Happy New Year! Make Your Voice Heard in 2010

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Happy New Year! I hope that you enjoyed your winter holiday and have welcomed 2011 full of energy and good thoughts. I would like to share with you the final evaluation of the activities implemented within the “Make Your Voice Heard!” project, and I welcome your feedback and proposals for new projects and activities.
During the first Stop Gender Discrimination! Campaign, six different activities were organized on the following topics:
- Women’s rights / human rights (info session “Women’s Rights. Legislation and Activism”)
- Gender identities construction (movie screening "Tough Guise. Media, Violence and the New Crisis in Masculinity")
- Intersectionality: gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status (movie screening “Red Poppies”)
- Combating gender stereotypes (workshop “Femininity - Masculinity”);
- Activism for gender equality (flashmob)
- Feminism in theory and practice (lecture “Feminism/Femininity”)

The second part of the awareness raising and info campaign, “Stop Gender Discrimination!” (November, 19-30), focused mainly on combating gender violence within the society. Activities included:
- Information and awareness raising street campaign on rights granted under law for the following situations: domestic violence, harassment, discrimination
- Round table with Turda mass-media representatives: “The mass-media role in reducing gender inequalities”
- Film screening: Austria – The Red Card (2008); episode of the “Women on the frontline” – legislative alternatives in the field of violence against women
- Film Screening: “Children of the Decree” – ideological violence and the issue of reproductive rights violation during the Ceausescu regime (in Targu Jiu)
- Workshop: “Combating domestic violence”

400 direct beneficiaries learned how gender stereotypes and inequalities are constructed and how they can be deconstructed through our awareness raising and info campaigns and also through our participatory action research (developed during January – June 2010). Also, the youth involved in the project have had the opportunity to observe and acknowledge the role of mass-media and its influence in developing gender attitudes and gender identities. The local and regional mass-media involvement in the “Stop Gender Discrimination!” campaign represented a great opportunity to mobilize and inform the public opinion on gender-related issues.
The Ratiu Foundation for Democracy, through Make Your Voice Heard, actively participated in the activities developed during the “16 Days of Activism against Violence on Women” campaign (November 25 – December 10). In 2010, during the 16 Days campaign, we organized the workshop “Combating Domestic Violence” – the silence witnesses were exposed, and the participants analyzed their situation and proposed solutions for combating domestic violence. We also participated in the flashmob and round tables organized by the coordinating organization of the campaign, PATRIR.

The impact of our activities was monitored through different methods: interviews, questionnaires, focus groups and round tables. To get participants interested involved in free discussions on gender, we utilized non-formal gender education methods. The handbook Making Rights a Reality. Gender Awareness Workshops. (published by Amnesty International Publications) was used in research and the above mentioned methods were applied.
Based on the results, the project successfully reached its purpose and objectives. The participants were guided in recognizing economic, institutional and domestic discrimination in their community and how to combat those forms of discrimination by using the current legislation. Also, the communities become more aware of the specific problems women face in society.

We await your feedback!