Development action with informed and engaged societies
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Women Working for Women

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Women Working for Women is a project using public space and visual art in an effort to raise Mexican women's consciousness about the importance of the struggle for gender parity and to motivate them to participate in carrying this struggle forward. By creating and displaying portraits of female personalities who have forged change, artist María María Acha Rodríguez hopes to raise awareness among people across Mexico about the sacrifices of those who fought for the rights of fellow women.
Communication Strategies

Through visual biographies of remarkable women who have taken up the challenge in their own ways to foster gender equality, this project offers a history of women's work in the world. In March 2008, an installation of Acha's work was inaugurated in Plaza Juárez in the historic centre of Mexico City. The installation featured 43 brightly coloured large-format tarpaulins adorned with the portraits of women and a large panel with 27 portraits of Mexican women. Each portrait - some of which may be viewed by clicking here - tells a story of struggle that has brought about changes to the way we perceive gender.

For example, the homage to Macedonia Blas Flores features Acha's signature artistic depiction of this Indigenous activist's face, accompanied by words (in Spanish) that describe her efforts to fight for women's (especially Indigenous women's) rights. Macedonia Blas Flores now coordinates the non-governmental organisation "Fot'zi Nanho AC" (Help the Nanho), where she responds to and resolves, through her own language and worldview, situations of violence, mistreatment, and discrimination of women of her community, making them aware of their rights to receive education like any Mexican woman and to be respected and treated like human beings and not as sexual objects.

Development Issues

Women, Rights, Gender.

Partners

This project has been supported by the Mexican National Institute of Women, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and the Secretariat of Culture of the Government of Mexico City. The project was also made possible by the collaboration of Communicative Action A.C. and Antimuseo de Arte Contemporáneo.

Sources

International Museum of Women (IMOW) website; "Women Working for Women", by María María Acha Rodríguez, on the IMOW website; and email from María María Acha Rodríguez to The Communication Initiative on August 29 2008.

Teaser Image
http://www.imow.org/dynamic/user_images/user_images_thumb_name_4304.jpg