Looking for the next generation of women leaders

The Bougainville Women's Collective and its member organisations have some very strong and inspirational leaders, many of whom have been active in their communities for many years. But there are comparatively few young women taking on leadership roles or preparing to do so, and this is a great concern for those concerned about continuing the important work.

The Bougainville Women's Federation has recently conducted a survey of young women in Bougainville to try to find out why this is so, and how they can encourage young women to prepare for leadership.

Hona Holan, President of the BWF, was interviewed about the survey on Radio NZ: to  hear the interview click here.

The BWF is now implementing plans developed to involve young women in leadership.

White Ribbon Day celebrated in Bougainville

Friday 28 November 2014: A program of events was held in Buka for White Ribbon Day, to end violence against women and girls. This is a devastating problem in Bougainville and throughout PNG and a public statement of this kind is an important step in changing the attitudes that allow violence to flourish.
Those present included the three women members of the ABG House of Representatives, and representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, UN Women, Bougainville Police Service and the law and justice sector. The Bougainville Women's Federation was represented  by Hona Holan.
For photographs and further information on the Bougainville News website, click here.

Farewell to the missing people from the 1990s civil war

A ceremony has been held at Buka Passage to commemorate the thousands of Bougainville people who died in the civil war of the 1990s. Many people disappeared or were taken away and their bodies were never found.
See the ABC report here.
The report is available in Tok Pisin here.
A first hand report from the Mekamui News site (Clive Porabou) can be seen here.

Done and dusted (almost)

It seems that they have done wonderful job in Buka of sorting out the container contents and getting them moved. Nina has sent another article about the last couple of days, which you can view here. Some of the materials they will start using straight away: but the BWF still have more building to complete before they can open the cafe.

Many thanks to all the people who contributed to this project. I'll post updates when I get them so you can see how the projects are progressing.

Unpacking: some photos

The amazing Nina managed to take some photographs and put together a story in pictures, in between  unpacking and sorting. You can see it here.
The special bolt-cutter resistant padlocks we had put on the container in Sydney turned out not to be rust proof and the keys wouldn't work, but eventually they managed to undo them - with lubricants, bolt cutters and old fashioned brute force...

The container has arrived!

It has been a long, long process, but the shipping container of resources and equipment that we sent from Sydney in May has arrived at Buka port - on Friday morning, 10 October. I don't have many details yet, or photos - and there may still be some bills to pay - but we are so relieved it has finally arrived.

 

Many thanks to everyone who has played a part in this project, in many different ways. Congratulations especially to Nina and Barbara at BWF in Buka town, who followed up relentlessly to get all the clearances.

 

I gather it may take a day or two to get the container off the wharf, as there are a couple of others in front of it. The next steps will be unpacking: the boxes for BWF will go into the new building in Buka Town, but those for the Hako Women's Collective will need to be transported by truck (or several trucks) up to Kohea village at the northern end of Buka Island. This will be a busy and exciting time!

Jubilee Australia Report: Community Perspectives on the Panguna Mine

Tied up with debate over Bougainville's Referendum on independence is debate over Panguna copper mine located in the heart of Bougainville. On the one hand, the argument is being made that permission should be given to re-open the mine,  to provide income for Bougainville as a fully independent state. A counter-argument is that the environmental, social and cultural damage caused by the mine, and by the civil war, outweighed any benefits. 

A number of consultation events have been held across all parts of Bougainville, but it is not clear how effective these have been in getting a representation of the range of community views. Jubilee Australia conducted its own project to seek out the views of the people most severely affected by the mine: the communities living around it in the area known as Mekamui. Many of the people continue to live with the effects including illness and birth defects; loss of livelihood as they can no longer grow food or catch fish in the rivers; and the destruction and poisoning of their traditional lands. You can access the report here.

Once the biggest copper mine in the world, the mine has played a critical role in the decolonisation of PNG and its subsequent history. Income from the mine was considered essential for PNG to become an independent state, and the mine was developed despite opposition from many of the landowners affected. Only a tiny percentage of the mine's profits were received by Bougainvilleans, although they did experience improved education and health care compared with other provinces of PNG. The people in the vicinity of the mine or of the transport links to port, paid a catastrophic price and in many cases continue to do so, as their natural environment and sources of food and water have been destroyed by tailings and chemical outflow from the mine. The closing of the Panguna mine in 1989 after landowner actions marked the formal beginning of the decade-long civil war in Bougainville.  Some fear that re-opening the mine, apart from any other effects, could spark new conflict.

