By Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda*

My heart is reaching out to my sisters in Cote d'Ivoire. I had hoped that in this new decade, we continue to build on a positive narrative and image of a great continent!

Selkirk College's Mir Centre for Peace will be opening its doors to the general public on a weekly basis starting January 2011 to increase awareness of the Centre and assure participation in events hosted by the Peace Café.

It is a reality in Kenya that women have suffered land injustices over the years and its worse when they are widows. The problem makes it even tougher with the increase in AIDS related deaths.

This phenomenon lays bare the HIV related human rights violations that widows and their children have to endure in their daily lives.

In a recent workshop on gender and Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Africa the dangers of simply applying lessons learned from one context to another was highlighted. SSR efforts often suffer from a lack of understanding of the particular contexts in which they take place.

A UN-backed project in northern Somalia is helping vulnerable women displaced by years of conflict to earn a living.

Click here to view photos.

Q: What's happening with the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council? You and other members recently met in Washington with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other dignitaries.

After we launched our Community Knowledge Worker (CKW) network in Uganda, I was reviewing a budget report and came across a “babysitting” entry. Thinking this must be an obvious mistake I contacted our local finance person for an explanation. I discovered that we did pay for babysitting as some of the CKWs we were training were mothers who would not have been able to participate unless we paid for child care.

As with many development issues, women and girls are more adversely affected than their male counterparts when attempting to access justice in Cambodia. Gender inequality is deeply ingrained in Cambodian society.

In October and November 2010, I had the opportunity to travel to the United States of America and take part in a series of events around the 10th Anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325. I am one of six women that assessed six countries (Indonesia- Aceh, Colombia, Liberia, Israel-Palestine, Sri Lanka and Uganda).

Quick! What's the first image that pops into your mind when someone says feminist? Bra burnings? Gloria Steinem? Old news?

If you said Gloria Steinem, that's good. If you thought old news, that's not so good.