A Primera Plana Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Grant information: $30,000 Programmatic Area: Building Peace and Ending Gender-based Violence A Primera Plana [On the Front Page] was started in 2001 by a group of women journalists who shared a goal of putting gender equity “on the front page.” Their mission is to transform the mass media in the region by putting an end to the exploitative and negative images of women that dominate television, newspapers, and magazines and perpetuate social acceptance of violence against women. The group identifies itself as a space where journalists from throughout the Caribbean and Central America can join together to advance awareness about gender and women’s rights in the media. Since its founding, A Primera Plana has published several issues of its magazine, and conducted several encuentros (convenings) each year to develop the capacity of feminist journalists throughout the region. The group also publishes brochures criticizing gender inequities in the mass media, and continually updates its website (www.aprimeraplana.org) with new editions of its magazine and current links to other relevant sites. A $30,000 grant from the Global Fund is providing A Primera Plana with crucial general support as it strengthens its networks throughout the region and leads workshops, encuentros, conferences and open discussions about the portrayal of women and gender-based violence in the media. Le Réseau International des Femmes de l’Association des Radios Communautaires (RIF-AMRAC) Lomé, Togo Grant information: $10,000 Programmatic Area: Expanding Civic and Political Participation Founded in 2000, RIF-AMRAC promotes women's participation in radio broadcasting by providing technical training and supporting their professional development in the field. RIF-AMRAC [The International Women’s Network of the World Association for Community Radio Broadcasters] is part of the emerging Francophone network of AMARC, an international alliance of community media producers with almost 3,000 members and associates in 106 countries. In addition to technical skills, participants receive human rights training with a major emphasis on HIV/AIDS, gender and development, and the environment. RIF-AMRAC also educates journalists as a means of eliminating stereotypical representations of women from the media. Through its radio programs, it has educated the population on the Family Code, AIDS, and child rights. The President of the group is a member of the National Commission on Women's Rights and in that capacity conducted national consultations on the Beijing Platform. The Global Fund recently awarded RIF-AMRAC a grant of $10,000 to establish an information and training center and to strengthen the communication skills of women radio producers. The group will train community producers in information technologies (computer use, Internet, digital production, etc.), to help women build skills that will enable them to produce their own programs instead of relying on male producers. RIF’s program will allow women producers to develop high-quality radio messages, expanding the impact of their work to advance women’s rights. Women, Media and Development Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine Grant information: $9,000 awarded Programmatic Area: Expanding Political and Civic Participation Women, Media and Development (TAM) was established in 2004 by a group of media professionals who wanted to address the lack of consideration for women and gender issues in Palestine’s mass media. As a young organization, TAM has already established its presence by broadcasting shows on major TV stations in the West Bank. During the 16 days of action for the elimination of violence against women in November 2004, TAM produced a talk show about violence against women, which included interviews with specialists and the general public. This show was broadcast on four Palestinian television stations during peak viewing times. The group also distributed four short spots to four television stations on violence and organized talk shows on the role of women in the election process for three television stations in the West Bank. TAM has coordinated the training of 39 media personnel in four cities and is planning on expanding this program as it believes that training "can change the image of women in Palestinian media and therefore increase Palestinian audience awareness about women's rights and gender issues." The group's other activities include conducting capacity building trainings on gender issues for media professionals and training non-media professionals in video production. TAM sees media as a critical tool for social change, stating, "There is a great opportunity to use media as a tool to give women a voice, a face, and complete representation of their lives." A grant from the Global Fund is enabling TAM to conduct a three-day training for women media professionals on gender rights, and to produce seven new television programs on women's issues for broadcast in Palestine. Over the long term, TAM aims to have participants from the training integrate and share the concepts they have learned into the media industry and create gender units within each television station. GenderMediaCaucasus Journalists’ Association Tblisis, Georgia Grant information: $20,000 Programmatic Area: Expanding Civic and Political Participation GenderMediaCaucasus Journalists’ Association (GMC) was founded in 2003 by Georgian journalists as a response to the growing gender imbalance in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and as a means of challenging media misrepresentation of women’s role in society. The mission of the GMC is to provide gender education, promote women’s rights, research gender representation in the media, and organize gender-focused media campaigns. GMC is rapidly gaining attention in the region for its monthly CaucAsia magazine, which discusses gender in relationship to politics, traditions, religion, violence, and many other issues. The print version of the magazine and the electronic version on the group’s website (www.gmc.ge) appear in English and Russian. In its short history, the 42-member group has convened three annual international journalist conferences that brought together journalists from the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe to discuss themes such as mass media for gender equality, mass media in promotion of women in politics, and the role of mass media in empowerment of women. According to the main funder of the annual conferences, "The conferences proved to be the key for strengthening cross-regional ties among women journalists and inspiring their joint work to tackle issues of women’s leadership and participation in decision-making processes, conflict prevention and resolution and combating violence against women, and many other issues." In February 2006, GMC received Global Fund support to continue publishing CaucAsia, to purchase new media equipment, and to support its operational expenses. In the next five years, GMC is planning to specialize in gender education for journalists and start summer and winter schools for journalists. It also plans to continue with its periodical publications, adding two major reports twice a year. Comunicación e Información de la Mujer Mexico City, Mexico Grant Information: $15,000 Programmatic area: Building Peace and Ending Gender-based Violence Comunicación e Información de la Mujer (CIMAC) [Women’s Communication and Information], founded in 1989, collects and disseminates news on women’s human rights, gender violence, reproductive rights, and other related topics to subscribers throughout Mexico. The organization sees a direct relationship between media coverage that ignores or disparages women’s human rights and the level of physical and psychological violence directed against women. CIMAC’s stories are found in 82 percent of the national media, and in 60 newspapers or editorial spaces on a regular basis. CIMAC realizes that women have been labeled and stereotyped by the communication media for a long time, and that the media have also exploited violence against women as a way to increase sales and ratings. CIMAC has also been a driving force behind the formation of several feminist news networks in the region. "The purpose of the networks," according CIMAC’s leaders "is to open spaces within the media to expose the current situation for women, from a non-sexist, non-discriminatory perspective, and to exchange information on the condition of women from a gender perspective." CIMAC strives to change media coverage of women through its five key projects: i.) CIMANOTICIAS, or the "News Agency," through which CIMAC reporters generate ten informative reports each day regarding feminist organizations’ events or actions of governmental institutions which touch on the theme of women; ii.) Centro de Documentación, an information center where students, researchers and reporters can access over 20,000 documents related to women and media; iii.) formation and continued participation in several feminist media networks in the country and region; iv.) Radio-CIMAC, which has broadcast 46 episodes in Mexico on women’s human rights, intrafamilial violence, and reproductive health so far on the program "Público Y Privado;" and v.) strategic placement of information and opinion pieces from feminist organizations in the media. Last year, the group had to cut staff in half and close its office in Oaxaca due to a funding crisis. In response to the crisis, the Global Fund awarded $15,000 to CIMAC for general operating expenses, enabling the group to continue delivering news stories and information to feminist publications in the 32 districts of the country. The group also plans to hire a fund development consultant to build its funding base and sustainability.