Oxfam appeal: violence against women in PNG

Oxfam is highlighting problems of violence against women in PNG in a current campaign. This is an ever-present and serious problem throughout PNG, and is one of the important issues the HWC and BWF are also trying to address. Oxfam is providing training, support for women and safe places for them to take refuge from violence. Oxfam has many worthwhile campaigns, but this one is especially close to our hearts. More information here.

Good news and frustrating news

The event of the day is that the Bougainville Women's Federation's new building at the Buka town market is ready for them to move in! You can see the market roof in the background.

It's a great achievement to have organised the land, funding and all the planning and building work to the point that the building is now ready for use, and many people have worked extremely hard to get it all done.

The sad part is that many of the projects and programs planned for the new building cannot begin yet as the essential equipment and materials are in the shipping container which is still stranded at Lae. The women at the BWF office in Buka have been making an all-out effort in the past couple of weeks to persuade the Customs and Inland Revenue officials to make the necessary decisions so we get the container on a ship to Buka. It looks as if we may have to pay duty on some of the goods; we will also have to pay for storage of the container during its enforced wait at Lae - an expense that is charged daily. There is still some money remaining from the generous donations for the costs of shipping, but it may not be enough, although we have asked about the possibility of a discount or waiver of part of the storage costs.

More to come, undoubtedly.

Still struggling with bureaucracy

I haven't posted for a while because sadly there has been nothing much to report. The container of goods is still in port at Lae and waiting for clearance, which has not yet happened because we are still waiting for decisions on our applications for exemption from duties and GST. Nina and Barbara at the Bougainville Women's Federation office in Buka have been working hard on this but no answer yet.

On a brighter note, the BWF is expecting to move into the new building at Buka Market in mid September and really looking forward to getting more projects started. Some things will have to wait as they depend on the materials in the container, but in the meantime it will be great to set up the office and meeting rooms.

Bougainville issues raised in Australian Parliament meetings

Marilyn Havini was invited to Canberra two weeks ago with Australian Volunteers International for a day of meetings at Parliament House. The main theme was preventing sexual violence in areas of armed conflict, and post conflict.

Among others, Marilyn met Jane Prentice, Federal Member for Ryan (Qld), Senator Claire Moore (Qld), Senator Mikaela Cash (WA), Theresa Gambaro (Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade) and Mandy Newton, Assistant Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police. Also some old friends from the peace talks and other events during the Crisis. She said there was a lot of interest in the BWF and HWC and their work - and she handed out a lot of brochures for both organisations, which are well received.

They also met advisors to the Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, who is planning to visit Bougainville and perhaps to attend the opening of the Buka town Women's Centre!

Update: container still in transit

With the departure of the container from Sydney I left the narrative hanging to attend to some other pressing issues!

The container arrived at Lae, PNG on 23 May. Ships go from Lae to Buka every two weeks, but we have to wait on a decision by PNG Customs before the container can go on from Lae.  The Bougainville Women's Federation have applied for a duty exemption but the process has been quite protracted as various kinds of further documentation were required. It sounds as if some progress is being made, so we hope it will be resolved soon.

At long last!

Early on Saturday morning, an extremely long truck arrived at Addison Rd to pick up the container. Despite shaking his head and looking very doubtful, the driver successfully negotiated all the corners, picked up the container and drove out again almost effortlessly. It's now at Sydney Port, and due to leave for Bougainville on 13 May.

We are very grateful to Addison Rd Community Centre for welcoming us and being so supportive; its been wonderful spending time in such a creative and inspiring place. As you can see from the photo, the fame of ARCC is about to spread a little wider!

False start

Well, it’s been a wild and crazy week but the container is still in its spot and not moving just yet.
Now booked to depart Sydney on 13 May.

So next week we’ll take a deep breath and try again! Hoping we’ve sorted out most of the glitches and it will go more smoothly. I don’t think I’ve ever made more phone calls than in the last couple of days!

The big day approaches

I haven't posted for a while, everything has been too hectic. Here you can see Tim celebrating at the end of a strenuous pupil-free day on Monday, packing the last-but-one load into the container. There was still some empty space so we went off to explore Reverse Garbage and they gave us a great deal on some Moonlight Cinema beanbags, the enormous bag of foam padding that looks about to fall on Tim's head, and a few other things. Everything should stay pretty tight inside the container now.

