CAPE TOWN, MONKEY VALLEY RESORT

The Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX)

The Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) is an initaive of APC Women's Neworking Porgramme that was developed in response to the calls from feminis and women's rights movements for greater understaning of emerging technologies, their potential and impact on the rights and lives of women.

FTX aims at building the knowledge and skills on communication rights and informatin and communication technologies from a feminst perspectives.It explores feminst practices and politics of technology and raises awareness on the critical role of communication rights in the struggle to advance women's rights world wide.

The FTX training in AWID attracted more than 100 participants from different countries were trained increative and strategic use of ICT facilities such as video, audio, social networking platforms, Digital storytelling and mobile and wireless technologies.

There were daily theatic plenary discussion such as ...... and skills sharing session from different tracks

All the tracks were interesting and practical and at the end of the three days training each track presented what they had managed to do

The video track presented video clips that featured participants opinions of feminist technolohy practices. The audio presented radio spots, the mobile technology demonstrated how to set up a wireless nework and bulk sms, the digital storytellers also screened their stories about their personal lives which ranged from identiy crisis and feminism.

All the plenary session were broadcasted live from FIRE Radio

My Experience at the AWID Forum Cape Town

The AWID Forum has started today where a hundred of women's rights activitis, donors and other stake holders converged to discuss the power of movements.
It stared with the plenary which I was not able to attend fully forst because I hadnot picked my conference tag and package. Enever the less, Later I was given a temporary pass. Thank God I later got my conference tag and the package.

I was previledged to have attended the FTX training and thefore it gave me access to ftx hub which was fully equiped with computers and a space for interaction.
Break away session.
I met with my ED, my Immediate Boss and one of the Isis staff. We looked at the program and selected seesion we were going to attend

The ABC of Movement Building-What, Why, and How by Srilatha B

The presenter started by defining the term Movement as an organised set of constituents pursuing a common political agenda of change through collective action.
And some of the characteristics of movments

1. Clear political agenda
2. Strong leadership at mutliple levels. Usually Movments have strong leadership at the top level only
3. Continunity
4. Diversity stragegies of political struggle and sharp anlaysis of power structure

Characteristics of Feminist Movements

1. Gendered political analysis and political goal which previlages women's interests and transforms both gender and social power relations
2. Use gender strategies and gender analysis
3. Women make up a critical mass meaning that they hold key decison making positions

Elements of Effective Feminist Movments

• Organisng and building mass base
• Consciuos raising and awreness building
• Focus on formal and substansive change- paradim shift in norms
• Clear power analysis to develop agenda

• Changing practice of power internaly and externally bearing in mind that most of us come from oppresive power backgrounds

Do Movements Matter

Yes, they do matter alot. Women who have organised them selves into a critical mass have caused enormous chnage. Examples were drawn from India and Mexico where women were able to organised them in a movement and challenged policies and practices that were not favouring them

Below are the spheres both Informal and Formal that justify why Women's Movements Matter

INFORMAL

Individual/ Community

• Internalised attittudes
• Values
• Practices
• Cultural norms
• Beliefs

FORMAL

• Access to and control over resources
• Laws and Polices

Feminst/Women's movements have failed in some cases and countries because of several factors, one of them e being that our problems have been externally defined and do not address the critical areas. An example of HIV/AIDS case was given where HIV is given a femine case and its women who have the highest number of infection. Money has been given to address the HIV/AIDS epidermic and because it is externally defined to buy retroviral drugs and others, critical gender analysis of the disease and how it affects women and men differently has not been addressed.

After all has been disscused regarding feminist/ women movement, dow er have a feminist movement in Uganda.? and if it is there what major changes has in done.


Politics, Power and Internet

Today, the intenet is shaping our existance in the transnational boundries. Women's rights have been emeshed in patriachal and capitalist values in the digital spaces.
When you introduce technology is the already inequality, it increases the inequality.

Can we think of a right to internet and communication rights in the digital spaces?
Can we have user generated content that women themselves can create?
An example of a google search about women in Costa Rich brought "Beautiful women from Costa Rica.
There is technical disaprootions. The internet today is shaping our reality world and creating visibility.
Women need to harness the potential of web2.o to create ther content

FTX Digital Story Telling Track

Its exciting here at Digital Story Telling Track
Stories are becoming powerful ways of raisng awareness, sharing experiences in a creative way. Digital story telling combines audio, text and visual formats to create a stroy.
Participants at the FTX digital story telling track have been working on their stories for the last three days. The first day we shared our stories orally as a traditional african way.
Today we are presenting our stories in a digital format. Its such a mazing to actually watch tha powerful stories with powerful messages. Stories ranged from personal stories to others peoles experience.
I did not tell my own story reason being that I wanted to bring out the work we do. Volence against women in situations of armed conflict and I learnt how to locate myslef in the story.
Its such a wonderful experience to do a story, recordning your voice as the person telling the story and adding apropriate pictures and messages.
I will add on when we finish screeining our stories.