enough about her to make sure
she will not die of starvation or suicide?
Forced Abortion
Another
way that China has violated the Beijing Platform is in the area of forced
abortion. Since its
inception in 1980, China has boasted that it has prevented 400 million lives
through its infamous One Child Policy.
Hundreds of millions were prevented through forced abortion, forced
sterilization and infanticide.
Some of these forced abortions were committed up to the ninth month of
pregnancy. Women died because of
the violence of late term forced abortions.
Women’s
Rights Without Frontiers has taken a leading role in exposing the atrocity of
forced abortion in China and demanding its end.
Stop Forced
Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins) [WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGE]
The
two-child policy took effect on January 1, 2016. Since that time, reports have emerged of continued forced
abortion. It has not stopped this
slaughter. The new rule is that
every couple is allowed to have two children. Therefore, it is still illegal for single women to have
babies in China, and third children are still illegal.
In
November 2018, NPR
reported the forced abortion of the third child of an ethnic Kazakh woman. She had married and moved to
Kazakhstan. When she crossed the
border into China, to cancel her Chinese citizenship, authorities learned that
she was pregnant with her third child and forced her to abort it.
China
watchers have stated that China will soon “abandon” the two-child policy,
instituting a three-child policy, or perhaps allowing all couples to have as
many children as they want. Watch
the language. Will it say all couples, or all people? If the new law
is only for couples, will single women still be forcibly aborted?
Conclusion
China’s One Child Policy is the largest and most disastrous social experiment in the history of the world. Through it, the Chinese Communist Party boasts that it has“prevented” 400 million births. This is the hallmark of Communist regimes – the peacetime killing of their own citizens. Now China faces demographic disaster. Ironically, the Chinese Communist Party instituted the One Child Policy for economic reasons, but through it, it has written its own economic death sentence.
With
a population of almost 1.4 billion, one fifth of the population of the world
lives in China. One out of every
five women lives in China. The
women of the world will not be free until the women of China are free!
We are thrilled to announce that on June 25, WRWF will be co-hosting a Panel at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, together with the Women’s United Nations Reporting Network (WUNRN). Reggie Littlejohn will be a featured speaker on this Panel, together with Author and Advocate Xinran, and Margaret Owen, Founder and CEO of Widows for Peace through Democracy. The Panel is entitled, “Abandoned in China — Baby Girls and Abandoned Widows.” We are humbled and honored to take our message to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. We would like to thank Lois Herman, Managing Director of the WUNRN and Moderator of the Panel, without whose tireless efforts this panel would not be possible.
United Nations Human Rights Council 41 – Panel
ABANDONED IN CHINA – BABY GIRLS & ELDERLY WIDOWS
June 25, 2019
Time: 11:00 am-12:00 Noon – Room: XV
Palais des Nations – Geneva, Switzerland
The two most vulnerable groups of females in China are baby girls, whose mothers are pressured to abort or abandon them, and elderly widows. Widows are exponentially increasing all over the world, but the rising number of poor, destitute widows has been quite invisible, especially in China. Many are in small, remote Chinese villages and without social protection, social provision for survival with dignity. In a society that continues to favor males, baby girls and elderly widows are often considered a liability in China. Widows may have large medical bills for their deceased husbands and for themselves. Their family may be far away and often disinterested in caring for an ageing widow. Baby girls, if they are lucky enough to survive, are often abandoned, as their mothers are pressured to “give them away” in favor of having a boy. Baby girls and elderly widows are, indeed, a tragic hidden crisis in China. This Panel will discuss, show examples, and consider viable solutions, for Chinese baby girls and for elderly widows, with a particular focus on gender equality, human rights, and social justice.
Distinguished Speakers:
· Ms. Reggie Littlejohn – Attorney, Founder Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
· Video on Abandoned Baby Girls & Forced Female Abortions in China
· Ms. Margaret Owen – UK Barrister, Founder & CEO Widows for Peace through Democracy
Reggie Littlejohn Addresses the 30th Anniversary Tiananmen Commemoration Rally on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol, June 4
The following is a speech Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, delivered on June 4 at the Capitol Hill rally to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. She could not deliver the entire speech because of time constraints, but the full text is below.
WASHINGTON, D.C. 30 years ago today, the Chinese Communist Party massacred innocent students as they took a courageous stand for democracy of their country. They crushed any hope of political freedom in their land and left the rest of the world appalled, aghast at their brutality against the young and innocent.
