As part of the campaign to combat violence against women using ICTs, Isis-WICCE with support from Association for Progressive Communication (APC) conducted a training on VAW and ICT from November 15-19, 2010 at Hukeseho Women’s Group, Lwangosia, Namaingo district. The training was attended by 23 grassroots women’s rights activists from six sub counties. The purpose of the training was to equip women leaders as well as women living with HIV & AIDS with ICT skills to enable them create platforms and opportunities for women to engage with ICT to address violence against women and girls.
The training emphasized the use of new tools of communication for communication, the intersection between ICTs and VAW, use of mobile telephone applications for advocacy, Computer and Microsoft Word skills, Internet and web2.0 applications(blogging) and citizen Journalism.
During the training, a 59 year old participant shared an experience of how women in the olden days creatively used local platforms to combat violence against women. She shared that when she was growing up as a young girl, women used to look for a strategic location in the village which was usually an anthill. The woman would stand on top of the anthill and start shouting about the bad behaviors the husband has and she would say “my husband is bad, she beats me when I give meat to the children, he is a glutton, he doesn’t want me to do this that and that….” So that everyone in the village hears about her husband’s bad behaviors which would prompt the villagers to gossip about him, musicians would compose songs about his bad behaviors and he would be ashamed and eventually change his behaviors.
Today, technology has provided us with much more advanced platforms compared to an anthill such as mobile telephones, internet, computers where we can make noise about VAW so that the whole world can hear us. Unfortunately, most women lack the technical know-how and resources to access such tools and fully utilize, engage and participate.
This training on how to use ICTs to combat violence against women was an eye opener for the women in the new district of Namaingo in Eastern Uganda. Some women shared their experiences; “for me I have always seen a computer. There is an NGO that gave our group a very big computer but we have never touched it because we feared it. The computer is ours but we have never touched it. Now that I have got the knowledge and the skills, when I go back, I will use it” said Lyaka Grace from LASO.
For Taaka Alice her excitement was beyond and she said “I am very excited to have touched a computer for the first time in my life., I have touched the mouse and I typed my name and my husband’s name and I was able to see them on the screen. Thank you Isis for giving me this opportunity.” And Kintu Solome said “I used to think that computers are only for those people who are educated and are in big offices in Kampala but today I have realized that I can also use a computer”.
With regards to mobile telephony, while most of us assume that everyone who owns a mobile phone can be able to use the basic applications in it, this not a reality. Egesa Rose from Sigulu Islands was awakened on how little she knew after learning about mobile phone applications “I have always had a mobile phone, I have been using it to call and check the time only but it is today that I have learnt that I can use it to send a short message to my people which is even cheaper”
Much as they were excited about the new tools, the training enabled them to understand the linkage between VAW and ICT. Senga Perusi Onyango an elderly lady commented that “men buy mobile phones for the wives to control them. If a man calls the wife and she does not answer the call immediately, she will be asked to explain what she was doing and she will be beaten. Remember, at times the wife might be in the garden or in the kitchen cooking”.
For Gladys Maloba, her experiences was that mobile phones have increased the rate of telling lies especially among the couples.Forinstance, you call your husband ask him where he is, he will tell you that I am Bugiri on the contrally,when get to Namayingo, you find him there and he asks you where are you going? who has given you permission and you will be beaten.
And for Barbara, her learning was that “much as these telephones have caused violence against women in some circumstances, I have learnt that we can use the same phones to send messages to the men who violate women’s rights to educate them about VAW”.T
he women for the first time were able to see and use internet by searching the web and opening up their first email addresses, a group email(tumbulawomen@yahoo.com) and a group blog(http://www.tumbulawomen.wordpress.com/). To most of them, they imagined that internet was a building in Kampala while others thought internet is a human being. This is a reflection of total ignorance or lack of any knowledge of such tools. While some us have access to such communication tools and are using internet, email on a daily basis, many women in rural areas have not even heard about such tools.
Lastly, the women were introduced to Frontline SMS software application used for sending bulk SMS. This software works with any Global System for Mobile (GSM) network. They used it to send out test message to them selves. During the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence, this platform will be used by women to send out text messages to raise awareness on issues of violence against women and women’s rights in their community.
