OTI Hot Topics
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July 2003
Human Rights Education for Market Women
With a grant from USAID/OTI, the local non-governmental organization
Bismas das Acacias is providing human rights education for
women vendors in Benguela, Angola's third largest city. Market
women are often subject to harassment and extortion, including
from the police. Twice a week, Bismas conducts non-formal
education sessions with approximately 30 women in each of
Benguela's four principle markets. The training aims to educate
women regarding their rights and the legal options available
to them. Bismas das Acacias is a human rights and social service
NGO which uses non-traditional methods, such as street theater,
to conduct education and promote local culture.
Local Organization Helps Communities in Benguela Province
Re-integrate IDPs and Demobilized Soldiers
Okutiuka, one of Angola's most reputable non-governmental organizations, has received funding from USAID/OTI Angola in order to help communities re-integrate both the internally displaced and demobilized soldiers. Angola has hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons as well as approximately 100,000 former UNITA soldiers undergoing a process of demobilization. In some cases, re-integration imposes a significant social strain on communities. The OTI supported project provides for training for Okutiuka members and community leaders as well as public debates and radio dialogues on issues surrounding IDPs and demobilized
May 2003
CBI Helps Radusa Women Make History
For the first time in the history of Radusa village, women have come out in full force to make their voices heard. The traditional village experienced a new way of operating when CBI insisted that women participate in making decisions about community priorities. Radusa is an ethnically and politically divided village of 1,800 inhabitants located near Macedonia's northern border with Kosovo. It suffered extensive infrastructure damage during the 2001 conflict, forcing most residents to leave. CBI's assistance with rebuilding the village and its encouragement of broad participation in the process are helping residents return.
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| Women of Radusa Village came together to voice their concerns and participate in project planning at a CBI community meeting.
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CBI's attempts to bring together all community members to discuss priorities got off to a slow start, with only men participating in meetings. Attempts to include women alongside men in decision-making were initially met with skepticism and fear that doing so might threaten traditional practices. However, CBI continued to emphasize the importance of hearing voices representing all ethnic, religious, political and gender groups to the project's success.
With CBI's support, more than 100 women in the community organized their own meeting - a first ever - to voice concerns and identify priorities for their community. Their concerns were not only heard, but resulted in an agreement to begin community reconstruction efforts with restoration of a pedestrian bridge leading to the village's only elementary school.
"Since CBI became involved, so many positive things have happened in our village," said one female teacher at the elementary school. One of the positive changes is the creation of the first Women's Organization of Radusa. CBI's successful inclusion of women in community decision-making, which builds upon nearly two years of active support for women's involvement at all levels of decision-making in Macedonia, has advanced CBI's objective of giving all community members a voice and the power to bring about positive changes.
April 2003
Over 50,000 Burundians Participate in BIP Activities to Support the Peaceful Transfer of Power
Recognizing that the successful transfer of presidential power from a Tutsi to a Hutu is critical to the successful implementation of APRA, the BIP is supporting activities throughout Burundi leading up to the May 1 event. Peace walks, radio programs, billboards, t-shirts, and banners are part of the BIP-supported information campaign to encourage Burundians to advocate for the peaceful transfer of power.
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| 10,000 Burundians Participated in Gitega's Peace Walk on April 20, 2003
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BIP has also supported a series of public discussion radio programs that engage Burundians through call-in shows and field interviews all over the country. These radio programs together with a billboard campaign encourage citizens to resist violence on May 1 and to support the peace process.
BIP is also supporting a "Mobilization for Peace" project that distributes t-shirts, flags, and banners to local partners in the provinces for use during the May 1 celebration, and has planned media programs and public discussions that will increase the peaceful momentum of the transfer.
March 2003
CBI Promotes Professional Standards for Macedonian Media
Macedonian electronic media outlets recently showed signs of increased collaboration and a greater commitment to provide the public with quality information through their participation in a national media fair. CBI supported the fair as part of its effort to promote higher standards of professionalism and responsibility in the field, and to help the media overcome its role in fomenting the 2001 conflict.
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| Radio journalists at the multi-ethnic, multilingual media fair. |
CBI contributed to a three-day, multi-ethnic and multilingual national media fair, which brought together several hundred journalists representing more than one-third of Macedonia's media organizations, as well as regulatory bodies and private marketing agencies. Officials from the Ministry of Communications and the National Broadcast Council opened the fair. Of the media outlets participating, fifteen were former CBI grantees who eagerly embraced the opportunity to share their experiences and explore prospects for collaboration.
The fair helped bridge the gap between urban and rural media outlets, and provided a vehicle through which public and private-sector outlets could share reporting techniques and technology. National-level media organizations subsidized the participation of smaller, regional and local outlets in the fair. This contributed to an environment in which diversity-ethnic, religious, political, geographic and gender-was actively encouraged in the interest of promoting the increased professionalism of media outlets.
More than 1,000 local officials, students and citizens also visited the fair and interacted with television and radio stations and media celebrities, demonstrating growing public interest in the quality of the media.
January 2003
Multi-ethnic Parent-Teacher Cooperation Sets "Can Do" Example
Neglected by the state since its establishment in 1932, the Trifun Panovski Primary School in the southern town of Bitola recently witnessed an unusual form of cooperation that turned its dilapidated structure into the center of community pride. With the support of CBI, ethnic-Albanian, Macedonian and Turkish parents and teachers worked in teams for two weeks to renovate the school, which serves students from an ethnic-Albanian neighborhood and four ethnically mixed surrounding villages.
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| Parents and teachers of a Bitola primary school replace 70-year old windows. |
"This is the most important thing that has ever happened to the school," said one parent, whose two children are among the 550 students who no longer have to see their own breath from the cold in classrooms. This cooperation and dedication of parents and teachers, working across ethnic lines but solely focused on the common needs of their children, received widespread national and local media coverage. The publicity, in turn, prompted calls to the school from all over the country by communities interested in pursuing their own homegrown initiatives. In light of a recent spate of school boycotts resulting from ethnic divisions in other areas of Macedonia, this well-publicized collaboration has sent the resounding message that such divisive incidents are the exception rather than the rule.
CBI awarded the school $67,000 to purchase materials to replace windows and install a heating system, which are expected to serve multiple generations of Trifun Panevski Primary School students. More than 200 parents and teachers were involved in providing the skilled and unskilled labor required to complete the work.
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