Radio Internacional Feminista


IX Feminist Encuentro in Costa Rica Features Historic Webcast and
Testimonials of Women Facing Conflict Situations

 

By Margaret Thompson
FIRE/RIF/Feminist International Radio Endeavour/Communications IX Feminista

An historic live webcast between organizers of two major Latin American & Caribbean women’s events involving over 1,150 women will be broadcast from Costa Rica on December 3, 2002, produced by FIRE/RIF – Feminist International Radio Endeavour (www.fire.or.cr), the first women’s radio station in Internet. 

This groundbreaking webcast, which is a collaborative effort with the organizing committee, is just one of several activities of the IX Latin American & Caribbean Feminist Encuentro, to be held December 1-5 in Playa Tambor, Costa Rica.  The broadcast will also involve the organizers of the First Summit of Indigenous Women of the Americas, to take place November 30-December 4 in Oaxaca, Mexico. 

Also included in the IX Feminist Encuentro and to be featured in FIREPLACE webcasts will be testimonials of women about their struggles in their countries in critical situations created or enhanced by globalization, ranging from the armed conflict in Colombia, to the unsolved murders of over 300 young women in Juarez, Mexico, to the struggle to end live war games by the US Navy on Vieques, Puerto Rico.

FIREPLACE Live Webcasts Feature Women IX Encuentro Participants

FIRE will produce live webcasts from the FIREPLACE every night from December 1-5, 2002, during the IX Feminist Encuentro, which will involve 850 women from around the region.  Katerina Anfossi, co-director of FIRE/RIF, and Ana Ugalde, producer, are coordinating the programs.

 

The FIREPLACE is scheduled for 6:30-7 pm (Costa Rica time) in English, and 7-7:30 pm in Spanish, and 7:30-8 pm in Portuguese, French, and other languages.  The nightly production involving interviews with participants at the event is a collaborative effort of FIRE/RIF, Voces Nuestra of Costa Rica, the Women’s Network of AMARC (World Association of Community Radios), CEMINA in Brazil, Radio Milenia in Peru, ISIS International of Chile, and Radio Universidad of Puerto Rico, among others. 

 

IX Feminist Encuentro Focuses on Feminism & Globalization

The main theme of the IX Feminist Encuentro, "Active Resistance in the Face of Neoliberal Globalization," is designed to give participants an opportunity to explore how feminists are positioning themselves in the current global political and economic context, and to develop strategies and actions to tackle problems and issues faced by women in the Latin American & Caribbean region.  This tri-annual event involves participants ranging from activists, to academics, government officials and others from business and government and the United Nations specialized agencies. 

 

FIRE Coverage of Historic Summit of Indigenous Women

Meanwhile, FIRE will also be sending a correspondent to Oaxaca, Mexico, to cover the First Summit of Indigenous Women of the Americas.  This historic event will be held Nov. 30-Dec. 4 with over 300 indigenous women from Latin America & the Caribbean, along with numerous indigenous groups and observers from Europe, Africa, Asia & the Pacific.   FIRE will also webcast live a discussion between three Summit organizers, and three IX Encuentro organizers to talk about ideas on how to further collaborate in their common struggles as women (see FIRE webpage at: www.fire.or.cr for further information).

 

Rigoberta Menchú Tum of Guatemala, one of the Indigenous Women’s Summit organizers and former winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, told CIMAC that this world meeting “will serve to renew hope and to find new strategies for dealing with the problems facing indigenous women.”  Themes to be addressed include human rights and indigenous rights, spirituality, education, culture, empowerment, political participation, and leadership, indigenous development & globalization, and a gender from the perspective of indigenous women.

 

Communication Strategy of IX Feminist Encuentro

The live webcasts from the FIREPLACE at the IX Feminist Encuentro are just one dimension of an overall communications strategy.  Designed to facilitate distribution of information about the event within the Latin American & Caribbean region and beyond, the event will include both traditional media and new communication technologies.  The plan includes:

  • a press center for journalists and communicators to write and distribute press releases and news reports at the local, national and international levels;

  • an electronic discussion network by the organizing group as well as participants and other interested parties; 

  • a web page for the Feminist Encuentro to distribute information before, during and after the event; an internal computer system at the Encuentro site that provides a data base;

  • an interactive mural for participants to identify and communicate with one another;

  • an Internet radio station (FIRE-PLACE) that broadcasts live from the Encuentro for: 1) participants onsite; 2) re-broadcasting in local community and commercial radio stations throughout the region; 3) live feeds including news reports and interviews for local, national, regional, and international media; 4) an interactive forum for those unable to attend the event;

  • a closed circuit TV channel in the hotel were news and videos will be broadcast for participants as they get up every day

 

Encuentro Panel Focuses on Women’s Creative Strategies in Using Radio in the Face of Globalization  

Also at the event, FIRE and AMARC Women’s Network (WIN) have organized a panel about radio in the hands of women and globalization.  It will feature FIRE co-director Katerina Anfossi, and Gaby Ayzanoa of Radio Milenia in Peru, and will be followed by a discussion with other radio women.

Since 1998 when FIRE began broadcasting in Internet, Katerina Anfossi led the organization along with her colleagues in designing creative engineering strategies to use a combination of traditional radio and new computer technologies to create an Internet radio station.  Undaunted by claims of computer experts that such a task would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, in 1998 Katerina designed the technical process to do live webcasting using a radio mixing board, microphones, and a laptop computer, as well as creating a web radio magazine with audio files, and a chat room for the FIRE website.

Since that time, FIRE has continued its live broadcasting tradition by doing webcasting from local, regional and international events including the five-year follow-up to the Fourth World UN Conference on Women in New York in 2000, the UN Conference Against Racism in South Africa in 2001, and the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa in 2002. 

Gaby Ayzanoa is the director of one of the first women-owned media organizations in the Latin American region, which began broadcasting three years ago from Lima, Perú, to give a voice to women and particularly those involved in community-based women’s groups and activists.  As the first feminist radio station in Perú, they focus on women’s issues and struggles to change the situation in their country. 

 

The FIREPLACE at the IX Feminist Encuentro is made possible by funding from the Sister Fund, HIVOS, and UNIFEM.

Tune into the FIREPLACE live webcasts at 6:30-8 pm (Costa Rica time) December 1-5 from the IX Feminist Encuentro at www.fire.or.cr.  For more information, also see the IX Feminist Encuentro web page at:  www.9feminista.org, or the World Association of Community Radios (AMARC) at: www.amarc.org, or write to Radio Milenia at:  milenia@radiomilenia.com.pe.