femTALK E’News 11/2003
fem’LINKpacific: MEDIA INITIATIVES FOR WOMEN

“Maturity means recognizing that you exist in an inequitable community of people, with wide disparities of opportunities, of incomes, of privileges and of power or access to resources. Maturity recognizes your privileged situation within that community… We are all in this world to serve.” (Savenaca Siwatibau)

Bula Vinaka and Greetings from femLINKpacific!

In this bulletin:

- Spaces of Our Own: An Update from femLINKpacific’s Coordinator
- Women’s Civil Society: a round up of news and alerts from the women’s civil society including a Global Call to Action… ”UNIFEM and all women and development activities under threat” reports the International Women’s Tribune Centre; Meet the FDPA women’s advocacy volunteer
- Peter says ….our Associate Producer has his say
- Experiences from ‘Eta
- femTALK 1325…more from the women’s peace front including reflections from the briefing with the Fiji National Security and Defence Review Committee

Spaces of Our Own

In 2001 when femLINKpacific was producing our pilot community video (thanks to IWDA) we interviewed Sashi Kiran. I had only met Sashi rather superficially during my time in the man-stream media world, but since “Not Just Sweet Talk” I have learnt so much from this young woman that I really am in awe of just how she manages to mobilize for change, in particular economic change.

In “Not Just Sweet Talk” Sashi highlighted the need for a more holistic approach to women’s economic empowerment programmes. She shared her vision for the need to assist with not just with the finances to develop and start economic and income generating activities but to teach women how to sustain and manage their small enterprises. She identified the gaps in the micro enterprise programmes: “Women on a day to day basis they have local resources, they’re doing a whole range of things but there’s no market. How does a women in Ra, get her chillies or her tavioka – the only place where she can sell it is in the Ra market but if there’s over supply of things there then there’s no market, and sometimes it’s hard for her to leave her old mother in law, little children and so on to get up and go – so there’s no way of product development, there’s no way of packaging their products and so on, and there’s no agency helping women market their produce. OK so it’s easy to say economic empowerment and go and train them in small business, but where from there?”

Since then, Sashi has tried to address the gaps she identified, and the story of FRIENDS, the Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises Development has made the news since the launch of the “chutney project” on International Women’s Day this year. Even the Air Pacific Inflight Magazine has a story about it. But the initial project funding has dried up and FRIENDS needs more help to keep the work going, to pay the volunteers, to assist in the operations of not just coordinating the production and packaging, but also ensuring the quality control and all else that is needed when running a small business. They have organized small fundraisers, including a walkathon recently, but this only distracts them from the work they need to be doing ‘in the field’.But despite these current obstacles, Sashi remains positive and motivated to do whatever she can to address poverty in her community:

“I have seen poverty for the last five seven years. I have seen enough resources on the trees. And I just can’t imagine why people just can’t do anything about it. I have figured out why now, (because of) how difficult it is to get anything started here. It is very difficult. I’ll tell you. It is simple to get people to make chutney. To package it, there are so many requirements, especially health requirements and a small community cannot afford to set up all this. So we are getting money and helping people set it up and it’s very expensive. I sometimes I wonder how if all these requirements are really operational how much does small restaurants being checked and so because I don’t see these regulations being met. But there’s lots and lots of requirements and it’s no wonder small groups cannot start their income generating projects.”

If you can help FRIENDS in anyway, please contact Sashi Kiran on 9976434.

We are still glowing from recent “good news”:

(a) FM Sound Broadcast Licence of fem’LINKpacific

On the 24th of October, Fiji Government’s Minister for Communications, the Honourable Jone Kubuabola approved fem’LINKpacific’s application to establish, operate and maintain a non commercial mobile radio station. The granting of the licence is the first step towards establishing the women’s mobile radio station, and now enables us to purchase the mobile equipment. (well actually to fundraise for the equipment and the licence fee) ….

If you would like to support this community radio initiative, please contact us …all help welcome!

(b) Gender and ICT Award short listing:

Anna Hidalgo, Project Coordinator of the Gender and ICT Awards, wrote to the Coordinator informing her that after a rigorous screening process, your initiative, femLINKpacific: Media Initiatives for Women, has been selected as one of the 6 finalists in the Outstanding Individual or Community-Based Initiative, Advocacy/Networking category. As one of the finalists, femLINKpacific will be included in a publication being prepared by the Global Knowledge Partnership, for distribution at the World Summit on the Information Society this December. The actual announcement of the winners is expected by November 20, 2003.

