Young women and leadership

«Each young woman has a voice, and behind this voice, there is a story. This voice if it’s heard at the right place, it could bring change. »

Our projects and initiatives on Young women and leadership
16 days of activism against violence against women!

From 25 November to 10 December each year, humanity in general and women in particular, celebrates the 16 days of activism against violence against women. In this perspective AZUR Development since 2006 organizes activities during this period in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire in Congo. In 2006, AZUR Development has conducted a project to raise awareness on domestic violence and sexual abuse of women and girls by producing radio programmes on Radio Pointe-Noire and Ponton-FM, where listeners could hear testimonies, advice and useful information.

In 2008, we organized a workshop with about 150 women on 25 November at Pointe-Noire on violence against women and girls with two non profit organisations CJESS  and ARIPS  and  an interactive radio programme at DVS+; during the programme we received more than 100 SMS from women and girls and also men. Click here to read some of the SMS sent by listeners of the radio programmes! We also published analytical articles on domestic and sexual violence. In 2007, we organized a workshop on violence against women and information and communication technologies with groups of women and women journalists in Brazzaville to stimulate discussion and action on issues related to violence against women and girls in Congo and discuss the legal provisions to end violence against women.

We also participate annually in the global campaign of the APC-Africa-Women 'take back the tech! "In order to lead women to take control of ICTs to end violence against women.

 National workshops on leadership for young women

National workshops bringing together young women leaders or project managers, programs officers, or communication officers in non-governmental organizations, and young women journalists aged 18 to 35 years, working in various development and women’s rights issues throughout the country are organized by AZUR Development each year with the aim to strengthen young women leaders’capacities, to develop ideas and strategies to support their work in communities. The participants are generally involved in promoting women's rights, the right to healthcare, children's rights and committed to the fight against social and economic injustices against women and girls.

Young women share and learn about different themes according to their needs, organizational management, resource mobilization, advanced use of the internet, social networking tools and Web 2.0, tools for safeguarding women's rights, leadership, mobilization of volunteers , non-violence, working with the media, open source software among others. With the support of the Global Fund for Women, national workshops were held from 2004 to 2008.

Gender and HIV/AIDS

AZUR Development is also working to integrate gender issues in the fight against HIV/AIDS. And actions are carried out in the Congo and across Africa through the Réseau Sida Afrique network. For example, in 2008, we organized a reflection, a survey and workshops to develop recommendations on issues sensitive to gender and the rights of women living with HIV and vulnerable groups such as indigenous women to be presented to the committee to draft the strategy against AIDS 2008-2012. We are also engaged in promoting the rights of HIV positive women and their families and hold national and regional activities to fight stigma and discrimination.

We work with young women who participated in our workshops to produce issue papers on women, girls and HIV/AIDS to inform and guide the actions of members of Réseau Sida Afrique network and our own actions.

Our activities related to information, mobilization and advocacy on the rights of women living with HIV have been supported by Urgent Action Fund Africa, Sexual Rights Initiative,  and National Endowment for Democracy.

Indigenous women and children’s rights 

We work to promote the rights of indigenous women and their families since 2006. In this context, we organized activities around the draft law on protection of indigenous people in Congo, workshops and information activities and awareness on the rights of indigenous people in 2007 and 2008.  Please visit our blog dedicated to pygmies or indigenous people in Congo at http://pygmiescongobrazza.blogspot.com/

We have also supported activities aimed at increasing the income of indigenous women and also carried out activities to support women with HIV.

We just opened in early 2009, a local office in Sibiti in the department of Lekoumou to support our field activities with indigenous women and children.

We work in partnership with the following organizations
Association de Défense et de Promotion des Peuples Autochtones (ADDPA)  and  l’Association Congolaise pour l’intégration des pygmées  (ACIP). Our work with indigenous people have received support from e Urgent Action Fund Africa, The Rainforest information centre  and Planet Wheeler Foundation
Gender and ICT policy

Our involvement is limited to information activities and awareness on information and communication technologies and   gender issues. We held workshops on this topic in 2007, including an awareness workshop on gender and ICT policy supported by One World Africa which was attended by women in organizations and the local office of the Women’s affairs Ministry. The workshop addressed several issues, among other reasons why Congolese women should be interested in  ICT policy.

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