From June 7 – 11, South Asian APC member Bytes for All will unite fellow APC members and women activists alike for a joint event, funded by the APC’s Member Exchange Fund. Representatives from several APC organisations will meet in Islamabad to attend a workshop on digital storytelling and learn how to Take Back the Tech! to end violence against women. This Feminist Tech Exchange will unite 12 – 15 activist women so they can be trained to further train others in the Asian region.
Digital stories help women Take Back the Tech! to end violence against women
South Asian APC member Bytes for All will be hosting a Membership Exchange from 7 – 11 June, 2010 in Islamabad Pakistan. Representatives of organisations from APC’s varied network will meet in the Pakistani city to attend a workshop on digital story telling, “Take back the tech to end violence against women: A workshop on digital storytelling for online advocacy”.
The five-day event will be the largest membership exchange in the history of the APC’s Member Exchange Fund and will also be combined with the Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX), which will also be organised by Bytes for All, Pakistan under the auspices of “MDG3: Take Back the Tech! to end violence against women”, a flagship project by the APC-Women’s Network Support Programme (APC-WNSP). The key aim of this Membership Exchange and resultant FTX is to develop master trainers in Pakistan and Asia, and to carry out further FTXs in the region with minimal external support. Between twelve and fifteen women activists from a range of stakeholders in Pakistan will attend the workshop and help build this pool of master trainers, who will then go on to deliver FTX trainings in the country and area.
About digital storytelling:
Digital Storytelling is an approach that has been used by the APC WNSP and APC member Women’sNet, as a process of healing for those who have experienced or witnessed violence. During the Feminist Tech Exchange (http://ftx.apcwomen.org/) in conjunction with the AWID Forum (www.awid.org) in Cape Town in 2008, our approach to digital storytelling widened to include other stories – stories of being a feminist, stories of being different, stories of balancing feminism and activism and being a woman, stories of the land and of people. All of the stories that have been produced by the storytellers in these workshops were rich in the telling and in the portrayal of their experiences, feelings and thoughts. The stories go beyond being anecdotal. They can potentially be both a medium and a process of change for the storytellers and those who watch them. Digital stories are stories told by people in their own words, literally through their own voices, using their own images. The digital stories are conceptualised, directed, and produced by the story tellers themselves… with technology directly in their hands.
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Following APC Members are participating in this exchange:
Open Institute, Cambodia
FMA, Philippines
OWSEE, Bosnia Herzegovina
Bytes for All, Pakistan
We are extremely lucky to have following people as Resource Persons for this FTX (listed alphabetically):
Ms. Cheekay Cinco, APC Staff
Ms. Jan Moolman, APC Staff
Ms. Jennifer Radloff, APC Staff
Ms. Valentina Pellizzer, Executive Director, OWSEE, Bosnia Herzegovina and EB Member, APC
Shahzad Ahmad
Bytes for All, Pakistan