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Initial support for meetings with rural women was provided by the Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence (PWHCE) and PWHCE continued its support of the work with rural women. A grant from the Women’s Program of Status of Women Canada funded the project “Empowering Rural Women’s Voices”.

Through RIWCS, workshops took place in Young, Nipawin, Carlyle, Swift Current, Unity, and Christopher Lake. A Forum was held in Muenster. Women attending those events identified Issues, Visions and Actions. A workshop on rural women and leadership was also held in Davidson. Over 300 actions were suggested in the workshops. These have been described in the workshop reports from each event. Go to publications page.

During the “Empowering Rural Women’s Voices” project small grants were given out for activities related to topics raised in the RWICS workshops.

RWICS has been on the news on local radio stations, weekly newspapers and in the Western Producer, and the Regina Leader Post. Reports from the RWICS workshops were sent to Saskatchewan policy-makers. RWICS representatives attend several provincial and federal policy and planning meetings.

Presentations about the RWICS project and the concerns and visions of rural women were highlighted in PowerPoint presentations to: Alberta Women’s Institute at Wainwright, the Crop Production show in Saskatoon, the Public Health and the Agricultural Rural Ecosystem international conference in Saskatoon, the New Directions in Population health Research conference in Regina, and the Looking Back, Thinking Ahead conference of the Atlantic Centre of Excellence on Women’s Health in Halifax.

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“Creating a forum for sharing and action.”

Rural women have positive ideas about the changes needed to improve the well-being of themselves and their communities. Yet too often, the voice of rural women is not heard.

The Rural Women’s Issues Committee of Saskatchewan (RWICS) was formed in November 2004 to bring together Saskatchewan women to talk about the issues facing them and their visions for the future.

The work of RWICS was partially inspired by a report on the health of women living in rural, remote and northern areas of Canada. Initial support for meetings with rural women was provided by the Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence (PWHCE). A grant from the Women’s Program of Status of Women Canada funded the project “Empowering Rural Women’s Voices” WHICH COMBINED WITH THE ONGOING SUPPORT OF PWHCE ENABLED RWICS TO CARRY OUT ITS WORK WITH RURAL WOMEN. This work has included holding workshops with rural women, providing small grants for events, publicizing the project and the views of rural women in the media and at conferences, and making policy-makers aware of the goals of rural women.





Saskatchewan has a strong history with women and women’s organizations leading the way to many policy improvements and important social reforms. In recent years, changing demographics, reductions in funding to women’s organizations, and the triple workload that rural and farm women carry, have made it more difficult for rural women’s organizations to remain active and present their views.

In its work RWICS hopes to link with individuals and organizations working to improve the situation of rural women and to help to bring the recommendations of rural women forward to decision-makers. Our goal is to support and encourage rural women to name their own issues, create their personal action plans and achieve their own visions.



Some quotes from the women after a workshops…

"Don’t feel quite so isolated. Other communities have the same problems or similar."

"Women need to support women."

"We need to get together to discuss further in depth issues in the future. We need to take an aggressive step forward, no longer sitting on the side or taking a backseat.” "Glad to see so many women speak out.”

”Much energy has come out of this meeting with women."



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