About the APC WNSP AND GKP GENDER AND ICT AWARDS: Information and communications technologies (ICTs) play a growing role in the world's societies, and have the potential to help disadvantaged groups increase their participation in the civic, social, political, and economic processes critical to achieving change.

However, women - particularly women in developing countries - don't benefit from these new technologies, a reflection of the existing unequal power relations in societies as a whole. ICTs can be used to either exacerbate or transform unequal power relations. ICTs cannot create gender equality, or end poverty, but they can be tools for social action and positive social change.

The APC WNSP and GKP Gender and ICT Awards aim to honor and bring international recognition to innovative and effective projects by women to use ICTs for the promotion of gender equality and/or women's empowerment.

Specifically, the Awards' objectives are to:

· Recognise gender and ICT initiatives globally and provide further impetus for others to mainstream gender in the field of ICTs for women's empowerment, and therefore support our advocacy work;
· Provide a much-needed venue to recognise community-based or small-scale initiatives designed and implemented by women and women's organisations/networks; while providing recognition to larger scale but cost-effective multi-stakeholder initiatives;
· Provide much needed opportunities to develop new collaborations/partnerships and opportunities for upscaling small-scale and community-based initiatives.
· To increase the profile as well as knowledge and networking base of both APC-WNSP and GKP in the area of gender and ICTs.

The awards are open to projects from all around the world.

Community Media Productions

• fem’TALK Sharing the Light: a community media production (video and magazine) in production with assistance from the World Association of Christian Communicators and UNESCO:

As a child, I remember my dad ‘sharing the light’ of our Christian faith during the annual Diwali celebrations. A large wooden cross would be adorned with candles and placed at the front of our house. It certainly drew much attention and I was often aware of the negative comments, from those who felt we need to be more ‘puritanical’ as Christians in our practices. But how can you NOT celebrate a significant event that highlights our collective values and beliefs ? Isn’t it time that we seriously discard our labels and think more collectively as Fiji Islanders?
As Producer/Director of “fem’TALK Sharing the Light” our production process has been a wonderful learning experience of looking behind the scenes at the actual celebration of Diwali, learning from the Hindu and Christian women we have interviewed and sharing the goals of Interfaith Search Fiji, as we all work towards bringing about long term peace.

It is important that there is dialogue between the different ethnic and religious communities in order to cultivate greater respect and understanding of each other’s values, and this is the work of Interfaith Search Fiji. Their journey began in 1987, one that was very much inspired and encouraged by Suliana Siwatibau, and one that we hope we can also strengthen or emulate, especially at community level.

We need to shed our politicized labels, as members of Fiji society, and instead continue to celebrate and learn by practical example, what is advocated in the Bill of Rights in our 1997 Constitution which grants all people equality before the law, thus stating that all people are indeed equal, this seeks to uphold national values we can all aspire to uphold, ensuring mutual respect between different races and tolerance and understanding amongst the different faith traditions.

We look forward to “Sharing the Light” with you soon ….SBr

• femLINKpacific is continuing to document a range of activities being organized by members of the the Fiji Women, Peace and Security Coordinating committee
  
  
• fem’TALK 1325 Community Magazine: Plans are underway to develop and produce articles for our new community magazine designed to provide the much needed space to promote women and peace initiatives. This will have a special focus on the four countries of the UNIFEM Pacific Women, Peace and Security project for Melanesia. We are grateful to UNIFEM for their support of this community media initiative.

When is a cup of coffee not just about a cup of coffee?
Stay in touch with femLINKpacific or Katy Pullen at UNIFEM Pacific for details about how your cup of coffee can make a difference on December 10th…..

The Women’s Civil Society

The National Council of Women Fiji members will be coming together with the staging of a walkathon in Suva and Nadi on Saturday 29th November. You can contribute to this fundraising effort by joining in this effort with a minimum sponsorship of $10.

Contact The NCWFiji Coordinator on 679- 3311880 for more information.

