From personal empowerment to community development ... · • Sexual harassment and lack of respect...

From personal empowerment to community development: Educated PNG women’s use of information in improving

women’s health and safety

Suzanne Lipu

The study aimed to explore how educated PNG women experienced and used information: - within the Australian uni environment and - in their own socio-cultural contexts (personal and professional)

Faculty of Education, School of Information Studies

The study aimed to explore how educated PNG women experienced and used information: • within the Australian uni environment, and; • in their own socio-cultural contexts (personal and professional)

Obtained through:

Listening Watching Doing Reading Communicating

Information as a

tool for personal growth and

social action

What is information?

Anything you need to learn

Something you already know - Education, Experience, Knowledge, Awareness, Skills

‘...Information is a very powerful tool. Without that I think you won’t be anyone....It’s a powerful tool only if you know how to use it properly, you will get where you are...’ Anastasia

‘...Information is a tool that can help you to enjoy life – the kind of life that you personally desire or dream of...’

Cecilia

Used for decision making, expansion in thinking, increased self-confidence and empowerment, more life options personally and professionally

Improving the lives of families, communities and contributing to nation building through information dissemination and sharing

For self For others



Major issues of concern identified were: • Increasing maternal death rate • The prevalence of HIV/AIDS • Violence against women and general rate of criminality • Sexual harassment and lack of respect in the workplace



Of the maternal mortality rate: You know in PNG the maternal mortality rate is really high so any information we can get on improving our programs are also vital to us. Information that we can use to inform ourselves as well as disseminating to our program implementing partners… Ruby



About the prevalence of HIV/AIDS Perception that distributed information is still too text-based and more oral information sources are needed



In regards to violence on the streets: Doreen talked about being mobbed and threatened in a car with a gun along with her children. She claimed that all women in PNG now live in fear and that she relied on the country’s newspapers when she stays in Port Moresby to help her find out where the latest hold-ups and rapes had occurred.



Sexual harassment and lack of respect in the workplace: The top jobs are all men. We have a policy in place where gender is spelt out as “gender equity”. We preach it too but when it comes back to us, there’s no equity. Valerie (working in a large govt. department)



Agnes said she had been propositioned by a male colleague in exchange for using his work internet to perform a task essential to her work. She also knew of similar harassment: …at the workplace here (a govt. department)guys bully women, they talk, they tease…



Did being “information literate” contribute to the women’s empowerment and if so, how and in what ways?



On their sense of personal empowerment being information literate and educated: Once you get hold of information you can make decisions that may better your life… Francesca These days I feel that, well, I’ve worked so hard to come this far. I’m equal with me. I can talk…I’m not afraid to talk.. It has really changed my whole self, everything… Paula



I feel the power, or feel that I am empowered in that I can access information however way, through whatever means. I have that luxury and to me it doesn’t matter what or who I pass on that information to…You know in a third-world country whatever information you have would be of benefit to another person and eventually the whole nation..I have that luxury of accessing information from different sources and if it means to share information with other people that will empower them, and especially women. Barbara



Information was seen as a source and means of power in PNG so sharing was imperative:

• in their extended family networks • in the community • for the well-being of all PNG citizens and therefore the nation



From personal empowerment to community development: Grassroots action Augustine talked about the family as: …a small paradise where all information is shared out..not to get into further abuse by somebody who thinks he is the overall, powerful man in the home that shuts off information from disseminating to the women…



Mary talked about how she passed on information to her cousin sisters and other female family members about contraception and HIV/AIDS: I think that sort of thing is useful and something I can tell my cousins about … they don’t have as much access to information like I do. I easily get stuff on the net or from a magazine that says something about HIV or whatever..I mean if you are in a Western society that wouldn’t necessarily be a privilege because that something common that everyone can have access to but here it’s a privilege…



In conjunction with her husband, Josephine said she held regular Friday night gatherings with their friends’ children to disseminate information and discuss HIV/AIDS. She keeps herself up-to-date with ongoing research in order to do this properly: I’m empowered to do something.. because I have that information…I know the process to go through to obtain something, to help somebody else…



Other grassroots initiatives: Julie talked about working with a local pastor in her work holidays to deliver family planning talks in remote communities. These talks were for men and women so that both understood potential dangers. Ruby talked about the growth in the number of teenage pregnancies and how she used her qualifications and information skills and knowledge to talk to young men and women about the health risks and social problems associated with early pregnancies.



Other grassroots initiatives: Patricia and Agnes both told of how they would proactively talk to any female domestic violence victims on the streets, in churches and in the village about their legal rights. Anastasia was lobbying her workplace to run community-based lessons around financial literacy for women so that if they were being abused they had some knowledge about how to live independently and look after their families.



Impediments to effective action: • Gender constraints • Cultural obligations and societal norms • Lack of collegial information sharing • Technological barriers • Scarcity of published information about PNG • Poor information management of PNG research • Lack of resources generally



… Women are the ones who build up the men. In our country, you know, it is the woman that is behind the scenes to make one to stand in the public place. It’s the doing of a woman, a good woman – so if we can build up those women we can be a better nation… Maria

Suzanne Lipu [email protected] Tel: +61 2 693 32120

From personal empowerment to community development ... · • Sexual harassment and lack of respect...

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