Friday, December 11, 2009

Grace's November Report

Hi everyone, November seems to be busy for me! I've been writing exams on Social Work Degree that I am doing this year which i finally finished on the 9Th of this month. It was difficult but I haven't lost hope.
On the 11Th to the 14Th of November I attended the Feminist Technology Exchange workshop in Cape Town. It was very exciting and interesting to meet with other people and to be able to learn many things because I don't have much knowledge on the use of ICT's. People in that workshop were very nice and willing to help which made the space to be safe for everyone. I learned about how to make movies using digital stories. That was an exciting experience because I was able to make my own movie and bring it home with me! I hope and I wish to teach my colleagues and other members of the community the skill of making movies so that we make movies for lobbing and advocacy for our rural communities.
On the 18th and 19th I attended Sexual Offences Act workshop in Pietermaritzburg which was facilitated by Amber, Thobile, and Bongiwe from our organization. I learned about the amended act which was very interesting to know about. On the 23rd I attended the IDP meeting at Mthonjaneni municipality and I was thinking that there will be many people but there were few officials. What I found very interesting there was that the MEC has challenge their plans about Hiv and asked that the Hiv strategic plan and its implementation be included and submitted to him before they implement their IDP.
On the 24 I met with Ntombi, Gcinile and Phakamile to practice for the MHBCN workshop on the 25+26. We had workshop on the 25+26 and issues that were covered were productive work vs. reproductive work. It was interesting to hear the burning issue of women doing reproductive work which is taken as not important as productive work that men are doing but cannot survive wthout women and their reproductive work. Women felt stong that men should help them and take the work that is done by women important as their work. They also wished that the State and Business Sector look at the home based care work as the most important work which also enables their businesses to grow and produce more!
Today-27th I will be meeting with the Youth Team preparing for the workshop on the 28th with Yanguye High School!

1 comment:

Amber said...

Hi Grace
Just to say your comments are well writen and that you sound very busy. I am interested to hear more about the IEP meeting and what the municipality had planned that the MEC was unhappy with and also whether there is an opportunity to do get some new issues and concerns on the agenda.

Thanks!
Amber