Napa County

Uganda  Convening

August 20, 2005

Sponsored by WIN/CAWA, Suscol Intertribal Council
held in Yountville , California
by Charlie Toledo suscol@intrex.net,  Co-Coordinator,  Napa County
Mimi Formosa mimosnapa@aol.com,  Co-Coordinator

Intention: 1) Introduce and dialogue with Human Right’s Activist Lydia Bakaki and Honorable Annette Mukabera from Uganda, East Africa.
2) To set goals for next steps for women in Napa County.

25 women leaders attended.(representatives from Napa Valley Community College & chapter of AAUW,)
Charlie Toledo of Suscol Inter-Tribal Council (co-sponsor) welcomed everyone and introduced keynote speakers Lydia Bakaki and Honorable Annette Mukabera from Uganda, East Africa. They were here for a Bay Area Leadership Conference (Global Women’s Leadership Center, Santa Clara University)  which WIN had facilitated scholarship for, and also the annual WIN Board meeting. Each spoke for a few minutes about their experience as activists effecting significant change in their country.  

Lydia's efforts have concentrated on helping Ugandan women to gain co-ownership of land with their husbands.  She described a law that would have allowed co-ownership passing briefly but then being undermined immediately afterwards and the resistance among males in leadership to the phenomenon of equality among women. There is another bill following an initial appeal that she hopes to see through before she re-locates to Ohio for two years.  
One of the accomplishments of the women leaders thus far is to guarantee constitutionally, 30% female seats in Parliament, It will be still take more work and time to create permanent systemic change that truly protects women’s access to education, land ownership and safety. Lydia conveyed a spirit of determination and fierce optimism.  She reiterated her desire to be the "mother hen" of co-ownership of land in all countries.   One of the advantages women seem to have in Uganda is that they are united in their goals for freedom and human rights; 2 great disadvantages however are
1) access to communication (ie internet/computers) in their lives and organizations and
2) fear of disapproval by their men--husbands primarily who own the land they depend on, but also fathers and brothers play their role.
 
Annette conveyed major strides of women in last 5 years:
   - great progress with AIDS and prevention being legislated and adopted in the culture,
   - oppression from past dictators and a firmly rooted patriarchy,
   - divisions of ethnic and religion, polygamy/adultery,
There is still much work to be done in moving their agendas forward.  It reminded many of us of the struggle women in the US went through to gain basic rights such as voting.

 It was evident that both women are already operating largely by principles that they learned at their GWLC leadership conference:
   -Think while listening
   -Listen for opportunities
   -Barriers will begin to break down
   -Everyone has a dream; help the dream become a vision!

Napa Uganda  Convening August 20, 2005 Sponsored by WIN/CAWA, Suscol Intertribal Council held in Yountville , California continued…
 
We then broke into four groups at our tables to discuss what we could do locally to promote at least one main thrust of the 12 critical issues that came out of the Beijing 1995 Women’s Conference on international human rights
One table chose health care for all U.S. residents.  
How can we overcome the system of privatization and power of the pharmaceutical industry that limits access both to health care and affordable prescriptions?  Roma  Guy, whose work at SFSU is in health care, alerted us to a bill by State Senator Sheila Keuhl,  a comprehensive health finance bill which would allow access to health care to everyone in CA if passed. This is encouraging and would put CA in the position of a role model for the rest of the country if it's realized. http://democrats.sen.ca.gov/templates/SDCTemplate.asp?cp=MemberPage&pg=senhome&sln=Kuehl&sdn=23&zrn=Zone/
http://www.healthcareforall.org/ap.html

It was determined to set up work groups to gather more data and develop strategies to disseminate information and to recruit younger women to be involved.

News and events:

SIGN UP FOR ACTION ALERTS: win@win-cawa.com

This County is a work in progress. Stay tuned for actions, events and updates!

 

[San Francisco County]- [San Joaquin County]- [Humboldt County]
[Santa Clara County]- [San Mateo County]- [Santa Cruz County]
[San Diego County]- [Los Angeles County]- [Marin County]- [Napa County]
[Ventura County]- [Alameda]- [Nevada County]- [Orange County]
[Contra Costa County]- [Sonoma County]- [Riverside County]

Return to the Top of the Page

Questions and comments regarding WIN and CAWA can be sent to: win@win-cawa.org
Last updated October 28, 2006 by Molly Klett