Wednesday, June 6, 2012

CIWIL: Advancing Transformational Leadership for Gender Justice in the Caribbean

Personal Reflection


A little over a week ago I got notice of my acceptance to the Caribbean Institute for Women in Leadership CIWIL’s very first regional project:  Advancing Transformational Leadership for Gender Justice in the Caribbean. Prior to this I’d attended one other region based workshop Gender and Media Advocacy Training which was hosted by Women’s Media Watch WMW in Jamaica and sponsored by the World Association for Christian Communication WACC. This experience however did not prepare me for the kind of work that is expected at this grounding, with an intense online component that requires completion of assignments almost every day, including both independent and collaborative work … this blog post included. Even though I am on vacation, holidaying in the beautiful isle of Sint Maarten, I am grateful for the opportunity to take part, as I feel confident that CIWIL is action driven and committed to creating a regional women’s movement and feminist community for which I have longed to be a part. It’s serendipitous even that I was chosen, having not been selected to attend Code Red’s Catch a Fyah grounding just a few weeks earlier also in Barbados. The stars aligned in my favour this time around, having only received my acceptance letter on the day the program began, due to all previous correspondence going directly to my junk mail.  Plug: Hotmail is lame!
Among the assignments completed was an interview with a ‘transformational’ woman leader and a country report on the status of women, using the gender policy recommendations and a cumulative assessment of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women CEDAW. I thoroughly enjoyed the interview component of having an opportunity to be on the inside of Dr. Asha Kambon’s life, a woman I have admired for many years and I look forward to meeting many more like mined womyn  that can help me …  help each other create a better world.

No comments:

Post a Comment