Page 29 - IB FEB 2018

16 Days, 4 Countries – Voices for Peace

In Vanuatu, people
from all walks of life
stopped by a booth
set up by the Vanu-
atu Young Women for
Change (VYWC) at the
Vanuatu 2017 Pacific
(Van2017) Games.
“Using the Van2017
Games as our plat-
form, we have many
people raising ques-
tions on what (or-
ganisations) can do
to ensure that liveli-
hood of poor women
or rather unemployed Community media training held in Malaita Province, Solomon Islands
is improved,” shared
Anne Pakoa of VYWC, highlighting a criti- enables our stories to be visible and taken of all aspects of our daily lives.
cal gap for women in the country. into account as nations carve their own For many, that is not a conversation
And in Fiji, Transcend Oceania hosted path towards development. that is happening. We are not discussing
a ‘Mothers and Daughters’ dialogue at But, these spaces must not be limited to the power that underlies structural dis-
femLINKpacific’s Labasa Community 16 days of the year alone. crimination or the root causes of violence
Media Centre examining the generational For the GPPAC Pacific network, peace on our streets.
gaps and differences that they experience education programmes with communi- We wait until something happened or
on a daily basis. ties can enable Pacific people to come has been reported.
“The intergeneration discussions gave together to work towards creating the We wait to react rather than, as 43 year
space for in-depth sharing of elder women change needed for violence-free homes, old Ronika Chetty puts it: “We need to
sharing their experiences of violence, how communities and countries. learn more about the root causes of this
they handled or address the violence,” It needs to be an everyday process of and ask questions (like) ‘How could this
shared Adi Vasulevu who facilitated the speaking out and listening, being mindful be prevented?’”
dialogue. “And how we turned
it around and used that to be
lessons for us and how we
could influence these stories
to (create a) positive impact
rather than using ‘power over’
stories.”
“For me, it is taking mea-
sures as a whole unit to defuse
the root causes of conflict
and violence against women
and girls,” said 16-year old
Jiteshna Chetty. “To empower
women and girls in educa-
tion and create more learning
spaces and awareness.”
The 16 Days reminded us
that we cannot end violence
without telling our truth or
defining our peace – both of
which require a platform, a
communication space that Participants from the Talitha Projects’ GLOW girls camp, Nukualofa

Islands Business, February 2018 29