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IATP News - February 2007

IATP Reaches out to Eurasian Women, Helping them Succeed in Non-Traditional Roles

Women across Eurasia have relied on IATP for access to resources that, for cultural, economic, or geographic reasons, are largely unavailable to them. With training in computer skills, an online forum to exchange their views, web hosting to publicize their ideas, and a safe place to meet and plan joint action, IATP empowers women with tools that strengthen their efforts to achieve gender equality in their societies.

Citizens discuss women’s role in development of
local self-governance in Eurasia online  

Women in Politics

• Over 50 citizens from 6 Eurasian countries came together to address the problems and prospects for the development of municipalities in their countries and women’s role in local self-governance. See full story in this month’s news from Azerbaijan.

• Over 20 leaders of women’s organizations and government agencies exchanged strategies for promoting the active participation of women in politics in Kyrgyzstan online from seven IATP access sites on February 26.  See full story in this month’s news from Kyrgyzstan.

Women’s Rights

Elena Mihailidi explains basics concepts of
reproductive health to the female participants at the
IATP access site in Talas, Kyrgyzstan. 

• The Ministries of Finance and Social Services of Turkmenistan will consider a series of reforms to the Labor Code and the Women’s Rights in the Workplace Act as a result of an online forum on women’s rights in employment. IATP sponsored the online forum, as women’s rights activists and other citizens of the country are concerned about frequent infringements on women’s labor rights, which are also affecting women’s educational and professional opportunities. Forum participants discussed the most common women’s labor rights violations, such as unregistered employment and, consequently, violations of pension regulations, gender discrimination at the workplace, the biased attitude of employers to married women with young children, and the use of women at hard-labor jobs with harmful or dangerous work conditions, including cotton picking. Guest experts of the February 17 forum were Ogulnabat Babayeva (IV 04), head of Turkmen National Trade Union on Social and Legal Labor Protection and Guljan Babayeva, lawyer working in the spheres of civil law and women trafficking prevention. Babayeva brought the issues raised online to the consideration of the Ministries of Finance and Social Services of Turkmenistan, which studied and planned to address them while making changes in Labor Code and Women’s Rights in the Workplace Act in the near future.

• Vazeh Zahidov, lawyer for IATP’s partner NGO Araz, conducted a seminar on women’s rights for 15 local girls and women at the IATP center in Imishli, Azerbaijan. Zahidov delivered a presentation covering equal rights for men and women, the issue of discrimination, and national legislation in this field. During the February 14 seminar, the participants visited various relevant online resources such as the website of Azerbaijan Gender Information Center and the Law Journal.

• Young women of Talas, Kyrgyzstan broadened their knowledge of women’s rights to reproductive health and of Kyrgyzstan’s national strategy for preserving reproductive health at the IATP center on February 22. Elena Mihailidi, the coordinator of Reproductive Health Alliance, a local nonprofit organization promoting family planning and women’s reproductive health rights, informed the participants with knowledge of the government’s accomplishments in reforming healthcare system. She discussed legislative changes, efforts to decrease maternal and infant mortalities, family planning and regulation of abortions, HIV/AIDS, among others. The participants also browsed relevant online resources, including the national strategy on promoting reproductive health and Moscow Center for Gender Studies.

• Twenty five women’s rights activists and NGO officials were encouraged to be active social and decision-making players in their communities during a nationwide online forum held on February 16 in Georgia. In the course of the online forum session Mari Meskhi, a lawyer of the leading national non-profit organization Women for Future working in the fields of trafficking in women prevention and human rights, communicated with women from several regions of Georgia to inform them on women’s empowerment and the status of women in Georgia. She commented, “In order to make women more active neither social nor living conditions are crucial. Women are legally given right to be equal with men, so they need to voice against inequality and become more dynamic.”

• Women in Khashuri, Georgia, came together to address the issue of violence on women in families and alcoholism as a provoking condition, addressing these topical issues since many women become victims of abusive husbands nowadays but choose to stand the violence and not to voice against it due to Georgian mentality and traditions. Journalist and women’s rights activist Nino Sukhiashvili led the seminar. The participants discussed other countries’ experiences and measures taken to fight alcoholism, such as regular meetings for alcoholics for support, which is not a common practice in Georgia. “Regular meetings about this topic, and sharing thoughts and experiences are helpful means for women to become more aware how to protect themselves,” concluded the trainees.

Muratali Uchkempirov explains Feruza Ramazanova
how to correctly edit her resume at the IATP access
site in Jalalabat, Kyrgyzstan. 

Women’s Employment

• Muratali Uchkempirov (CC 04) equipped seven unemployed women of Jalalabat, Tajikistan with computer skills and helped them use their skills to develop quality resumes at the IATP access site on February 26, which will help them acquire professional occupations. The new skills will give the participants an advantage over their competitors and better prepare for challenges in searching for jobs in Kyrgyzstan’s tough labor market. In most cases similar computer courses are cost prohibitive for the majority of women in Kyrgyzstan, who often have little or no income in their traditional roles.

• Girls from across Azerbaijan explored non-traditional choices issues for girls with Fatima Aslan, president of the Anglo-American Business Services recruitment agency in an online forum on February 22. Thirty people, including high school and college students, teachers, journalists, and unemployed youth gathered at IATP centers in Baku, Ali Bayramli, Ganja, Imishli, and Sumgayit, and raised questions about high-demand professions, the high unemployment rate among girls, the influence of parents on career choices, and what they should consider while choosing and applying for a job.

Oksana Yatsyuk explains fundraising basics at
the IATP access site in Vinnytsia


Seminar attendees explore online resources
dedicated to human trafficking

Women's Empowerment

• Members of a women’s NGO started writing a project to support the activities of their organization and learned fundraising techniques as a result of IATP training. On February 13, the IATP access site in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, hosted a seminar on fundraising basics for six members of Vinnytsia Club of Accountants, a non-profit organization uniting local women working in business accounting. Oksana Yatsyuk (CC 02), head of Center of Social Technologies, explained types of donors and their requirements, including business, state authorities, and foreign non-governmental organizations. The attendees explored methods of raising funds, learned how to find funding opportunities, and learned how to write grant proposals. Later, the attendees learned to search the Web for information about grants and fundraising; they explored Civic Space website, containing information about grants, opportunities for studying and professional development for NGO employees, useful links and literature for non-profit organizations..

• Female NGO officials, local politicians, and journalists learned how to monitor gender equality in the media and in legislation at the IATP access site in Poltava, Ukraine, on February 16. The gender issues seminar was conducted by employees of Rivni Mozhlyvosti (Equal Opportunities) Zoya Kovalenko (CC 00) and Lubov Kalyuzhna, who provided media monitoring training, a guided tour of the website of the State Program for Strengthening Gender Equality in Ukraine, and the website of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Ukrainian Parliament) to get acquainted with Ukrainian legislation on gender issues. 

• An NGO volunteer encouraged ECA alumni, students and educators to contribute to fight against human trafficking from the IATP center in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine on February 19. Oksana Tarasyuk, a volunteer from Dyvosvit, conducted a seminar entitled, “Human Trafficking Problems in Ukraine: Myth or Reality?” for seven local citizens to increase public awareness about trafficking in women in Ukraine. The participants discovered methods for fighting against human trafficking, its causes in Ukraine, and state and non-governmental organizations working in this field. The attendees explored the website of the International Organization for Migration, and its projects in Ukraine and other Eurasian countries. Tarasyuk concluded by inviting the attendees to work as volunteers in local NGOs to help women who had become victims of human trafficking.