Grassroots African Women's Conference
SPONSORED BY MAMA NA DADA AFRICA
AND GLOBAL PARTNERS FOR DEVELOPMENT

December 1-4, 2006
Bondo Teachers Training College, Bondo, Kenya

Overview

The conference was organized by the Planning Committee of Mama na Dada africa. It was designed to bring together grassroots women primarily from the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, with representation of rural women throughout africa, to tell their stories in their own words, to speak for themselves, to share their successes, challenges, and vulnerabilities and to celebrate their successes.

Mama na Dada works with grassroots women and is concerned that even though several women's conferences have been held in various parts of the world, these conferences have always focused on the elite women, local NGOs and international players. The voices and stories of grassroots women, who suffer most when poverty, disease and war occur, have never been heard because there has never been, even at the UN level, a conference to have them speak for themselves. It is always the researcher, the NGO, the government officer, and the international person, who speaks on their behalf. This is what this Conference brought to the grassroots women -- an opportunity to have their voices heard.

The conference was held in Bondo Teacher's Training College in Nyanza Province, from December 1-4, 2006. Approximately 513 women attended from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Southern Sudan, South Africa, Zambia, including 65 women North America and Canada. By bringing together such a wide range of women, the conference provided a very valuable opportunity for women to meet and learn from the experiences of each other.

Conference Objectives

To bring grassroots women together to discuss matters of common interest so that they can support and empower one another
To allow the women to share their successes, challenges and vulnerabilities and to tell their stories in their own voices
To provide grassroots women with their own forum and opportunity to network and learn about resources close to home.
To facilitate grassroots connection and communication among women
To document women's stories
To create a market for grassroots women's enterprise products
To highlight our own local leadership and resources
To offer an opportunity for grassroots women to share their stories with our international sisters.

Main Theme

The main theme of the conference as "Women Building Communities." Rural women are the front line of village community development and the backbone of Africa's progress. When poverty, disease, and conflict strike, it is grassroots women who suffer most profoundly. It is grassroots women who carry the burdens of ensuring that their children are fed, educated and have worthy futures, of caring for those suffering from AIDS and other diseases, and of building and maintaining the social fabric of their communities for the benefit of all.

Without fanfare or attention from celebrities, rural African women confront the challenges of living and create solutions. Reaching across ethnic and religious divides, women actively pursue peace, defuse tensions and rebuild communities torn apart by violence. Women develop income generating activities for survival, education and financial security. They form affinity groups for mutual benefit and to care for those in greatest need. They organize and stand for their rights to ownership, land management, and community decision-making. Grassroots women develop programs that work extremely well, but these are rarely shared with their peers or the wider world in an effective manner.

Registration

The conference commenced in the morning of December 1st on a happy note, with many women, young, senior and mature. They were registering for participation in front of the Bondo Teachers Training College Administration Block.

Bondo Teacher's College

It was as if all the women from the villages had gathered here, and one could not imagine that there were other women left behind in the villages of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and beyond. Although millions of women were left behind in the villages, this was a true representation. Meanwhile, Bondo Town bus station was busy with women asking for directions in more than 40 languages, some carrying babies on their backs, others just walking across the short main street to the venue, while others were amazed and proud to visit the town that is the cradle and headquarters of long gone and aged freedom fighters and for-runners of the Kenyan democracy and multi-partisanism. Some knew the history of this small town, others had no idea.

The arrival and registration was marred with positive confusion that enhanced networking, the theme of the conference. The women were talking to each other, those they knew and those they didn't know. There are at times loud laughter and sometimes loud arguments, soft discussions among individuals, some in groups and other moving towards their rooms while others to the field and the conference room.

Bondo Teachers' Training College turned into Bondo Women's Zone. As the registration was going on, others were arriving and it was a continuous inflow of women. Only one or two men were in the vicinity, and they were either drivers of the buses that were dropping the women or the few young male volunteers. As is to be expected when one is in the minority, the few men looked intimidated by the massive number of women.

United States Group who attended

US Group

The conference hall was colourful and attractive, thanks to Elizabeth and Kathleen’s artistic hands and eyes! The logistical and administrative arrangements were still going on as the women streamed and assembled into the conference hall at the late hours of the day.

The basic approach was to make the conference as participatory and interactive as possible and to make the deliberations relevant to the specific requirements of the grassroots women in East Africa. The facilitators made sure that a highly interactive approach was used during both the plenary and workshop sessions to make the whole exercise practical and to enhance current and future networking.