International Women's Day 2008--Tell Your Stories

Take Back the Tech women have returned for International Women's Day and their great gifs and actions.

They urge all of us to tell our stories about our lives, experiences, and actions about violence against women, and hopefully write our own stories and code!

On this day and other days, I would like to urge you to remember the origins of International Women's Day to honor the women who died in the 1911 Triangle Shirt Waist Fire in New York City. Consider also the women in your everyday lives and their stories of survival, resistance, and perseverance in their homes, schools, work, streets as well as during disasters, wars, garment factory fires (yes they still occur often), internal displacement from ethnic & religious conflicts as well as the good times.

The Take Back The Tech women have developed printable story bands that you can print and write--"let me tell or ask me about my story"

they suggest: Write "Ask me" on the band, and invite people that you meet on International Women's Day to ask about your story. After you have shared your story, give them a band of their own, and ask them to continue telling and listening to stories with other people that they meet. You can also write your story on your band, and send us a picture. We'll put it up on the campaign website to widen the circle.

The Take Back the Tech site also has many useful tools and links for readers with assorted tech talents. Please check out this site!

Other sites and action:

Rising Voices held an International Women's Day Poetry Jam for the Rising Voices Blog Sites. Check out four selected poems from Madagascar, Bangladesh and Colombia as well as photos from Bolivia and Bangladesh.

You can read more poems from Bangladesh on the Nari Jibon blogsite(s).

For more about education and actions on gender abuse and violence against women in the South Asian community, see the Out Against Abuse blogsite.

Go to my earlier post re Southall Black Sisters --an extraordinary shelter-education program in London--and related links to read about their possible closure owing to funding cuts by local council. Please provide support and write a letter of protest.

Nari Jibon Project: Three Years of Alternative Skills to Women

cross-pointed on Bangladesh from Our View

Shuvo Jonno Din ba Happy Birthday to Nari Jibon Project! Three years ago on 1 March 2005, the Nari Jibon Project (women's lives) opened to provide alternative skills to disadvantaged urban women in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Three Fulbright fellows and Bangladeshi staff provided low cost classes in Bangla, tailoring, English, and computers in a cramped one flat space (for our herstory, see the Nari Jibon website). Nari Jibon has now expanded to three flats and more offerings such as three levels of English, more computer classes with broadband access (including repair-graphics-photography-video), and also a website, nari only cyber cafe, tailoring shop, and research cell. Since June 2007 and thanks to a small grant from Global-Rising Voices, Nari Jibon also has two blogs in English and Bangla, which have been read by over 13,000 readers. You can read a Rezwan's recent overview of the blogs and spring in Bangladesh.

Many of our students have gone on to develop their own businesses, improve their salaries from literacy in Bangla and skills, jobs in offices and NGOs, and pursue their higher education with computer and improved skills in English and Bangla speaking, writing, and reading. To learn more about our students and their lives, photographs, and videos, please scroll through the Nari Jibon blog and website.

My thanks go out to the Nari Jibon Project staff and thousands of students who have passed through our doors for various studies. May they have learned many different skills that they have used in their lives, families, income generation, and continued education. Thanks to all our donors and supporters for your time and generosity.

Alas, we still need your support for Nari Jibon's continued success and programme. If you are interesting in donatiing time or funds, please contact me and/or go to Narijibonusa.org where you can learn what your donation can provide, more success stories and download a donation form for cheque donations to Give2Asia and/or contribute by credit card Give2Asia Foundation for the Nari Jibon Project (tax deductible in USA and Canada permitted by law).

If you are in the Carbondale, IL, USA area, you can attend a Women's History month performance by The Composters, the wonderful feminist oral-media performance duo on 21 March 2008, 8 pm, LongBranch Coffeehouse, West Jackson Street. Donations will go to Nari Jibon Project.

You can follow the pithy advice & adventures of avid Composters Glenda Greenhouse & Mary Mercury as they perform sustainably in their Compostthis! blog. They have also been featured in Spring 2008, Bitch Magazine.

You can also hear me discuss Nari Jibon and blogging on WDBX Radio, 91.1, "Native Voices" radio programme, on Sunday, 2 March, 1:00-1:30pm (central standard time) streaming url, http://wdbx.scientistsuperstar.com/ Here, you can read more on blogs and weblinks that I discuss on this program.

I will also appear on the "Big Muddy Media" radio programme, which will be broadcast on the same station/streaming url from 9-9:30am (central standard) on Wednesday, 5 March 2008. On the Rising Voices blogsite, you can hear me discuss the benefits of blogging for Bangladeshi women via an interview segment on mp3.

I hope that all will have some misti (sweets) in honor of Nari Jibon's birthday as well as some fair trade chocolate-tea-coffee on International Women's Day, 8 March 2008.