Exporting is hard work and every day brings new complications, but we are now within sight of the end. All being well, the container will leave Addison Road on Friday to get started on its long voyage to Buka. The women of HWC and BWF are getting excited too, looking forward to unpacking everything and setting up the Women's Centre and cafe in Buka town (BWF) and the Resource Centre and Safe House in the Hako area (HWC).

Many thanks to all the people who have helped in various ways - I'll expand on this later. So many people have been generous with their time, money, goods and expertise. We have received donations of over $6000 towards the project, which is wonderful and should cover the costs. If you'd like to donate and haven't got round to it, please contact us - any money left over from shipping costs will be shared between HWC and BWF for their projects.

How many elephants fit in a shipping container ...

Well, it's been two weekends of heavy lifting and geometry as we tried to stack everything into the container in a properly scientific way. Very grateful thanks to all the volunteers for their brilliant efforts last weekend and today, Easter Monday. Below is a photo from last weekend (there's a lot more in there now!)

We have now stowed away just about everything we had collected and have found ourselves with a slightly unexpected problem: without the trailer we had intended to put in, but which turned out to be too tall for the container, we still have quite a lot of space. This is rather a problem, because during shipping you really don't want things to have room to move about inside the container.

SO, between now and the end of April are looking for any of the following to fill up the gaps:

• Bookshelves and shelving
• Big planter pots (to close off the outdoor area of the cafe to be operated by the Bougainville Women's Federation in the Women's Centre at the Buka town market)
• Stackable chairs (for use at the Hako Women's Collective Resource Centre, during meetings and training sessions)
• Office desks, tables and chairs
• Filing cabinets
• Office stationery and paper
• Fabric for sewing classes

If you have any of these to give, or anything else you think might be useful for the women's groups in Bougainville, please contact us. And tell your friends!

Saturday 12 April - packing the container!!

The weather's not looking promising but unless it becomes impossible we will be at 142 Addison Rd Marrickville from about 8 am tomorrow, Saturday 12 April.
We'll need to move a lot of boxes out of the shipping container and pack everything back in systematically. It's quite a big task and all help is welcome. If you can help, come along or ring Helen on 0401 085 412.

And here's the latest photo of the Women's Centre construction

This photo was taken on 11 March.

I forgot to mention this when I posted the last photo but under traditional law, building permission is not needed to start construction, but the owner must ask the chiefs' permission before putting the roof on. The formal request is made at a meeting of the chiefs and the applicant provides the customary gifts of food for the village. But the procedure's a bit different in town.

Getting closer

More donations have been coming in, and funds are now just over $3000 - just another $1500 to go. The women of HWC and BWF in Buka are really looking forward to receiving the container and are preparing for a burst of energy when it arrives, as it will bring lots of materials that will help them take a step forward with a number of projects.

We now have dates for packing if you are in Sydney and able to come and help at the site at Addison Road, Marrickville.

The big packing day, when we need to take everything out and pack it systematically,  will be Saturday 12 April, from early morning to (probably) late afternoon).

The final packing, when we squeeze in the very last things, will be on Easter Monday, 21 April, again from early morning but it will probably not take so long.
If you are able to help with either or both of those days, please email us. If you can only spare an hour or so, that's fine, it all helps!

Thank you!

A big thank you to all the people who have donated money to help with shipping costs - $300 in the past few days, so we have now raised about $1400 of the $4500 we will need for shipping. A good start!

And an equally big thank you to those who have offered to help with the packing day! On a weekend soon, probably in April, a small group of people will be taking everything out of the container, putting in a trailer, and then packing everything back in scientifically so it won't shift around too much on the journey - and to make it easier for the people unpacking in Bougainville to identify what belongs to each group. It will be a big undertaking, and all offers of help will be gratefully accepted - even if you can spare only a short time! As soon as we have a date I'll post it here and email all the volunteers.

Please email me if you would like to help with either fundraising or packing.

And something else that would be really helpful would be to pass the word on to your friends, colleagues, Facebook contacts and anyone else who may be interested. The more the merrier!

New Women's Centre taking shape

An update photo of the new Women's Centre, now with a roof.

Progress in Buka and Sydney

Work is progressing on the new Women's Centre in Buka Town, beside the markets (visible behind the framework).
In Sydney, we have moved a lot of things into the shipping container and are sorting out the details of the journey to Bougainville - this is expected to be during the week after Easter (20 April). If you would like to help, top priorities before then are:

1. Raising money to pay for shipping.  Generous donations from a number of individuals and organisations, and a fundraiser organised by NSW Parliament, have raised enough money to buy the shipping container and put $1000 towards shipping costs. These are expected to be around $9000, half of which will be paid by the others who are sharing the container. So we need about $3500 more for the HWC / BWF share. Any money raised in excess of this amount will be used for projects of HWC and BWF.

