1st Media and Gender Violence Conference in East Africa

Submitted by PURPLE IMAGES on 13 May, 2008 - 05:05.
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1. Event Title: 1st Media and Gender Violence Conference in East Africa
2. Dates: Monday, September 15th - Friday, September 19th 2008
3. Conference Theme: ‘Working With the Media To Eradicate Gender Based Violence'
4. Venue: Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi Kenya

5. Conference Organizers: The 1st Media and Gender Violence Conference in East Africa is organized by a ten member committee representing media and development organizations in Kenya involved in reproductive health, human rights, women empowerment, gender and governance, development and population, media practitioners and consultants, the Kenya Union of Journalists, Women in Media, filmmakers, artists, and community educators. Kenya 's secretariats for the Conference are hosted by Action Africa Communications and Purple Images Productions who are leaders in Development Communications in health, gender and population issues. Two ad hoc secretariats are being set up in Uganda and Tanzania to co-ordinate the registration and participation of delegates from the two countries.

6. Conference Goal: · The goal of the conference is to expand resources in media and development organizations, share information, experiences and skills building and to strengthen institutional capacities to improve collaboration and networking, to identify new knowledge, and opportunities to help prevent and reduce the incidence and the impact of violence against women among the communities of the East African Region.

7. Special features of the conference: · Awards to Journalists excelling in reporting on issues aimed at reducing violence against women in the society · Special media coverage of the conference · Awards to the most innovative and effective NGOs programs on gender violence prevention in the Region · Educational Cultural performances and media presentations from the East African Region.

8. Conference Brief: · The media; television, film, radio, newspapers, music, theatre and the Internet have profound impact on our lives. The media inluences everything we do, the products we buy to the leaders we elect. The information and the media technology revolution of the 1990s have introduced sweeping changes in the way we conduct our lives and have created many opportunities as well as challenges. Some of the opportunities can be found in the free flow of ideas carried by the media, while the challenges are in carefree images of violence and the stereotypes carried in the media of the vulnerable members of the society and their lack of access, participation and the control of the information sources especially in the delivery of social justice. · The media is the most powerful tool of addressing violence at both the national and local levels. While the media has done well to highlight cases of violence in the communities, it has been accused of promoting violence in the society. There is therefore a need to re -examine the role of the media in the prevention of violence in the communities with particular focus on gender violence. · Purple Images Productions is hosting the first conference on media and gender violence in East Africa . It recognizes the need to address the myriad problems facing our communities and thus assess the role played by the formal and the traditional media as key component for intervention in violence against women and other social problems. Consequently, a need arises to bring together key gender violence prevention and women rights agents, activists, media producers, artistes, scriptwriters, news editors and journalists in the East African region to share the lessons learnt, exchange information, assess intervention strategies and suggest together ways of making the media they use more effective to reduce violence against women in the society and which in return will help improve the lives of our children, and women.

9. Conference Presentation Themes: The Role of Media in the promotion/ Prevention of: Sexual harassment, sexual abuse and Rape Domestic Violence Political violence against Women Female genital mutilation and other cultural practices Economic deprivation of women Emotional violence The root cause of the culture of violence in the society Women in war and conflict situations The arts and media for change HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Rights of women

10. Media and Gender Violence Awards
The following are the categories for the awards to media practitioners on the best features on gender violence prevention in the last year: [a] Kenya print &electronic [i] Best overall [ii]1st Runners up [iii]Honorary Plaques [b] Uganda print &electronic [I]Best overall [II] Ist Runners up [iii] Honorary plaques [c]Tanzania print and electronic Media [I ]Best overall [ii] Ist Runners up [iii]Honorary plaques
All correspondence should be emailed to the attention of:

Ms. Janet Ondieki
The Conference Coordinator
1st Media and Gender Violence Conference in East Africa Secretariat
Mbuchia House, 3rd Flr, West Wing, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya
P.O BOX 58182 - 00200 Nairobi
Telephone: 254-20-4450937
Cell: 0720 210819/ 0722 634947
Email: purplemedia2000 @ yahoo.com or info @ purpleimages. com www.purpleimages. com

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