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UNIFEM BANGKOK NEWSJanuary - April 1999
Contents
UNIFEM brokers Thai participation in Human Rights Training through Asia FoundationOn 17-23 January ASCENT, one of UNIFEM's regional NGO partners, sought assistance to fund additional participants to a training workshop on Monitoring, Investigating and Documenting Women's Human Rights. The workshop, funded by CIDA Canada, was held in collaboration with the Kampuchebot Association to train women's rights activitists from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. Documentation is an important step toward monitoring, investigation and recognition of violations of women's human rights. On this occasion UNIFEM E&SEARO was unable to provide funding directly, however we were successful in obtaining funding from Asia Foundation for Ms Pornpit Puckmai of EMPOWER in Thailand to benefit from this important workshop. This is a good example of UNIFEM's brokering role and of good collaboration with both bilateral donors and international NGOs. UNIFEM supports a popular Thai TV programme on VAW
The programme has covered a variety of topics related to VAW. These include interviews with Lorraine Corner, UNIFEM RPA and Khunying Supatra Masdit, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office to mark International Women's Day, and an interview with Mr Pongthemp Thepkanjana, a former judge and member of the panel that prepared the new Thai Constitution. Other sessions with the show's hosts Khun Oranong Intarajit and Khun Narin Karin of Hotline have focused on teenage sexuality and assertiveness as opposed to passive or aggressive strategies for women dealing with difficult relationships. The programme offers both challenging views and an opportunity for two-way communications on sensitive topics. Many viewers take advantage of the phone-in format to provide comments or ask questions. Hotline reports that a number of the viewers later call back to the Hotline counselling service seeking advice and assistance. For example, on 14 April, 53 listeners called during the programme and 35 wanted to consult the Hotline Center. UNIFEM Workshop on Women, Gender and GlobalizationOn 19-21 April, UNIFEM E&SEARO held a very successful workshop as part of the formulation process for a Regional Programme on "Women, Gender and Globalization: empowering women in homework & micro-enterprise to meet the challenges of the market". The workshop was sponsored by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom. Participants from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam were drawn from Government, women's NGOs and the business community. Particularly encouraging was the fact that the Minister for Women's and Veteran's Affairs in Cambodia attended for two full days, while her Undersecretary of State attended the entire workshop. Two very active businesswomen, the President of the Women's Business Council of the Philippines and the Chair of the ASEAN Handicraft Promotion and Development Association (from Thailand) also attended the full three days. Since time is money for such women, this was a considerable compliment. Representatives from HomeNet from Indonesia and Thailand and from the Asian Women in Development Cooperative Forum also attended. The workshop provided input into the development of the Regional Programme, which will be submitted to DFID for possible funding. Lisa Fancott from E&SEARO put in many long hours of work in preparing for this meeting. Her effort and the work of the three facilitators, Lota Bertulfo, Regional Coordinator, Asian Women in Cooperative Development Forum, Jakarta, Nivana Cheng, Director, Lotus Pond Centre for Training and Development, Cambodia and Linda Miranda, Executive Director, Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics was rewarded with a smooth meeting. Successful Trade Mission from DPR KOREA to Hong KongWomen will be the beneficiaries from a UNIFEM garment project which recently gained international orders. As part of the activities under UNIFEM Project DRK/92/W01 Rationalizing Cottage Industry in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), a five member trade mission from the Project and associated agencies recently took part in a Hong Kong Fashion Week Fair. The Fair, held 19-24 January 1999, was attended by 830 companies from over 20 countries. The team was accompanied by the UNIFEM International Management Consultant Ms Sylvia M. Ordonez and the UNIFEM Marketing expert Ms Marian S. Nash. Both had worked very hard to facilitate this pioneering mission, which almost had to be cancelled due to visa problems. Fortunately, these were overcome at the last minute through the excellent cooperation that UNIFEM received from the Hong Kong authorities. Ms Ordonez and Ms Nash provided technical advice and training during the mission and assisted the team during their meetings with potential buyers. The purpose of the mission was for the participants to gain experience of the international garment fashion market, to explore potential export markets for the garments produced by the women beneficiaries of the Project, and to obtain initial orders from international buyers. The mission made contact with representatives from many garment businesses from various parts of the world. As a result of these contacts, they were successful in obtaining orders for 56,000 padded jackets, 