This year’s theme “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World” has significantly and successfully been carried out jointly by KNWO and its partner organizations: the International Refugee Committee-Women Protection (IRC-WPE), Women’s League of Burma (WLB) and its new funding donor, the Embassy of Canada through its Canada Fund project at the Karenni Refugee camps 1 and 2.
As a lead women’s organization, KNWO partakes in the yearly event starting from November 25 till December 10. KNWO played a major role in mobilizing and organizing the events.
This year, with the support from the Canada Fund, KNWO independently manages, organizes and implemented education and campaign from September to December, particularly for the adolescent girls with the theme dubbed as “ Zero Tolerance to Sexual Abuse of Adolescent Girls” targeting 600 young girls and parents in 20 sections in camp 1.
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The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights. |
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Yes! To Women and Girls’ Rights!
No! To sexual abuse!
September to December 2011, Karenni Refugee camp, Ban Mai Nai Soi, Mae Hong Son, Thailand. KNWO initiated a four months education and campaign to end violence and exploitation of young girls in partnership with the Embassy of Canada, Thailand.
“Yes to women and girls’ rights” and “No to sexual abuse” are the slogans in the education and campaign organized and managed by KNWO through the grant from the Canada Fund.
The “Sexual and Reproductive Health Care for Adolescent Girls” project is a special project managed by KNWO. The objective of the project is to educate the young girls and community members on the rights of youth and to protect young girls from any forms of sexual abuse.
During the 16 days campaign, the four staff of the Raising Awareness Team for Adolescent (RATA) conducted outreach activities and facilitated education to the refugee community members about the risks of sexual exploitation among adolescent girls in 20 sections in Karenni Refugee camp 1.
December 3, 2011 marks the culminating campaign activity of KNWO on “Zero Tolerance to Sexual Exploitation of Adolescent Girls”. About 400 adolescent’s girls in camp 1 joined in this campaign. T-shirts bearing the “yes to women right and no to sexual abuse” were distributed to the young girls, staff and partner organizations. Among the main events were the signing of the Mural and the Covenant on the Elimination of Sexual Exploitation to symbolize people’s support to protection of young women in the camp.
<<Read More>> Other activities of KNWO inside the refugee camps during 16 Days Activism
KNWO is a Community Based Organization and was founded on March 10, 1993 by concerned women individuals to organize women refugees who fled their homes to seek asylum along the Thai-Burma border in Mae Hong Son, North West of Thailand. KNWO has gained recognition as a lead organization to promote, protect and safeguard the wellbeing of women refugees and the Internally Displaced People (IDP) in Karenni State, Burma. The Karenni women though living in refugee campsstrive to achieve their aspirations of self-sufficiency, equality and obtaining leadership and management roles in the community.
(A documentation report) >>Read Full Report<<
The Karenni National Women’s Organization (KNWO) is a grassroots organization of Karenni women who fled their communities in the Karenni State to escape the abuse and violence perpetrated by the Burmese government through its military. The Burmese military government’s counter insurgency operation to flush out resistance against their leadership has led to systematic abuse, killings, massive displacement of ethnic nationalities and violation of human rights. Tales of Terror and Grief: Voices of Karenni Women Caught in Armed Conflict is KNWO’s effort to document the experiences of their fellow Karenni women with the hope that one day they shall have the opportunity to seek justice for the abuse and human rights violations they have suffered from the hands of the Burmese government, as civilians caught in one of the longest conflict in history.
The documentation was carried out over a period of four months in 2008 with a total of 298 respondents from the refugee camps and migrant villages in Mae Hong Son. The questions focused on instances of state-sponsored human right abuses and the various instances of discrimination experienced by the women respondents. Findings from the survey were verified through a series of discussions and supplemented with in-depth interviews of community leaders and members of Karenni community organisations.
Interspersed across the chapters of the book are the harrowing accounts of women as survivors of their own abuse, and also as wives, mothers, sisters and relatives giving voice to the experiences of other Karennis – women and men who did not survive their violation and were only memorialized in the testimonies of those who survived.
Overall, the various chapters attempt to reiterate the significance of each abuse as a violation of the rights and dignity of the Karenni people underscoring the helplessness of their situation as civilians taking the brunt of the conflict between the military and their armed enemies. Using a gendered analysis, the book also emphasizes the specific vulnerability of women, as a target by the Burmese military for their sexuality, and the abuse they received in relation to their perceived roles and status as women.
Another highlight of the book is a summary of the rape cases compiled by KNWO from 1996 to 2006, and a short description of each instance of transgression, with the names of the victims removed and their perpetrators. Actual case documentation is under the safekeeping of the organization.
Publication of the book was made possible through a grant from Isis Women’s International Cross-Cultural Exchange (Isis – WICCE).
The book may be ordered free of charge from the Karenni National Women’s Organization (KNWO), however a donation to help KNWO continue its work and a money order for postage and handling fee (for overseas orders) will be highly appreciated.