We call for more support to enable the women acquire computers and internet as means of empowering them to take control of new technology tools and contribute to bridging the gender digital divide.
Why dedicate a day exclusively to the celebration of the world's women?
The United Nations General Assembly, composed of delegates from every Member State, celebrates International Women's Day to recognize that peace and social progress require the active participation and equality of women, and to acknowledge the contribution of women to international peace and security.
For the women of the world, the Day is an occasion to review how far they have come in their struggle for equality, peace and development.
You might think that women's equality benefits mostly women, but every one-percentile growth in female secondary schooling results in a 0.3 percent growth in the economy. Yet girls are often kept from receiving education in the poorest countries that would best benefit from the economic growth.
Until the men and women work together to secure the rights and full potential of women, lasting solutions to the world's most serious social, economic and political problems are unlikely to be found.
In recent decades, much progress has been made. On a worldwide level, women's access to education and proper health care has increased; their participation in the paid labor force has grown; and legislation that promises equal opportunities for women and respect for their human rights has been adopted in many countries. The world now has an ever- growing number of women participating in society as policy-makers.
However, nowhere in the world can women claim to have all the same rights and opportunities as men.
The majority of the world's 1.3 billion absolute poor are women.
On average, women receive between 30 and 40 per cent less pay than men earn for the same work.
And everywhere, women continue to be victims of violence, with rape and domestic violence listed as significant causes of disability and death among women of reproductive age worldwide.
http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/womensday/pages/why_content.asp
For the women of the world, the Day is an occasion to review how far they have come in their struggle for equality, peace and development.
You might think that women's equality benefits mostly women, but every one-percentile growth in female secondary schooling results in a 0.3 percent growth in the economy. Yet girls are often kept from receiving education in the poorest countries that would best benefit from the economic growth.
Until the men and women work together to secure the rights and full potential of women, lasting solutions to the world's most serious social, economic and political problems are unlikely to be found.
In recent decades, much progress has been made. On a worldwide level, women's access to education and proper health care has increased; their participation in the paid labor force has grown; and legislation that promises equal opportunities for women and respect for their human rights has been adopted in many countries. The world now has an ever- growing number of women participating in society as policy-makers.
However, nowhere in the world can women claim to have all the same rights and opportunities as men.
The majority of the world's 1.3 billion absolute poor are women.
On average, women receive between 30 and 40 per cent less pay than men earn for the same work.
And everywhere, women continue to be victims of violence, with rape and domestic violence listed as significant causes of disability and death among women of reproductive age worldwide.
http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/womensday/pages/why_content.asp
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
- Clear political agenda
- Strong leadership at mutliple levels. Usually Movments have strong leadership at the top level only
- Continunity
- Diversity stragegies of political struggle and sharp anlaysis of power structure
- Gendered political analysis and political goal which previlages women's interests and transforms both gender and social power relations
- Use gender strategies and gender analysis
- Women make up a critical mass meaning that they hold key decison making positions
- 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
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.
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.
WHAT IS WEB 2.0?
Web2.0 is known as the participatory web. Some call it user generated or user centred web. Others say it is data driven. Tim O'Reilly, the mand credited with coining the term web2.0 has defined it as the bussiness revolution in the computer industry casued by the move to the internet as the platform. Wikipeadia is one of the graet examples of we2.0 at work.
Ethan Zuckerman of Global Voices has come up with his own name for it 'read and write web'. This is so because anyone with internet access can now create their own content and tailor pages to suit their own particular needs.
Web2.0 refers to the second generation of webbased services. It covers a wide range of applications including blogs, mashups, wikis and feeeds to social bookmarking, social networking and media sharing sites.
Ethan Zuckerman of Global Voices has come up with his own name for it 'read and write web'. This is so because anyone with internet access can now create their own content and tailor pages to suit their own particular needs.
Web2.0 refers to the second generation of webbased services. It covers a wide range of applications including blogs, mashups, wikis and feeeds to social bookmarking, social networking and media sharing sites.
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