These were just two of the questions raised at the second regional feminist advocacy training organised by the Fiji Women's Rights Movement (FWRM) and Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) Pacific, held in Papua New Guinea from the 16^th to 21^st July.  As the week-long training began, many of the young women participants said they would never consider identifying as feminists, mainly because of the negative images the word evoked. One participant explained that this was why she was evasive when her partner asked about the training. However by the end of the week, feminism was de-mystified and most of the women who initially shied away from the concept stood up and claimed their identity as feminists.

The training, which was held on Loloata Island off Port Moresby, was about promoting gender equity and women s participation by enhancing analysis and advocacy skills around issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights, political restructuring and social transformation, the political economy of globalisation, and political ecology and sustainability.

The day spent on sexual and reproductive health and rights got participants to start visualising their bodies and how they can be sites of resistance. In one of the day s exercises, participants analysed the tragic story of a group of Tuvaluan girls who were burned alive in their dormitory. The girls, many of whom were from far off villages and outer islands, were locked up every night in their barred dormitory in order to protect them from having sex, getting pregnant and shaming their families. There was also a strict 9pm lights-out policy, in contrast to the freedom of the boys dormitory.  The fire started when one girl, who was using a candle to study, fell asleep. 

In the session on political restructuring, the group discussed the marketisation of governance. The roll back of the state, from the aims of providing for the people to the aims of facilitating business and investment, was clear in the Pacific s experiences of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs).  Many participants experienced SAPs in one form or the other in their Pacific Island homes. Their examples included the corporatisation of Government services such as health, education and water.  It angered many participants to see that their rights as citizens were being eroded and that greater power seems to lie in the hands of corporate bodies and intergovernmental organisations, like the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

One participant explained how in her health clinic in PNG there is no doctor and many women have to travel long distances to get any medical attention. When the state is asked for assistance, the response is always no money . However, the state responds very differently to requests by financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other transnational organisations.

On Friday, the young women got an introduction to global trade and sustainable livelihoods.  The participants had to examine a can of tuna, and draw a chart of where it came from which began with the tuna fish and included fishing boats, canning, advertising and distribution.  Many were astounded at the complex issues crammed into a single little can, such as sex workers and the fishing industry, the health and safety of women working in canning factories, and the huge fisheries wealth of the Pacific region and how that plays out in the international trade arena.

'The 2007 Young Feminist Advocacy Training was highly successful.  Using examples and experiences from their own lives, the participants came to a deeper understanding of a feminist analysis of issues affecting women in the Pacific,' said FWRM Executive Director, Virisila Buadromo, who was also on the facilitators. 

'This is not just a one-off experience for these young women, they have formed a network, and have also developed realistic action plans to carry their feminist analysis into their everyday work.'

The 28 participants came from PNG, Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.  One of the facilitators, Noelene Nabulivou of Fiji s Women s Action for Change, is a graduate of the inaugural FWRM/DAWN Pacific young feminist advocacy training in Nadi in 2005. 

'These regional training processes contribute to DAWN's overall project of expanding and strengthening feminist networks, while training young women in critical feminist analysis,' said DAWN Pacific Regional Coordinator, Yvonne Underhill-Sem.

Participants Michelle Reddy (Fiji) and Saini Seluka (Tuvalu), together with a young woman from the Cook Islands, will attend the third DAWN global Training Institute to be held in Cape Town in November.   Two of the FWRM facilitators, Anna Padarath and Tara Chetty, are also graduates of earlier DAWN global feminist Training Institutes.  The intensive three-week-long trainings were previously held in India in 2003 and Uruguay in 2005. 

FWRM and DAWN Pacific are grateful for the support of our partners NZAID and Oxfam New Zealand. 

Facilitators from DAWN, WAC, PANG and FWRM enjoy a light moment on Loloata Island.