Today, 30 years later, we see that human rights in China have not improved, but have deteriorated.
In 1994, when Most Favored Nation status was de-linked from human rights, the idea was that if we were to increase our economic and trade relationship with China, they would naturally embrace our values and improve on human rights. That policy has proven to be an epic fail.
Today, Tiananmen Square could never have happened, because China has no freedom of Assembly. People cannot gather on the square. If just two people were to gather on the square and hold up a sign, they will be detained immediately.
It would be impossible to gather so many people from so many parts of the country onto the Square, because China has become a surveillance state. They use technology as tools of repression: Millions of surveillance cameras for facial recognition and millions more of internet thought police to spy on their citizens. They issue social credit scores, and if your score is low enough, you cannot travel. They force people to study “Xi Jinping Thought,” which indoctrination permeates schools, billboards, and smart phones.
Reading the Congressional-Executive Commission on China report on human rights in China is like reading an indictment. As China’s economy has grown, so has its notorious disregard of human rights:
* More than 1 million Uyghur and other Muslim ethnic minorities are currently in “Political reeducation” concentration camps
*Experts believe that prisoners of conscience and religious believers are being executed to harvest their organs for transplant
*China exerts complete control and censorship of the media, jailing journalists who dare to tell the truth
*Xi Jinping has been consolidating his personal power. He essentially declared himself King, abolishing term limits so that he will remain President of China for life.
*Approximately 150 Tibetans have resorted to self-immolation to protest the repression of Tibet by Beijing
*Underground Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, have undergone a tremendous persecution, with churches being bulldozed, crosses being torn down, pastors and priests jailed. In April, 2016, in Henan province, a pastor’s wife, trying to protect her church from being bulldozed, was buried alive by the bulldozer. She has become a symbol of persecution in China.
* The coercive enforcement of their population control policies is China’s war against women. The CCP has functioned as “womb police,” declaring life or death over every pregnancy in the land. This coercion, begun under the One Child Policy, has continued under the Two Child Policy.
It has been estimated that 65 million people died as a result of Mao Zedong’s creation of a “socialist” China. This number makes him the greatest mass murderer of the 20thcentury. Yet even that number is eclipsed by the 400 million lives prevented by coercive population control. I would add that 400 million to the 65 million for a total of 465 million lives snuffed out by the CCP.
This is the hallmark of Communist regimes – the peacetime killing of their own citizens.
The two-child policy has not stopped this slaughter. The new rule is that every couple is allowed to have two children. Therefore, it is still illegal for single women to have babies in China, and third children are still illegal.
Girls are still selectively aborted. And senior suicide has skyrocketed 500 percent in the past 20 years, because the One Child Policy has destroyed the family structure in China. Elderly widows are abandoned, destitute, and are at risk of suicide.
Gender imbalance exacerbated by the One Child Policy is driving human trafficking and sexual slavery. In its June 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report, the State Department has listed China as a “Tier 3” nation, one of the worst offenders in the world. Does the CCP refuse to crack down of the trafficking of women because doing so could cause an insurrection of the 37 million men who will never find wives?
What should we do?
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is the only organization in the world that has boots on the ground to saving babies from sex-selective abortion through our “Save a Girl” Campaign. We are also saving destitute and abandoned widows through our “Save a Widow” Campaign.
We should utilize the Global Magnitsky Act, which authorizes the US government to sanction those human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the U.S. I propose this not only for family planning officials, but for all gross human rights offenders, who should be held publicly accountable. Let all that has been hidden in darkness be brought to light.
With 1.4 billion people, China holds almost one fifth of the population of the world. One in five people is suffering under the boot of this brutal, totalitarian regime. The world will not be free until the people of China are free.
Reggie Littlejohn (in orange) with her co-presenters and several attendees after the March 11 event. Her co-presenters were Jing Zhang (second row, fourth from the left), President of Women’s Rights in China; Lois Herman, Coordinator of the Women’s United Nations Reporting Network, who moderated; and Ms. Margaret Owen, Founder and CEO of Widows for Peace Through Democracy, to Reggie’s right in the photo. Credit: Women’s Rights Without Frontiers.