Look at My Abilities:

Sushila is a disabled person, with a physical disability. She works with the Fiji Disabled People’s Association (FDPA) as a volunteer-advocacy trainee, working closely with Robyn James. Sushila is also the Treasurer of the FDPA’s women’s committee. Her work involves meeting with the women’s committee and raising awareness and issues to make life better for women with disabilities, so she will be very involved in the Pasifika Forum in December:

“On the 6th of September I went to the Lami Post Office to check my mail, When I returned home at about 11am, my brother and his family had all gone out. I got into the house and opened my bedroom door and left the key hanging there. I started reading the letter I had received from my sister. Suddenly I heard the kitchen door open and I thought my sister in law had returned with the shopping so I didn’t worry. But, the house had been broken into. One of the burgulars, locked me in my room, and so I am thankful I was not attacked. I was also lucky that there was a telephone in my room and I was able to alert the Lami Police, but by the time they arrived, the men had left.”

Sushila is thankful that she was not harmed, nor was anything stolen, but what if it had been a more violent assault or crime? What if Sushila’s disability meant that she was unable to use the phone or even call out for help? Violence against women with disabilities is certainly an issue that will be raised during the Pasifika Forum, and a concern that all able bodied persons must be aware of.

The Disabled People's International Oceania Sub-Regional Office is organizing a Pasifika Forum for Women with Disabilities in Suva from 6 - 8 December 2003.

According to Sainimili Tawake of the Disabled People's International Oceania SubRegional Office, "The purpose of the meeting is "to build the capacity of women with disabilities in the Pacific and to promote their equal treatment and fill participation in the development and
implementation of national, regional and international initiatives pertaining to women and disability.

Eleven Oceania countries will be represented including Australia, French Polynesia and New Zealand. Oceania countries are Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.Should funds permit we will invite sisters from Tonga, Timor-Leste, as well as representatives from the Aboriginal and Maori Communities"

For more information contact Sainimili Tawake on 679-3311203/3307530.

Catholic Women’s League Fiji to host Asia Pacific Meet in 2004:

From May 3 to 8, 2004 members of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations (WUCWO) will join their sisters from the Catholic Women’s League Fiji as they host this exciting conference for the Asia-Pacific region. With the theme “The Prophetic Mission of Women in the Asia Pacific Region” conference discussions will be centered around 3 focus areas, namely The Trafficking on Women and Children, Violence against Women and the Ongoing Education for Women.

Meanwhile, following their participation at UNIFEM Pacific’s CEDAW TOT workshop, the Catholic Women’s League Fiji is looking to strengthen its work in the rural communities amongst its members. Citing Article 14 of CEDAW as their tool for change, which states:

“State parties shall take into account the particular problems faced by rural women and the significant roles which rural women play in the economic survival of their families, including their work in the non-monetized sectors of the economy…..”

CEDAW calls on governments who have ratified CEDAW to ensure that rural men AND women participate in and benefit from rural development, with particular emphasis to ensure women have the right:

o to participate in all levels of development planning
o to access to adequate health care facilities, including information, counseling and services in family planning
o to benefit from social security programmes
o to obtain all types of formal and non-formal training and education
o to organize self help groups such as cooperatives in order to obtain equal access to economic opportunities through employment or self-employment
o to participate in community activities
o to have access to agricultural credit and loans, marketing facilities, appropriate technology and equal treatment in land and agrarian reform as well as land resettlement schemes
o to enjoy adequate living conditions, especially housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and communications

A GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION!!

UNIFEM AND ALL WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES UNDER THREAT
Source: IWTC Women's GlobalNet #238
Activities and Initiatives of Women Worldwide
November 13, 2003

The Fiji Association of Women Graduates Secretary, Lily Vesikula reports that they are supporting the petition and “Call to Action” for UNIFEM. Please support this initiative contact Lily Vesikula on vesikula_l@usp.ac.fj:

Last week, women worldwide were alerted to the fact that the Dutch government has decided to eliminate their funding for UNIFEM. Currently, funding from The Netherlands represents 20% of UNIFEM's core budget.

What does this mean for UNIFEM? According to Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer, the loss of these funds could lead to cutbacks in all regions and programmes, including up to a 50% cut of UNIFEM funding in the African region alone. It appears that the government of The Netherlands
decided to prioritize support for "gender mainstreaming" over support for women-specific programs, inferring that women's agencies have not
been successful in mainstreaming gender equality.

The cutting of funds to UNIFEM is further evidence of a change in heart and policy among major government donor agencies that have until now
been such strong supporters of women and development activities. Since the first United Nations World Conference on Women in Mexico 1975, when the world sat up and took notice of the needs, concerns and issues of women worldwide, The Netherlands has led the way in this respect. Major non-governmental organization (NGO) initiatives such as the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights and the International Women's Tribune Centre could not have achieved all that they have without this support and encouragement. Yet sadly, both of these groups have now lost their Dutch funding along with other government donor agency funding and are in danger of having to close their doors.

