AFRICA

SENEGAL

Yewwu-Yewwi For Women's Liberation

from their office in Dakar, Senegal, the members of the association Yewwu-Yewwi lor Women's Liberation are working for the hbcration of women from all forms of oppression and exploitation. They are mobilizing women for consciousness-raising on the role they should play in society. Their objectives, defined at their general assembly in January 1984, include:

Working to improve women's living conditions through socio-economic and cultural projects.
Strengthening links of solidarity among women.

Publishing a women's journal.

For  the eighth of March celebrations of International Women's Day. this year, Yewwu-Yewwi For Women's Liberation held an open forum and a press conference. They contributed five pages of articles on Senegalese women to the newspaper Le Soleil, on feminism in Africa, women workers inside and outside the home, family law. sex education and contraception.

They write: "We define our feminism as a sharp consciousness of the oppression and exploitation of women in the family, within couples, at work and in society and as the practice of women and men to transform this situation. This means equality for women, but it also means the right to choose and control our own lives inside and outside the home. It is essential for each woman to have a sense of dignity and independence.

Women's struggles must be integrated in a perspective of struggle against all forms of social inequalities and alienation on the individual level as well as on that of the family and on the national and international level."

Hong Kong

Association for the Advancement of Feminism 2 Ship Street 2/F, Hong Kong.

A new feminist organization has been created in Hong Kong by local Chinese women in early 1984. One of the group's first activities is a survey on women's political and social participation in Hong Kong. This is particularly interesting in view of the possible political and social changes with the return of the colony's sovereignty to China in 1997.

The organization is also carrying out a health project for women in cooperation with community centers in Hong Kong. Women in the group take turns writing about women's issues in a local daily newspaper. Their column is entitled "Furen zhi jian." It means Women's Opinion and is taken from an old Chinese saying implying ignorance. The women's group has chosen this title purposely to contradict the traditional belief that women are silly and ignorant. In spite of what male-dominated society thinks, WOMEN are going to raise their OPINION

PAKISTAN

Women's Action Forum

Lahore, Pakistan

On 12 February 1984, in commemoration of the demonstration held by women against the proposed law of evidence one year earlier, the Women's Action Forum (WAF) declared February 12 as Pakistan Women's Day. This was endorsed by eleven organizations just within Lahore city. On the eve of the 12th, 1984, WAF plastered the streets and market places with posters saying •"One woman, one testimony, proposed law of evidence not acceptable." On the 12th itself, WAF marched with several other organizations down the Mall in Lahore, blocking all traffic on this main road of the city and proceeded to the High Court to protest this proposed law and others like it. Since its formation in 1981, the Women's Action Forum has reached thousands of Pakistani women with an ambitious consciousness-raising campaign with mass meeting attracting hundreds of women, seminars on crimes against women, films and cassette recordings. Hand in hand with consciousness-raising, the women of WAF are working as a pressure and lobby group to change discriminatory laws and to improve the image of women in the media. In a signature campaign for women's rights, a total of 10.000 signatures were collected. WAF is also working to create women's solidarity nationally and internationally. The women of Pakistan are mobilizing for their rights!

SRI LANKA

Voice of Women

I Jayakontha Lane, Kirula Road,Colombo 5, Sri Lanka.

Colombo's first Women's House was opened in late 1983 by Voice of Women (Kantha Handa) a "group well-known for its support of women's struggles in Sri Lanka. This .grew out of the great need to promote harmony between the two major ethnic communities in Sri Lanka. Not only does the program offer funding assistance and rehabilitation to the riot victims of 1983 but includes among its long-range goals the striving for ethnic harmony through: the publication of pamphlets in three languages; seminars and discussions at grassroot and regional levels; holding of classes in English (link language) for working women of all communities; teaching of Sinhala to Tamils and Tamil to Sinhalas: cooperation with other groups involved with projects on national harmony. Voice of Women publishes a quarterly journal "for Women's Liberation".