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers collaborated with the Women’s United Nations Reporting Network to sponsor an event at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The event was standing room only, a poweful success. Here is an excerpt of Reggie’s remarks:
“Zhen Ting’s” husband passed away with necrosis of the bone five years ago. She still remembers his last months, in and out of the hospital. The doctor finally told Zhen Ting to take her husband home and buy him his favorite foods. They had run out of money for hospitalization, and there was nothing more that could be done to save him.
Zhen Ting’s daughter-in-law became very angry at the cost of her father-in-law’s illness. The daughter-in-law yelled at this helpless, elderly couple. She told the neighbors, “It is better to die than live in pain and make the whole family suffer, spending all our savings so that we will become homeless people.” The daughter-in-law held out the example of an elderly woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer. She hanged herself on a tree in the back yard, to save her family from having to pay medical expenses.
Zhen Ting says that her son is an introverted person; he would never stand up to his wife. She had no support, no one to turn to, when a fieldworker from Women’s Rights Without Frontiers told her about our “Save a Widow” Campaign. Zhen Ting is deeply grateful for the monthly visit and monetary support she is now receiving. She says that even though her own son has abandoned her, kind strangers from far away are willing to help her. She told our fieldworker, “God is showing mercy to me and sent me an angel.”
“Zhen Ting” (name changed to protect her privacy), a widow given dignity, hope and practical help through our “Save a Widow” Campaign. Credit: Women’s Rights Without Frontiers.
China’s current elderly population is 241 million, 17.3 % of the nation’s total population, and rising. China’s elderly population is set to peak at nearly half a billion, or 35% of the total population, in 2050.
Sadly, senior suicide is on the rise. According to a report in the China Daily — a Chinese government–affiliated English language news outlet — the suicide rate of rural Chinese elderly has increased 500% in the past two decades, from 100 to 500 per 100,000. According to sociologist Liu Yanwu, who studied the issue for six years, “. . . I was more shocked by the lack of concern in villages where the elderly commit suicide . . . It seems that death is nothing to fear, and suicide is a normal, even a happy end.”
In the past, elders were venerated and cared for by their children and grandchildren. “Filial piety was valued in old China, but many elderly people in rural areas can no longer depend on their children as a result of the great economic and social changes over the past three decades,” continues Liu, “and the pension system fails to compensate . . . In China, farmers are vulnerable, and old farmers are the most vulnerable.”
Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, stated, “the studies show that the elderly, especially elderly widows who traditionally have depended on their children to support them in old age, are becoming destitute and so desperate that they are committing suicide. They are the invisible victims of the demographic disaster caused by the One Child Policy and are in urgent need of help.
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is committed to helping Chinese women at every stage of their lives. Our “Save a Girl” Campaign helps baby girls to be born, instead of being selectively aborted or abandoned because they are girls. Likewise, we help their mothers defend themselves against the pressure to abort or abandon their baby girls. And now through our “Save a Widow” Campaign, we are extending help to elderly widows, to ease their suffering and give them dignity and new hope in the twilight season of their lives.
These efforts are not enough to help all the baby girls or all the abandoned widows in China. We call upon the Chinese government to step up its efforts to help those most vulnerable.
Reggie and her husband, Robert in front of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women banner. Credit: Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
The two most vulnerable groups of females in China are baby girls forcefully aborted or abandoned, and elderly widows. Widows are exponentially increasing all over the world, but the rising number of poor, destitute widows has been quite invisible, especially in China. Many are in small, remote Chinese villages and without social protection, social provision for survival with dignity. In a society that continues to favor males, baby girls and elderly widows are often considered a liability in China. Widows may have large medical bills for their deceased husbands and for themselves. Their family may be far away and often disinterested in caring for an ageing family widow. Baby girls, if they are lucky enough to survive, may be abandoned, as their mothers are pressured to “give them away” in favor of having a boy.
Baby girls and widowed older women are, indeed, a tragic hidden crisis in China. This panel will discuss, show examples, and consider viable solutions, for Chinese baby girls and for elderly widows, with a particular focus on social protection, greater gender equality, human rights, and social justice.