20,000 summer jackets and 50,000 sets of pyjamas from a UK-based company that has not previously dealt with the DPRK. During the Fair, the mission discussed the technical and practical issues involved in accessing the international garment market. The team met with several buyers from Europe (France, United Kingdom, Italy and Netherlands) and discussed issues related to EEC import quotas. Meetings were also held with Asian firms (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and China) on the practical issues in involved in transporting raw materials from Asia to DPRK and then exporting the finished goods to their final destinations. Several companies from the Americas (Mexico, Argentina, Canada, Brazil, Chile and United States) also met with the mission, which learned that there may be considerable potential for exports to this region as the zone has no quota for garments. At the conclusion of the Fair, the mission held a wrap-up meeting with the UNIFEM consultants to review what they had learned and the follow-up actions that would be needed on their return to DPRK. Encouraging Feedback from a Cambodian ProjectDuring their recent mission to Phnom Penh 10-12 March, Lorraine Corner and Evelyn Sundaravej met with Chantoul Oung, Director of the Cambodian Women's Crisis Centre which is implementing the project Popular Education and Organisation as a means to Prevent and Deter Violence Against Women, Cambodia. The project is funded under the UNIFEM Trust Fund. Evelyn was able to visit the shelter, while Lorraine who had other meetintgs had to be content with a report from Chantoul. They were particularly struck by the tale of one couple. The wife, after suffering violence over a long period, sought shelter at the Centre and left her husband. Some months later, he turned up at the Centre begging her to return as he missed her very much, and promised that he would not beat her again. After counselling and consultations with staff, the wife agreed to return. The CWCC staff accompanied the couple back to their village, informed the village authorities and community of the situation and the husband’s promise. They agreed to monitor his behaviour and to report any problems to the Centre. It seems that the man is now a model husband and no further difficulties have been reported. This is an encouraging example of how public education and the involvement of communities can contribute to the elimination of violence against women. RPA on the move - Missions January-April 1999This has been a very busy period for E&SEARO, particularly Lorraine. Her missions so far this year have covered:
Evelyn joined Lorraine on the mission to Cambodia, while Chen Lanyan joined her on the mission to Mongolia, which Lanyan will also cover from Beijing. Activities January-April 1999HelpAge International regional training workshop on Role of Older Women in Development in Mekong Basic Countries 16 - 19 February, Chiengmai. UNIFEM E&SEARO provided financial support to the workshop, which was attended by representatives from NGOs, government and national machineries for women from Cambodia, China (Yunnan Province), Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. A large delegation of five attended from Myanmar, including the head of a private nursing home providing residential care for over 200 elderly persons. Lorraine attended the workshop on the 19 February. UN Gender Theme Group Gender Workshop in Hanoi 8-9 February. Lorraine facilitated this workshop for approximately 30 staff members drawn from the various UN agencies in Hanoi. She also gave a presentation on Gender in Economics on 10 February to staff from the UNDP Economics Section. Workshop on Women, Men and Economics, Ulaanbataar, 27 February. While in Mongolia and at the invitation of UNDP, Lorraine facilitated a workshop on gender and economics. The workshop was surprisingly well attended for a Saturday morning: more than forty participants crowded into the UNDP Conference Room, spilling into other offices for the discussion groups. GWAD International Women's Day Seminar UN Convention Centre, Bangkok, 9 March. This event was organized by a team of GWAD members led by Evelyn, Lisa and Kuniko from UNIFEM. Lorraine moderated the first panel session on Government-NGO Collaboration to Eliminate Violence Against Women, with speakers from the Australian and New Zealand Embassies, Hotline Foundation and Friends for Women. Lorraine was also a speaker on the second panel on Impact of the Asian Economic Crisis on Women, moderated by ESCAP with speakers from ILO, UNIFEM and UNICEF. GWAD Brown Bag Lunch, "Women and Drugs: from hard realities to hard solutions" 31 March. Evelyn, Kuniko and Lisa organized an interesting Brown Bag lunchtime forum attended by more than 30 UN staff and visitors from various NGOs and some Embassies. The speakers were Dr Usa Duongsa, Executive Council Member of the Asian Harm Reduction Network, Dr David Feingold of UNESCO, and Ms Prateep Usongtham Hata from Duang Prateep Foundation. Dated: 28Nov1999 |
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Thai
TV viewers are starting to tune in regularly to a popular TV programme on
Wednesdays around mid-day on Channel 9. The programme which runs three
weeks in every four is produced by the Hotline Foundation, a Thai women's
NGO that works to eliminate violence against women. Channel 9 reports high
and rising ratings for this show.