In the words of Peg Snyder, founding Director of UNIFEM, "we have invested gender mainstreaming with too much promise, to the neglect or even disparagement of women-specific institutions and organizations that have been and still are the fount of ideas and innovative actions, and a source of women's collective strength". Peg goes on to say: "Women and development transformed development thinking about women, who had previously been seen as wives and mothers only in the history of UN assistance. That transformation, giving visibility to women's profound economic and political contributions to their families and societies, needs to be celebrated, not denigrated, as we move forward to support women's peace actions, and to assist women and men workers who are trapped by the negative effects of the global economy.All this comes at a time when the rise of religious fundamentalism in all its forms already threatens to set back many of the gains made in 25 years of UN world conferences on women. Women activists and advocates who have used the UN conferences to leverage change dare not allow the re-opening of already agreed-upon policy documents, such as the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), for discussion and possible updating, not with retroactive forces poised to take away many of women's hard-won gains as represented in these documents. Most affected would be reproductive health rights for women, rights that could not be more important in a world facing an AIDS pandemic that threatens to destroy all the development gains of the past 25 years. Never before have women's lives and livelihoods, been under such serious threat.

Never before have women's activism and advocacy been more needed.

The possibility of seeing focused efforts to implement both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed upon by all Member States of the UN in 2000, and the BPFA, has also been dealt a severe blow by the threat of donor support withdrawal. In fact, many of the goals enshrined in the MDGs have been brought to the world's attention by women's activism and advocacy efforts in the past 25 years. Would violence against women have become a central item on the global human rights agenda without UNIFEM and the worldwide activism of women's NGOs? Would
Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security (2001) have become a reality if UNIFEM and women peace activists had not
lobbied hard in every world region, and in the halls of the UN? These are just two among hundreds of issues that the combined efforts of women
in NGOs working in concert with UNIFEM have brought to the UN and governmental decision-making tables. As the late Sharon Capeling-Alakija, director of UNIFEM 1989-1994, frequently commented, "If UNIFEM does not speak of these issues, who in the UN will?”

It is not difficult to imagine that perhaps we women have been too successful in putting gender concerns at the core of the world's agendas.

Perhaps we are threatening the powers that be in ways they have not been threatened before? Suffice to say that women's networks and organizations everywhere, whether UN agencies such as UNIFEM, government gender units, or NGO networks, are facing a backlash that is now making itself felt worldwide by the withdrawal of essential funds. We must take action before we lose our hard won gains.

Peter says ….our Associate Producer has his say…..

In the last few weeks I have responded to interviews from the Fiji Times, Daily Post and Stuart Hill of Radio Australia to comment not just on the ordination of Rev Canon Gene V Robinson in New Hampshire, but the barrage of responses by conservative religious leaders, not only in Fiji and the Pacific Region, but also in congregations of America, Africa and South East Asia where members of the Anglican Church are threatening to disassociate themselves with this strand on inlcusiveness:

I have learnt not to rely on the mainstream media reports for information anymore, cynical, I know, for someone who is yet to turn 30, but important if I wanted to get my facts right on this issue. I went straight to the source, in this case responses from the Rev Canon Gene V Robinson himself, posted on the Diocese of New Hampshire Web page, this in response to the questions of how he and his former wife dealt with their acknowledgement of his sexuality:

“ ……Jesus Christ challenges us to take Him at His word, to accept the extravagance of His accepting love, to be the Child of God we were created to be, no matter the cost—in order to better serve Him. I answered God's call to acknowledge myself as a gay man. My wife and I, in order to KEEP our wedding vow to "honor [each other] in the Name of God," made the decision to let each other go. We returned to church, where our marriage had begun, and in the context of the Eucharist, released each other from our wedding vows, asked each other's forgiveness, cried a lot, pledged ourselves to the joint raising of our children, and shared the Body and Blood of Christ.”