2. Items still needed, that can be packed in the container, are:
Office chairs and small desks
Office stationery including A4 paper, pens, manila folders
Water bottles or jugs and glasses (cafe)
Small display cabinet for cakes etc (cafe)
Small and medium size coffee plungers (cafe)
Kitchen equipment - eg pots, pans, mixing bowls and electric mixer, a rice cooker,  a microwave (cafe)

Things are moving

Early on Friday morning we took delivery of a battered but serviceable shipping container, currently parked at 142 Addison Road by kind permission of the Addison Road Community Centre. It's been a busy weekend moving in boxes of items for the Hako Women's Collective, Bougainville Women's Federation and a few others. The container was purchased for use by the Bougainville Women's Federation - once it has arrived in Bougainville and been unpacked, it will be very useful as a place for secure storage.

Our friends at Addison Road asked if we could put their logo on the shipping container, and we spent a busy and creative Sunday amongst the bustle of the markets, painting it on:

Shipping things to Bougainville

As you may know, we have a good collection of donated goods stored in Sydney, some of which has been waiting for a long time now for its journey to Bougainville, where it will be used for projects by HWC and BWF, including the village kindergartens. Many thanks to all the people and organisations who have donated goods and money or provided other assistance. We are truly grateful.

An especially big thank you to NSW Parliament, which is twinned with the Bougainville Parliament. The fundraising screening of the film Mr Pip in December, organised by Simon Johnston (coordinator of the twinning project), was supported by many NSW Parliament staff and others, and raised over $1500. Funds now stand at $4730 - a great start, but we will need some more for transport costs.

Shipping things to somewhere as remote as Bougainville is a big undertaking, requiring tenacity and resourcefulness - but we are getting there. This Friday a shipping container will be arrive at the Addison Road complex in Marrickville. We are sharing it, and costs, with a few others. The Addison Road Community Centre has kindly agreed to have the container parked there until it is ready for shipping. If you're going to the markets on a Sunday, come and have a look, we may be there!

For the next two months things will be busy for the (very few) Sydney supporters and we would be very grateful for any help. So PLEASE contact us if you can help with any of the following:

• Cash donations - to help with transport costs and/or purchase of things that are needed but we can't get for free
• Office supplies and equipment - e.g. folders, paper, toner, lockable filing cabinets
• Items for the cafe (see previous post) - e.g. Kitchen Wizz, Juicer, Electric Mixer, Espresso Machine (not the ones that need little pre packed coffee pods), Hot Water Urn, Rice Cooker, Deep Fryer, Microwave
• Packing and labelling boxes
• Moving boxes
• Fundraising - and/or passing this on to your networks
• painting the container

A new Women's Centre in Buka Town

11 February 2014: posts going up on the new building. The roof of the market cane seen in the background.

HWC's parent organisation, the Bougainville Women's Federation (BWF)  has embarked on a pioneering project to build a Women's Centre in Buka Town, with funding from the PNG Commission of Law and Justice through the Autonomous Bougainville Government.

The project was devised to meet a number of pressing needs for:

• public facilities in Buka Town, such as public toilets, a safe place for women to sit down and rest, feed a baby, or change a nappy.
• a one-stop location for information, advice or support.
• space for community groups to hold meetings or run courses.
• a secure office space for BWF, paying its own way rather than relying on aid funding.

BWF approached the Buka Town Council for a place to build the Centre, and received great support, as the Council had also identified the need. A great location was found close to the market, and building has already begun, as you can see from the photo above.

The new building will hold office space, a reception area and information centre, toilets, meeting rooms and Buka's first cafe, which will also sell items such as postcards. The cafe, and renting of the meeting rooms, will provide income for ongoing costs and maintenance.

HWC strongly supports the centre, and will be closely involved in day-to-day running of the information centre and kiosk. The project will provide some much-needed services and community-building, and also a wonderful opportunity for women and girls to get work experience and develop business skills.

Click here for a list of the equipment they need. Many of the items are not obtainable in Buka!
If you are able to donate any of these items, or to donate money for the project, please contact us. The items don't need to be brand new, but we need them to be clean, undamaged, in good working order and suitable for heavy use.