In the second issue you will find:

WITT NEWS:

WITT I-board activities WITT membership

WITT ACTIVITIES:

WITT Focal Points in Serbia and Montenegro and the Czech Republic moving forward!

Active participation of Bulgarian and Macedonian Focal Points in regional and international events!

WITT WEB SITE:

Moving forward for a multilingual WITT web site! Have a look!

WITT REPRESENTATION AND PROMOTION

Where have we been? Where to meet WITT?

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WITT NEWS

WITT I-Board Activities

The WITT interim board is currently working on issues related to the future of WITT in 2006/2007. The main focus of the I-Board is currently:

  Clarifying and further developing WITT’s strategic documents
  Defining WITT’s new structure and function
  Defining WITT’s membership policy
  Working toward a future fundraising strategy

The I-board is planning to have a face to face meeting 17-18th December 2005 in Belgrade. If you would like to contact the I-board for more information please send a message to the following email address: board AT witt-project DOTnet.

WITT MEMBERSHIP COMING SOON!

In order to improve WITT’s structure and growth, the I-Board agreed to create a system that includes official members. Currently, the I-Board is working to define the membership criteria and application process. In the near future the I-Board will send out specific instructions on how to become a member of WITT.

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WITT ACTIVITIES

The following is a short description of the exciting activities that took place in the period of September to October.

WITT Focal Points (FP) in Serbia and Montenegro and the Czech Republic moving forward!

FPs in the Czech Republic and Serbia and Montenegro are currently conducting Needs Assessment (NA) in their respective countries with the aim of determining the needs of women’s organization and the use of ICTs as strategic tools in their lives. After completing the NA, Focal Points will organize and conduct training sessions for representatives of WNGOs.

FOCAL POINT’S REPORTS:

CZECH REPUBLIC

Needs Assessment – entering the final phase of gathering information. The results of the research will be available toward the end of the year.

The end of November was marked by the AWID Forum in Bangkok and Lenka Simerska a WITT FP was an attendee.

Training for local organizations in the Czech Republic will occur in mid January.

For more information on the FP’s activities in the Czech Republic you can contact Lenka Simerska (lenka.simerska At ecn DOT cz).

SERBIA and MONTENEGRO

Needs Assessment – FP Serbia is conducting a Needs Assessment in Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The gathering of information is to be completed by November 20th. After this date the FP will begin processing and analyzing the information. The results of the research will be available toward the end of the year.

Web design training – To check out a web site constructed during the web design training please go to http://queeruption.org/queerbeograd. This web site was made for Queer Beograd, a grass roots organization promoting queer culture. More web sites coming soon!

The FP in Serbia is currently doing consultancy work with several women’s organizations including: ATINA, the Incest Trauma Centre and the Novi Sad Lesbian organization. As soon as these organization’s web sites are finished we will let you know!

For more information on FP Serbia and Montenegro you can contact Milica Gudovic (zenadelu AT yubc DOT net).

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The work of the Bulgarian and Macedonian FP’s has officially ended, but they continue to be active WITT representatives on both a regional and international level. We would like to remind you that the Needs Assessment results are available by request.

ACTIVITIES OF WITT REPRESENTATIVES

Bulgaria

Christina Haralanova the FP in Bulgaria was present at the 10th AWID International Forum, an event focusing on women’s rights and development which was held on 25 – 31st October in Bangkok. She participated in the session entitled, “What Feminist Activism and Research in CEE/CIS Can Teach the World”. Her presentation was focused mainly on the use of information and communication technologies by local women and the way these have helped to produce change in their lives. She explained the results from the NA in Bulgaria and distributed copies of the report to the audience.

You can read Christina’s articles on the WITT web site:

My Impressions from the AWID Forum 2005 by Christina Haralanova

New Approach: ICTs to Help Violence Against Women by Christina Haralanova

MACEDONIA

Akcija Zdruzhenska also participated in the 10th AWID International Forum. She organized the interactive session “ Defying Borders: Balkan Women Revisit their 2002 Strategies for Peace and Share Lessons”. During the session, the organizers and participants discussed, analyzed and revaluated the experiences gained during the journey of 47 women activists from former Yugoslavia and Albania. These women visited the places of destruction and places where civic initiatives had prevented further bloodshed. The women explored the newly created physical borders as well as the psychological borders that divided their communities. The main discussion confronted the question of women’s mobility, overcoming prejudices and ways of strengthening political engagement and visibility through action.

The presenters were:

Marija Savovska and Akcija Zdruzhenska -Macedonia

Jehona Gjurgeala - Kosovar Center for Gender Studies in Kosovo

Ana Miljanic - Center for Cultural Decontamination in Serbia and Montenegro

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WITT WEB SITE

Moving toward a multilingual web site!

The WITT web team is working to further develop the WITT web site to be multilingual. Soon you can expect to view the WITT web site in Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian and Czech.

Have a look! In this section, we provide a link to some of the new articles we highly recommend!

Macedonian Women Contribute To The Localization Of Free Software, by Jordana Petruševska

Innovative Mobile Help-Line For Women Tops The 2005 Gender And ICT Awards, by Lenka Simerska

Transgressing Gender Conference – Zagreb by Zoe Gudovic

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WITT REPRESENTATION AND PROMOTION

Where have we been?

Awid Forum 25 – 31st October in Bangkok: How does change happen?

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Where to meet WITT?

Christina Haralanova and Mina Saadadi will be attending the WSIS Conference from 16-19th of November in Tunis, Tunisia. Here they will be doing media coverage on behalf of Digit@all Future which will be available in January. http://www.witt-project.net/article315.html

Christina Haralanova will be conducting trainings between 21 November and 10th December. She will be training ten UK NGOs in a region East of England to use Free Software and Linux in particular.

Eva Cruells will present the WITT project in Basque Country, north of Spain, at a round table on feminism and the information society organized by: http://www.netlach.org/web/. You can listen to it in Spanish on the net radio PACA - 18th November at 18h.