How lucky Rev. Robinson is to have not only his family and friends understanding, love and compassion but also that of his church. It makes me wonder whether our Church leaders in the Pacific can be as accommodating, as accepting, as inclusive, not just as their counterparts in New Hampshire, but as guided by the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I certainly hope that despite how difficult and uncomfortable this issue maybe, that our church leaders will enable dialogue and discussion to consider hear from the oppressed, whether it be talking to gay men and lesbians, or the economically disempowered. After all, for many of us, our disempowerment by society is linked into economics, as well, whether we are facing abuse in the school playground, on the streets in broad daylight or in the choices that are made to resort to sex work, making us more vulnerable to HIV/Aids.

Reading the comments of members of the Methodist church, has left me feeling apprehensive. The power of pulpit is mightier than the sword, but when the power distorts rather than listens, when the power disempowers, rather than strengthens, I fear that the gay community needs to be cautious of possible backlash, especially physical abuse.

All I hope for right now, is that as Pacific Islanders, as Pacific Christians, we will enact our faith, to act as Christ did and to look to all people as deserving, dignified and worthy of love and support as everyone should be. We will enact the picture-postcard traits of generosity, kindness and caring.

I guess this one of those times that we bank on all of these values to guide us through another period of change.

Peter Sipeli is a founding member and presently the Associate Producer of femLINKpacific. He previously was the Coordinator of the Sexual Minorities Project (Women’s Action for Change). Through his work with femLINK, in particular working on our community video projects, he is increasing his capacity to produce community media that will support his advocacy work.

Experiences from ‘Eta

From August 24th to the 28th the Women’s Bureau of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and the Regional Resource Rights Team staged a four day workshop for women from the Loyalty Islands as well as women’s group leaders, activists, representatives of national non-governmental organizations, eminent leaders from civil society groups, and women and girls directly involved in peace process and women’s rights issues gathered with a few brave men, to learn and discuss CEDAW, gender equality issues and human rights; they discussed local training needs to increase awareness of legal and human rights issues, understanding of legal rights and how appropriate training can work for the community of men and women, implementation of human rights strategies. The workshop also gave the participants a chance to share their experiences and realities:

During the 4 day workshop I heard women voice their concerns on discrimination against women and equality for women, how government actions was needed to stop discrimination in areas such as education, marriage, legal status, health issues; how international organizations were needed in funding their projects and how they wanted to know the procedure in asking for assistance financially from this organizations.

What touched me the most was the fact that most of those women were mothers and with very little resources or financial assistance, yet there they were, juggling their work as mums and wives, but in attendance at the workshop because they felt responsible not just for themselves but other women in their community.

I heard them talk about women who were still in the dark on what their rights were and what policies were in place for those who were being physically and verbally abused; I heard them tell of the need to learn about how to lodge complaints, the health and education priorities for their children; I heard them share that their traditional and cultural practices played the most important part in hindering their role in dealing with family issues e.g. conflicts, legal issues (property of deceased husband), marriage, their status as women in society (leaders such as politicians) etc.

I heard all of that and then I went out with them and witnessed my first hand experience of discrimination in Noumea.

Maybe it seems like a small incident, trivial when local women are denied the rights of other customers. When women timidly chose to sit outside and place their own orders as ‘regular customers’ were served by the staff. It was all very new to me but when I raised my concern with them, the women said it wasn’t a new experience for them, in fact they actually expected it. I didn’t just see this that evening, but also at the beaches, where the members of the local indigenous community are socially–herded into the background …..I started to realize that their whole attitude towards discrimination was because they had lost their self-esteem because of consistent discrimination just because of who they happened to be born as.

I felt overwhelmed, and guilty of being so ungrateful of how much I had taken my status and situation at home for granted. The fact that I am able to walk in public without being made to feel like an outsider. I can walk into any restaurant here at home, with my children, and enjoy the services without being made to feel like I don’t belong.

Yes, the system needs to be changed but that cannot happen overnight. Discrimination and all forms of violence, are violations of the human rights of any individual, and I am so glad of the opportunity now to work in an environment where we are looking at practical tools to assist the empowerment of women. To ensure that their not only that their stories and experiences are heard, the challenge for us, here at femLINKpacific, we are realizing more and more is the need to repackage the stories for the policy makers, to enact the changes that are needed, after all, aren’t they the ones who have the final say ?

Eta Tora is the young woman volunteer with femLINKpacific assisting in production administration and media monitoring

fem’TALK 1325

Briefing on National Security and Defence Review:

On Monday 27 October members of National Council of Women affiliates together with representatives of the Fiji Women, Peace and Security met with representatives of the Fiji Government National Security and Defence Review Committee to find out more about how we, as women peacebuilders can contribute to the review process. The meeting was an enlightening experience all-round and certainly help demystify the whole process.

