Peaks

 

Report back from Aimee McVeigh, AWAVA Delegation on AWAVA’s opening Parallel Event on 6 March:

The strong winds and impending snow didn’t keep people away from AWAVA’s first parallel event this morning. Julie Oberin and Margaret Augerinos, both part of the AWAVA delegation at CSW, spoke with Marai Larasi (UK) and Cindy Southworth (USA) about the ‘Power of Peaks and Alliances.’

Julie opened the session by discussing AWAVA as an example of the power and reach that alliances can have by harnessing and amplifying women’s voices.

Margaret spoke about WESNET, the Women’s Services Network, a national women’s peak advocacy body that works on behalf of women and children who are experiencing or have experienced domestic or family violence.

Marai spoke from the perspective of both Imkaan and End Violence Against Women (EVAW), UK organisations. Imkaan is a black feminist organization dedicated to addressing violence against women and girls. Imkaan represents the perspectives of its members – frontline specialist women’s services.  Marai went on to discuss EVAW, a coalition of individuals and organisations that operates completely independently of government to campaign to end all forms of violence against women.

Cindy spoke about the work of the USA’s National Network to End Domestic Violence – a national membership and advocacy organization of state domestic violence coalitions, allied organisations and individuals.

This morning’s discussion about the above peaks, alliances and coalitions illustrated the power of well-organised feminist voices in the collective struggle to end violence against women.

Power of Peaks & Alliances