Exchanges

Making Connections: Exchange with Women’s Organisations in the South

Banúlacht aims to build solidarity and understanding of global development issues through linking with women's organisations in the global South that share our aims. Through our programmes, we have developed links with a number of South-based women’s organisations, such as the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), Kivulini Women’s Rights Organisation and the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA).

Representatives from CAFRA, Kivulini and TGNP have attended a number of Banúlacht conferences as keynote speakers. In addition, key representatives from the organisations have participated as trainers in Banúlacht training courses and have also held workshops on women’s leadership with a wide range of women’s groups in a different counties.

In 2002 we organised an exchange visit by a group of Irish women to CAFRA women's groups in the Caribbean region. In September 2007 and 2008, groups of women from Ireland participated in an exchange with the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme. The visit built on the visits to Ireland by key TGNP staff and provided an opportunity for women in Ireland and Tanzania to exchange experiences and strategies in the context of development and women's human rights. A Return Visit by women from Tanzanian organisations was held in 2009 and included a Human Rights Capacity Building Institute—a four-day intensive development education process that was facilitated throughout the visit and involved the 15 Tanzanian and Irish organisations.

Upcoming Exchange

ExChange Visit to Tanzania 2010
Banúlacht is seeking applications from women to participate in our third ExChange visit to Tanzania, from Saturday 30th October to Friday 12th November 2010.

The ExChange 2010 aims to

Enable participants and their organisations to deepen their understanding of gender, development and human rights contexts in Tanzania.

Provide a space for women in Ireland and women in Tanzania to engage in exchange and learning.

Raise awareness of gender and development issues and how women in Ireland can work in solidarity with women in the South to promote the fulfilment of human rights commitments.

Learn about the feminist movement building strategies of the Tanzanian Gender Networking Programme and the community based responses to violence against women of Kivulini.

Further develop the strategies for working in solidarity that have been explored in earlier phases of the ExChange and expressed in the Mná Sasa Manifesto.

Applications are sought from Banúlacht members; women who have participated in Banúlacht training courses; women who re workers or active volunteers in women’s groups or networks, community development projects or community education organisations. All applicants must have the support of their organisations to participate. The deadline for applications is Monday, August 16th 2010.

Click here to download the application form.

For reports on previous ExChange Visits and articles relating to women’s organisations in Tanzania, see Banúlacht Gender and Development Bulletin 8 (July 2010), Issue 7 (February 2010) and Issue 3 (December 2007).

For an article about the Mná Sasa Manifesto, see Issue 5 (March 2009). See also coverage of the ExChange Visit to Tanzania (September 2007) and the Banúlacht Update posts for 2007.

Click Voices of Tanzania to listen to a radio documentary by Niamh Farren based on interviews with Irish and Tanzanian women recorded during Banúlacht's 2007 Exchange Visit to Tanzania. This programme was first broadcast on March 8th 2008 on NEARfm. (Production was funded by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland Sound and Vision scheme.)

Click here for the Banúlacht Feminist Principles and here for the Mná Sasa Manifesto.

Mná Sasa

Mná Sasa, (“Women Now” in the Irish and Swahili languages) a new group, emerged from the 2009 Return Visit. The name Mná Sasa was chosen by Irish and Tanzanian participants to name a new collective which has emerged from the programme. In the words of Mary Kabati, one of the Tanzanian participants, “What is giving me hope is for women from Tanzania and Ireland to work together through solidarity: for me, Mná Sasa is a dream to make things happen from both sides by sharing lessons and best practices to improve women’s status globally.” The Mná Sasa group is an exciting development for Banúlacht and one with great potential for further linkages and collective learning.

“It was an early October Saturday evening in Dublin. The light was waning outside, and our two-day workshop was drawing to a close, when Maimuna suggested that the new solidarity movement of Irish and Tanzanian grassroots feminists should have a name and an identity. Voices went back and forth. Ideas sparked off other ideas. Something that combined the Irish and Swahili languages? Something with Mná, the Irish word for women? “What is the Swahili word for now?” someone asked. The answer came back loud and clear: Sasa! We had our name: Mná Sasa! Women Now!”
....to read the rest of this article about the Mná Sasa Manifesto, see Banúlacht Gender and Development Bulletin 5 (March 2009).

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