Transcripts from the meeting have been circulated to WPS Fiji members and groups are reminded to submit their viewpoints to the NSDRC before Christmas.


Linking our Voices with the Policy Makers: Women Waging Peace

The briefing session on Monday 27 certainly helped set the scene for the Coordinator of femLINKpacific who had the opportunity to attend the 5th Colloquim and Executive Training organized by Women Waging Peace in Boston, from November 1 – 8.

With an intense but practical learning schedule, which also enabled femLINKpacific to share some of the women and peace initiatives being undertaken to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the Coordinator has returned strengthened to continue to link the voices of women that we gather from the field with national and regional decision/policy makers.

The first edition of “femTALK 1325” will feature stories from “Waging”.

The Gender and Peace Programme of the Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy (ECREA) has just completed a workshop on Restorative Justice and Mediation Skills in Suva. A follow up workshop on Mediation Skills is underway this week facilitated by Vicki Sanderford-O’Connor and Jean Handley. Participants include a variety of stakeholders from Government, Security forces, Churches, Interfaith search Fiji, NGOs and other civil society organizations:

Restorative Justice is a process to involve to the extent possible, those who have a stake in a specific offense to collectively, identify and address harms, needs and obligations in order to heal and put things as right as possible.

The aim of the first workshop was to enable participants to learn:

1. The experience of community building as the foundation of a restorative practice.
2. Guidelines, Principles and Vision of Community Building
3. Understand the barriers to authentic community, restorative practices and strong, healthy teams
4. Acquire a head and heart understanding of the differences between a punitive based model of management of communication and healing restorative approach
5. Understand how the concepts and principles of a restorative philosophy apply to personal and professional lives and relationships and impact their ability to function as an effective team
6. Develop an application of a restorative approach in their own sphere of influence

The second workshop, focuses on Mediation and facilitation skills, which are a vital component in any conflict situation. The programme aims to expose participants to the necessary mediation skills that are required when one is a third party in a conflict.

About the trainers:

Vicki Sanderford-O’Connor has a Masters of Arts in Conflict Transformation from the Conflict Transformation Programme, Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia USA, also spent 16 years with the California Department of Corrections, culminating her career as Community Correctional Program Manager with oversight of multiple programs and a $14 million budget. She is a published author of the book “The Power of Compassion: Transforming the Correctional Culture” and articles on violence in the workplace and restorative practices. She is Principal of Clariquest Consultancy.

Jean Handley is an international trainer, mediator and coach. She is a registered civil mediator in Louisiana and a Restorative Justice Practitioner. Jean has facilitated community-building workshops in the U.S and internationally in Israel, the United Kingdom and Germany.

Meanwhile, a workshop on Community trauma healing will be staged at the Pacific Regional Seminary, Suva from the 8th – 12th December and 15th –19th December 2003 that will be conducted by Al Fuertes:

This workshop is designed towards a broader knowledge and a deep understanding of the dynamics of (war) trauma through people’s images, feelings, and behaviors; and their coping mechanisms through personal and collective narratives rituals and other community based healing approaches. Participants will explore various community based conflict views and coping mechanisms within their respective socio-historical and cultural context towards a comprehensive approach to post-conflict reconstruction and community building.

Believing that community based trauma healing is a vital component in peace and community building processes, participants will explore theories relevant to this and how they make sense in actual practice and implementation. Foremost of these are the theory of sustainable community development, group theory, the theory of literacy and micro theories of the person.

This workshop believes that primary and secondary victims of any overt and protracted conflict, no matter how victimized they may feel about themselves are capable of articulating conflict views in light of their experience. As a community affected by conflict, they have their own coping mechanisms. Since this is a community based exploratory workshop, participants will examine how conflict views inform and give substance to coping mechanisms and at the same time explore possibilities in terms of how such coping mechanisms help process such conflict views.

About the trainer: Al Fuertes is a Ph.D. student in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA and will soon start working on a doctoral dissertation by fall 2003. He holds a Master of Arts in Peace Studies with a Bachelor of Theology. He has facilitated, co-taught and lectured in the area of trauma healing and recovery in Thailand, USA, Malaysia and in his country the Philippines. He has also written several articles.

