Kvinna till Kvinna, Johanneshov, Sweden
From the Global Women's Network
| Kvinna till Kvinna, Johanneshov, Sweden | |
|---|---|
| Logo: |  |
| Street address: | Slakthusplan 3 |
| City: | Johanneshov |
| Country: | Sweden |
| Location: |
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| Location coordinates: | 59° 17' 36" N, 18° 4' 32" ELatitude: 59.2932189 Longitude: 18.0754947 |
| Contact number: | 08-588 891 00 |
| Contact email: | info@kvinnatillkvinna.se |
| Website: | http://www.kvinnatillkvinna.se/en |
| Target: | Women |
| Organization type: | International NGO (operating in multiple countries), Foundation |
| Sectors: | Education, Human Rights, Peace and Conflict, Political Participation/Governance, Violence Against Women |
| Year founded/registered: | 1993 |
Summary
The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation supports women organising in conflict regions. We collaborate with women's organisations who play an active part in peace and rebuilding processes.
About
The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation supports women organising in conflict regions. We collaborate with women's organisations who play an active part in peace and rebuilding processes.
Our partner organisations help women legally and psychologically. They are involved in women's health issues and sexual and reproductive rights. They inform women, and men, of women's human rights. They empower and further educate women activists and politicians. They counteract violence against women and human trafficking. They educate authorities and influence decision-making processes and legislation. Women's organisations change society by spreading their knowledge and experience of democracy, reconciliation and peace work.
Having a place to meet is a prerequisite for expressing needs and formulating opinions. By meeting, organising, sharing problems and experiences, women empower each other. Together they can formulate political demands and organise for change.
Women's organisations in conflict regions have great experience of the needs that exist in society. They have strategies for achieving change; change that entails women taking control of the own bodies, having the power to make decisions and the right to access society's resources.
The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation regards gender equality, sustainable peace and progress as being inseparable. Sustainable peace is only achievable by challenging and changing the unequal power structures in society that restrict, oppress and marginalise groups and individuals. It requires a strong civil society where people participate on equal terms regardless of gender or social, ethnic, cultural and sexual affinity. In most societies in the world men are the norm. Without the active participation of women there is no possibility for sustainable progress.
Changing attitudes and building peace and gender equality takes time. Peace processes provide the opportunity for change. Old structures can be revaluated when societies are rebuilt. Both women and men in the decision-making processes and around the negotiating table improves the possibility of sustainable progress.
The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation invests in Peace. Support that goes directly to women in poor countries is effective. Your support makes a difference. The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation was awarded the 2002 Right Livelihood Award for its successful support to women's peace and reconciliation work.
We work regionally and are active in the Middle East, Western Balkans and Southern Caucasus. As women's organisations often confront similar problems, they have a great use of each other's experiences. We mediate contacts and create room for women to meet across social, cultural, and territorial borders. We work long-term and through collaboration. By working in the field and long-term we build up support activities in collaboration with our partner organisations. Read more about our fieldwork.
We work to change international development cooperation and security policies by spreading information about the conditions of women in war and conflict, and by shaping opinion through pursuing the issue of women's access to power and the significance of the issue for poverty eradication, sustainable development and peace, and by highlighting the importance of women's participation in peace and democratic processes. Read more about our communication work.
The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation is established
"Genocide is being committed in the middle of Europe. All possible measures must be taken to put an end to this war. We will contribute through an action called Kvinna till Kvinna." This was the introduction to a polemical article in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper on April 18, 1993.
It was during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s that Sweden first received reports of the horrendous outrages that women were being systematically subjected to. The reports spurred the women's movement in Sweden to call a meeting to discuss what could be done. They agreed to work under the name of Kvinna till Kvinna (Woman to Woman) and support would go from Swedish women to the women in the Balkans.
The real breakthrough
During the first years Kvinna till Kvinna was organised as a network of private citizens and organisations. The real breakthrough came with a campaign entitled ‘Send a woman's package'. The Swedish people were encouraged to show solidarity with the women in Bosnia by sending packages of scarce goods like sanitary towels and tampons, underwear, soap and foodstuffs. The response was enormous, over 20,000 packages were sent! At the same time, fundraising took place for women's organisations in the Balkans. Thanks to the Swedish support, local women's groups could offer valuable help to women in devastated and ethnically divided towns. Women's centres were established that offered secure shelters for women in the war.
Collection to Bosnia 1994
Activities grew and in 1995 the organisation took the next step. Kvinna till Kvinna became a religious, ethnic and politically independent fundraising foundation under the wing of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Association. The mission for the newly formed foundation was to support women in war and conflict, but also to inform about the situation of women in war and the importance of involving women in the peace and rebuilding processes.
An expanding organisation
Since it was formed in 1993, Kvinna till Kvinna has grown significantly, both in the size of the operation and its geographical spread. The organisation is now established in three conflict-affected regions. Following the Balkans, operations began in the Middle East in 2001 and South Caucasus in 2002. Work today focuses on long-term development cooperation with women's organisations in all three regions.
Group activities differ depending on the needs in their communities. It could be about offering psychosocial support, legal counselling, supporting women politicians, lobbying for changes in the law or providing reproductive healthcare. However, all the organisations have one thing in common: the will to empower women to take control over their own lives and participate in the work for peace and democracy. The central concept is for women's organisations supported by the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation to themselves formulate what is required in the areas in which they operate.
The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation awarded the alternative Nobel Prize
After 10 years of operations, the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation was acknowledged in the best possible way. In 2002 the organisation received the ‘alternative Nobel Prize', The Right Livelihood Award. As well as the honour and the prize money, it gave the work of the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation and the women involved a great deal of publicity.
