WUNRN
Papua New Guinea - Kup Highlands -
Women's Leadership for Peace
Fiji Links for Young Women's
Emerging Leadership
30 September 2008
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
From Suva to Kup: Finding
Inspiration in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Highlands
By Michelle Reddy
FWRM Young Women’s Officer
Picture: Michelle and a group of Kup women
cross a river – part of daily life in the PNG Highlands.
Kup, in the Simbu province of the highlands of
It was as a graduate of the FWRM’s Emerging
Leaders Forum (ELF) that I first heard about KWP and the amazing women who
helped set up the organisation. Last year, I had the privilege of meeting two
of the founding members, Mary Kini and Agnes Sil at the DAWN Pacific/FWRM
Regional Young Feminist Advocacy training. Meeting the two inspiring women made
my visit to Kup, as an ELF graduate and current Young Women’s Officer,
especially poignant.
Kup is known for its history of tribal
fighting, which came to an end following the peaceful invention made by KWP
founding members. This is a role that KWP continues to play through its work as
peace-makers and as community development implementers. KWP’s interest in establishing
a young women’s programme in their community is based on the need to engage
girls and young women in KWP’s vision of peace for Kup and the highlands
region. KWP approached FWRM to assist in the design of a programme
specific to the needs of Kup. This conversation began with a scoping visit to
Kup in 200, which finally resulted in a workshop held in Kup from the 15th
to 19th September 2008. This was the first of three training
sessions to be held between 2008 and 2009.
While FWRM’s own ELF training programme was
designed for young urban Suva-ites, we worked with the Kup women to develop a
programme suited to the rugged mountain terrain and their vision of peace for
the highlands. And so, after a long and complicated series of chopping and
changing via email, phone calls and radio telephone conversations between
This first training focused on the principles
of transformative feminist leadership. By the end of our week together, the Kup
girls and young women saw themselves as leaders in their vision of a future of
peace. But they had found it difficult to identify as leaders to begin
with – because, as was clear from discussions during the training, leadership
has always been associated with men. This perception is also the case in
Some of the barriers to taking on leadership,
as identified by the participants, included custom not allowing them to speak
or make any public decisions, lack of knowledge and opportunities to formal
education, traditional laws that promote men and impact negatively on women
such as marriage and bride price, girls and women used as compensation during
times of tribal fights and, young women having low self esteem.
“This the first time that the girls have
ever been asked or given the chance to think of themselves and what it is that
they want for themselves. Because we have always been taught and worked as a
community it is hard for the girls to explore themselves, their self esteem and
what it means to be a young woman leader if they ever considered themselves as
such.”
Monica Sil, 17-year-old participant.
Despite living so far apart, I felt that young
women from
However, even with these similarities, the
strategies we employed are vastly different to ensure that Kup’s particular
contexts are taken into account. For example, the young women in Kup have to
walk long distances in what can often be a hostile and violent environment. One
strategy they have developed to deal with this is to work with both men and
women in their awareness campaigns. This means their travel is safer, as
their male colleagues accompany them on their advocacy missions from community
to community. The existence of relatively safe transport in
“In terms of my personal development, I
realized the many things that we take for granted like running water, food,
transport and education. You learn to appreciate what you have but most
importantly you embrace the challenges that young women in Kup face and
strengthen solidarity of making a positive change in some way”
Shabina Khan, FWRM Human Rights Training
Officer.
The experiences of the young women in Kup are
extremely valuable for other young Pacific island women, particularly in
dealing with conflict. KWP’s success in peace building and community
development, strengthening the capacity of young women to invigorate the
organization, as well as successful collaboration with their
FWRM
is a multi-ethnic and multicultural NGO committed to removing discrimination
against women. By means of core programmes, as well as
innovative approaches, the FWRM practice promotes democracy, good governance,
feminism and human rights. It strives to empower, unite and provide leadership
opportunities for women in
For more information contact Executive Director
Virisila Buadromo
+679-9249906
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tara Chetty
Communications
Officer
Fax:(679) 3313466
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