1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 Initiative by Nicci Simmonds and Koila Costello Ollsen:
During 2003, an exciting Swiss initiative to obtain a Nobel Peace Prize for 1000 women in 2005, built momentum. The Swiss women who led the initiative have succeeded in forming an international network of coordinators, an academic team to research women’s strategies for peacebuilding, an Association to ensure accountability and responsibility in the project, and have secured initial funding, and had a constructive and fruitful meeting with the Nobel Committee. At this stage toward the end of 2003, having determined criteria and key principles, we need to bring this initiative to the Pacific, and bring Pacific women peacebuilders to the attention of the international community.

We welcome your support, in whatever form, to make this a reality. In the Pacific, there is a small team of us coordinating the campaign with the office in Switzerland. While it is our plan to contact all the existing women’s, feminist and conflict transformation networks in our region, we invite these networks and organizations to also contact us directly. Please view this as an opportunity to put forward candidates for the nomination. Of course funding is urgently required to enable the research and documenting to begin, but support in the following areas would also be received with gratitude. Contacts in organizations and networks including in West Papua, Australia and East Timor; information and recommendations for candidates; photographic and film documentation; biographies and written accounts; access to the media.

This campaign is important for a number of reasons. It will bring together research and analyses of the roles women are playing in transforming conflicts, such as their strategies and the obstacles they face. It will celebrate the courage and power of women from all walks of life in addressing injustice and violence as a response to the conflicts in our world, and in so doing it will strengthen their position. It will provide a critical comparison to the strategy of militarisation as a response to conflict. Perhaps most importantly, it will help women move from the informal into the formal sphere, around the negotiation tables and strengthen their influence on official actors.

Clear criteria and rigorous standards are being applied in the selection of 1000 of the many women who could be nominees. We are looking for women from all countries and all levels of society. Farmers, judges, religious leaders, teachers, artists, politicians as well as political activists will be among the 1000. Their work will include activities related to violent armed conflicts, but also domestic abuse, justice, democratization, and women’s rights. They will be women who daily invest their experience and abilities in the cause of sustainable and just peace. Recognition through the Nobel Peace Prize will show the world that their work is exemplary and necessary.

If you are interested in supporting this campaign, or if you would like to receive further information in relation to the Pacific region, please contact Nicci Simmonds at nicci.simmonds@1000peacewomen.org, or Koila Costello-Ollson at gencom@ecrea.org.fj. You may also obtain further information and media documentation under www.1000peacewomen.org.

Crossposting from WE!: World Association of Christian Communicators gears up for 2005 MEDIA MONITORING DAY

First conducted in 1995 and participated in by 71 countries, the GMMP is a world-wide day of monitoring how media represents women. The results of the initial GMMP were presented at the Women's NGO Forum in Beijing in September 1995. At the official UN World Conference on Women in Beijing, "Women and the Media" was included as a separate area of concern in the Platform of Action and monitoring of women's roles and representations in the media became part of the platform resolutions.

Capitalising on the results of GMMP 1995, another international monitoring day was undertaken in 2000. GMMP 2000 was a more extensive and qualitative GMMP study. It aimed not only to assess changes in world-wide representations of women by the media since 1995 but also improved and built upon the original study by involving more organisations in the research and making the study more contextual. Preliminary results of the GMMP 2000 were released in time for the Beijing +5 events in June 2000 and the final results were published in the book entitled "Who Makes the News?"

Since its release, results of GMMP 2000 have been used in multiple ways by gender and communication groups around the world and in many ways developed a momentum all of its own. From use in academic articles to providing the methodology for new monitoring projects on advertising or ethnicity, from the grassroots to policy-making circles-GMMP has become a tool for change.

Canada-based Erin Research Inc. hails the GMMP as "one of the most extraordinary collective enterprises yet organised within the global women's movement."

For this reason and in response to calls from gender and communication groups world-wide, the WACC Women's Programme has decided to co-
ordinate a third GMMP, to be held in 2005.

To take part in GMMP 2005 and additional information, write to women@wacc.org.uk.

This update was compiled by fem’LINKpacific: MEDIA INITIATIVES FOR WOMEN, a Media-based NGO committed to the research, development, production and distribution of community media initiatives:

For more information about our work contact:

fem’LINKpacific: MEDIA INITIATIVES FOR WOMEN
The Coordinator
P O Box 2439, Government Buildings, Suva, Fiji Islands
Phone 679 3316290 Mobile: 9244871
Fax (c/- Caines Jannif Limited Head Office) 679 3301925

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