Hey All,

I was off to Delhi for a week to obtain permission from the Ministry of Women and Child development for the Regional Consultation in October. Now that I'm back, its time for some more news from MASUM. Here's what I am aware of !!

• A new accountant - Yogita Pole joined MASUM in place of Pratibha tai. Pratibha tai has started her own law practice after completing her LLB while at MASUM. Even Archana completed her LLB recently -juggling her many roles very adeptly! :)
• We also had a small farewell party for Rikke who left on the 16th of August after completing her two month internship. She is a student of Anthropology and had recently completed another internship at United Nations. At MASUM she was studying how the Human Rights framework gets translated from the policy making level to the grass-roots. A very bright and promising person - we wish her luck in her future endeavours.
• We participated in the Maharashtra State level Training of Trainers (ToT) on Community Based Monitoring which was held from 7th to 11th August, 2007 at YMCA in Pune. The objective of this training was to conduct training on Community based Monitoring activities for the master trainers from Community Monitoring project districts of Nandurbar, Thane, Amaravati, Osmanabad and Pune. Two masters’ trainers from Public Health Department, trainers from NGOs, CBOs, People’s Organizations from respective five project districts were participated in the ToT. Experts involved in training field were also invited as Resource Person to conduct this ToT.
• Milind is away for a Regional Training of Trainers (Asia Pacific Region) on Promoting Equality & Rights for Women in the context of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women organised by International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific from 25 to 31 August 2008 being held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• About 20 people from Convergys are visiting Waghapur village today to conduct a Creativity Workshop with children and also to have a look at the Mobile Computer Van initiative that they are supporting.
  
• Archana is busy preparing for a two day Review and Strategy Building Workshop on Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDV Act). The workshop is being held in collaboration with ILS Law College, Pune at the J.P.Naik Center from the 25th to the 26th of August and will be attended by about 25-30 participants from various Organisations all across Maharashtra who work on the implementation of the PWDV Act. The aim is to review the work done and prepare a strategy to pressurise the Government to implement the Act better.

Swati

Violence against Women - Involving Men

Dr. Ramesh Awasthi, Milind and Archana just attended a Experience Sharing and Strategy Planning Workshop on Involving men to address Violence against Women that was organised by Swiss Aid on 4th and 5th of August. Hopefully I'll be able to catch them to give me some material to put in here!

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The Malshiras Office

At a glance

What's MASUM up to?

• MASUM Institute for Training in Right's Based Activism (MITRA) just completed a series of five trainings on Women's Rights, Health Rights, Right to Natural Resources, Child Rights and Training of Trainers for people associated with NGOs and CBOs all across the nation. Currently work on the Training Manual is in progress.
• A Mobile Computer Van started with the support of Convergys is visiting two villages to impart computer education to adolescent girls and to provide computer aided learning for students of two Government run schools.
• We are a part of a Campaign on Right to Choose one's partner. Along with many like minded organizations several activities have been initiated at State level to strengthen this right.
  
• "There is no Honour in Killing!", a report on the South Asian cross-border seminar on Honour Killings was released by Retd. Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid.
• Intervention against Domestic Violence -Workshop on Domestic Violence Act is being organised in collaboration with ILS Law College, Pune.
  
• Health - On-demand Health Camps are being organised in collaboration with various organisations to diagnose pre-cancerous situations for cervical cancer. Besides this, the documentation work in the health program is being streamlined through introduction of standardised and easy-to-use forms.
• Preparatory meetings have started for the next Aarogya Samvad Melava (Health Dialogue Fair) which is going to held in January 2009.
  
• Balwadi / pre-schools
• Computerisation of data entry procedure of Streedhan through use of hand held devices and e-cards.
• MASUM's website is being revamped.
• Preparation in progress for Consultation on Violence against Indigenous Women with UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous People being organised in collaboration with Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) .
• We currently have three interns - Rikke from Denmark, Hannah from UK and Aida from Germany (she's studying in London though) working on various assignments.
  

To begin with...

Hello Friends,

This is an attempt to keep you abreast of the various activities and programs MASUM is involved in as well as to keep a record of the same for ourselves.

At this point we would not like to go into the history of the organisation and all that we have been doing over the years. We would like to begin with the present and perhaps every now and then, may take a walk down the memory lane....

Yet, if you are curious, you may visit our website www.masum-india.org.

In solidarity.