Distinguished Speakers: · Ms. Reggie Littlejohn – Attorney, Founder Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
· Video on Abandoned Baby Girls & Forced Female Abortions in China
· Ms. Dubravka Simonovic – UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women – Invited
· Ms. Margaret Owen – UK Barrister, Founder & CEO Widows for Peace Through Democracy
· China Elderly Widows Video
· Ms. Jing Zhang – Founder & Director, Women’s Rights in China
Moderator: Ms. Lois A. Herman – Coordinator WUNRN-Women’s UN Report Network
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Littlejohn at UN Monday: Chinese Widows and Babies
Do you want to know why I have dedicated my life to helping the women and babies of China? I explain it all — including my time working with Mother Teresa – in my keynote speech at the Georgetown Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life. Even though this is the largest collegiate pro-life conference in the nation, my speech was very personal and watching it is a great way to get to know me better. Other keynote speakers have included Prof. Robert George and Lila Rose of Live Action.
The speech begins at 9:53. Click HERE to watch it. This speech took place after the March for Life in 2017, but the message is timeless.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Ever wonder why I do what I do?
I am grateful to Dr. James Dobson for his two landmark radio interviews concerning our work in China. Here is the first, concerning the suffering of women and baby girls in China, and my personal journey into dedicating my life to helping them.
To listen to the interview, click here. While the interviews took place in 2017, they are timeless.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Dr. James Dobson interviews Reggie on our work in China
We’ve Received $10,000 in Matching Funds!
We need $75,000 to continue our work!
This girl is one of hundreds of babies saved by our “Save a Girl” Campaign
Dear Friend,
In this season of giving, please remember the mothers, babies and widows of China, who are still enduring conditions beyond our imagination. In the United States, we have 1 million abortions a year. In China, they have 23 million abortions a year, and many of them are forced. For every abortion in the U.S., there are 23 in China. More human blood flows out of China today than any other country.
Baby girls in China are still in danger of sex-selective abortion and abandonment, especially second daughters. In one horrific incident, after the Two-Child Policy was implemented, a woman was forced by her husband to abort four baby girls in one year, and she died. In another incident, a newborn baby girl was thrown over a wall. These are just two of countless heartbreaking examples of the brutality of son preference in China.
This disabled widow is one of manywhose hope and dignity has been restoredthrough our “Save a Widow” Campaign
Also, abandoned widows are the “invisible victims” of decades of the One Child Policy. They have no one to care for them and many are deeply in medical debt because of money they borrowed to try to save their husbands. Senior suicide among the rural elderly has increased 500% in the past 20 years.
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is shining a bright light of hope to the women and babies of China. China has announced that it is considering ending the Two-Child Policy, due in large part to international pressure! We have been called “the leading voice” in the international movement to expose and oppose forced abortion in China, and we feel that our voices have been heard!
Our “Save a Girl” Campaign has saved the lives of hundreds of baby girls from sex-selective abortion and abandonment. And our “Save a Widow” Campaign is giving a multitude of widows dignity, hope, and the ability to buy nutritious food. Many women have said they feel that we have been sent by God to help them, and they have begun to attend church!
Reggie and Anni on a camping trip in Yosemite
We are saving a girl right at our kitchen table! We rescued Anni Zhang, daughter of persecuted dissident Zhang Lin. Anni became known as “China’s youngest prisoner of conscience,” after she had been kidnapped out of her 4th grade classroom at age ten. We were able to help get her out of China and have been raising her as our own daughter ever since. Now, at age 15, she is a lovely young lady. We are proud that she performed piano in Carnegie Hall – a reminder of the beauty and brilliance lost every day through brutal son preference in China.
Reggie has been called “the leading voice” in themovement to end forced abortion and gendercide in China
We need to raise $75,000 to continue and expand our work. Every baby girl in China at risk of sex- selective abortion deserves our help. Every widow who has been abandoned by her family and doesn’t have enough to eat deserves our help. Will you help us help them?
Please partner with us by writing a tax-deductible check to:
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers 722 Dulaney Valley Road, Suite 325 Towson, MD 21204
Double Your Impact! We have $10,000 in Matching Funds!
Dear Friend,
The women and girls of rural China continue to live lives of hardship that we can hardly imagine. Forced abortion and the sex-selective abortion and abandonment of baby girls continue under the Two-Child Policy. Widows are abandoned and destitute. Some are committing suicide.
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is unique. We are the only organization in the world with a network of fieldworkers, saving baby girls and supporting widows in rural China. We have been called “the leading voice” in the movement to end forced abortion and sterilization in China.
Would you help babies and widows in China by donating generously today, or on Giving Tuesday?
