Fiji are currently in a state of natural disaster after a cyclone tore through the northern and eastern parts earlier this week, leaving villages in disarray and thousands without shelter.
Sharon Bhagwan Rolls from IWDA partner agency fem’LINKPACIFIC reports from the ground.
IWDA is proud to say that Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls, Producer-Director of IWDA partner organisation fem’LINKPACIFIC, has recently been chosen to sit on the UN Expert Panel on the Role of Women in Peace and Security.
Congratulations Sharon! You are an extraordinary activist and voice for not only the women of the Pacific, but for women around the world, and we are delighted that your unwavering commitment to women, peace and security has been recognised in such an environment.
“Our amazing partners at KWO have released a groundbreaking new report this month called ‘Walking Amongst Sharp Knives: The unsung courage of Karen women village chiefs in conflict areas of Eastern Burma’. The report highlights previously unreported abuses taking place against ethnic Karen women in Burma and is a shocking expose of how women village heads are being targeted for systematic abuse by the military junta”.
Renae Davies - IWDA Program Manager - Thai-Burma Border
IWDA stand in solidarity with the women of Burma and extend our support and best wishes to our partner organisation, the Women’s League of Burma, who will give testimonials at the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women of Burma, in New York on the 2nd of March 2010.
The Tribunal provides a powerful spotlight on the oppression of women of Burma in order to support the development of a just, democratic and peaceful Burma.
Greetings! I would like to introduce myself, Ann Wigglesworth, and I’m delighted to have now returned to IWDA as Programs Team Leader, my second time working for the organisation.
In 1996 I travelled to Cambodia to work with the IWDA Cambodia office (now Banteay Srei). At that time we were planning the implementation of an AusAID funded project ‘Food for Change’, a project including ‘Cow Banks’ and agriculture training that was set up to respond to the dire situation of the large numbers of traumatised widows in the aftermath of Khmer Rouge atrocities and ‘killing fields’. According to Thavy, one of our first Cambodian co-coordinators, at the time ‘people were only thinking of how to fill their stomachs’. But the cows became much more than an economic asset, contributing to the healing process for widows by becoming a part of their family. They symbolised hope and renewal.
In the field of international development, it is all too rare to have the chance to revisit communities to observe project impact over the long term. It has thus been an exciting opportunity to return last month to Cambodia and the IWDA supported Banteay Srei projects after 15 years.
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