INDIA

 

 

 

 

Saheli

Above shop 105-108 Shopping Centre Under Defence Colony Flyover (south side). New Delhi 110 024, India

Saheli was born through the concern of a group of women involved in the anti-dowry and anti-rape struggles in Delhi. They have sought not only to spread information about dowry-deaths in Delhi (women burnt to death for having brought 'insufficient dowry'), but also to provide a place where women can come for practical aid and legal assistance. "One of the main aims of Saheli is to provide services and support to women. We have a panel of lawyers and doctors who are contacted if a women has to fight a case or is just in need of legal or medical advice." They have been active since August 1981. "Saheli is open to all women seeking protection, advice... or wanting just to share." The first issue of Saheli's quarterly newsletter in Hindi and English came out in March 1984. "We hope that it will keep us in touch with each other, and informed about what's happening in Saheli, what we are doing, thinking and learning... We are planning to have regular columns on health, law and portraits of women." Saheli moved into its new premises in March 1984

LATIN AMERICA

ARGENTINA

Grupo Unidas

Casilla de Correo 720, 2000 Rosario, Argentina

"For the eighth of March we organized a number of "discussion tables" in the downtown streets of Rosario (Argentina). We handed out dyers and other materials. Two women from our group walked up and down the streets with placards denouncing deaths caused by abortion, the issue of domestic work and violence. All tliis gave rise to a lot of discussion especially about abortion. Many women who came up to us were furious, others didn't know anything about the issue, others supported us".

Formed in 1982, this feminist group publishes a bulletin, Unidas, with news about the feminist movement in Argentina.

BRAZIL

Centre Informacao Mulher (CIM)

Caixa Postal 11.399, 05499 Sao Paulo-SP Brazil

"CIM innaugurated its new house in December 1983 with the launching of the new book published by SOS-Corpo do Recife, "Como evitar Filhos-tudo o que voce sempre quiz saber sobre metodos anticoncepcionais" (How to avoid children all you ever wanted to know about contraception). "In spite of being very small, the house is very welcoming... It was given by the Cultural Department of the state of Sao Paulo for the use of feminist groups... The house is open to visitors from two to eight p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays."

CIM publishes a bimonthly bulletin with information about new documentation that has arrived and about activities of the feminist movement in the city of Sao Paulo.

VENEZUELA

 

Grupo Feminista Miercoles

Apartado 668 San Cristobal 5001-A. Tachira, Venezuela

Ismaelina, a 43-year old pottery maker of Tachira, Venezuela, who dies from a hemorrhage giving birth to her 24th child, is the central character of the documentary film Yo, Tii, Ismaelina. "In her we can see creative capacity, nobility acquired through love and suffering, and the dramatic submission to an ideology that makes her a slave and of which she is also a carrier through motherhood."

Yo, Tti, Ismaelina was the first film that Grupo Miercoles made after two years of discussion and research on motherhood, from its biological aspects to the complicated ideology and culture behind it.

The group uses audiovisuals as a means of expression, but not as an end in itself. Their main purpose is to meet, exchange experiences, share common perspectives or differences on issues and to communicate these through audiovisuals which show the relationship between theory and reality, reflection and experience. They are now working on the script of a film on women's sexuality

ECUADOR

 

 

 

Centro Ecuatoriano para la Promocion y Accion de la Mujer (CEPAM)
Los Ri'os 2238 y Gandara, Apartado Postal 182-C, Sucursal 15, Quito, Ecuador

A Women's House was opened in Quito at the end of 1983. Called the Ecuadorian Center for Women's Promotion and Action (CEPAM), it is a meeting place for women to exchange experiences, receive legal aid and help in organizing, and participate in workshops and seminars. In March women from community organizations in the marginalized neighborhoods of the city met for two days to discuss the situation of women in the family, their participation in the community, how to organize themselves, and international solidarity. Cultural presentations were also part of their meeting.

CEPAM has organized a women's film festival, a series of discussions on breast cancer, a workshop on women's occupational health and safety, and other activities for consciousness raising and the mobilization of women.

 

 

 

 

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Centro de Investigacion para la Accion Feminina (CIPAF)

Calle Benigno Filomeno Rojas 307, Santo Domingo, D.N., Dominican Republic

CIPAF, the Research Center for Women's Action, carries out studies on the situation of women in the Dominican Republic from a women's perspective. Its aim is to close the gap between research and action: "research makes no sense unless it is accompanied by the will to transform new knowledge into organization and action." Besides research, CIPAF produces publications for use by grassroots women's groups. It has done a series of booklets in cartoon style on women's work at home, the factory and the field.

In 1983, CIPAF organized the First National Seminar on Methodology and Techniques of Rural Women's Research. Their work in this area is continuing. Among the other seminars they have are two on feminist theory. Their bimonthly newsletter Que Haceres brings news of their activities and about women around the world.