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Chad-Sudan - Women Refugees
from
Interactive
radio programs designed to address women’s issues air across
United
Nations Women in the Djabal camp in |
(July 7, 2009) Seide sits cross-legged on
a straw mat, surrounded by a dozen other refugee women in the training center
of the Djabal camp for Darfur refugees in
“This is a great program. It talks about…all the bad things we suffer at home,” says Seide. “People have got the message. It gives advice to polygamous husbands on the different ways of taking care of their wives. That’s really what life is about here in the refugee camps.”
Women’s Crossroads is a new program from Radio Sila specifically designed by Internews journalists to address the information needs of women living in the area.
Coinciding with the launch of Women’s
Crossroads, fifteen
wind-up radios with mini solar panels were distributed to women’s groups in
Djabal camp, with the help of MINURCAT, the UN mission deployed in
“We have a radio at home,” says Fatime “but my husband takes it with him when he leaves the house. I can only listen to it when he is there. Other women who don’t have radios have to go to their neighbors to listen.”
Some of the men – husbands, fathers, brothers – were at first reluctant to let nassaras (foreigners) distribute radios to women without showing due respect by giving them to the male leaders of the communities.
“The main purpose of this project is to facilitate the access of women to radio programs specially designed for them,” notes Eliana Rueda from MINURCAT. “But it also aims to benefit the whole community, since the radios are installed in public places, as well as empowering women, who are put in charge of the radio sets.”
Neither the women’s programs nor the radios were intended for individual use, but for group listening so as to encourage women – and men – to talk freely about gender issues. The programs do not only deal with issues of mistreatment and violence. Women’s initiatives, like income-generating activities or cooking tips, are also on the agenda.
Sylvie Bowen, Internews reporter for
gender issues in
Another refugee woman from Djabal approves. “In the camp, all the women can now listen to the radio,” says Achta. “Sensitization and information can change women’s everyday lives.”
Internews’ work in
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