Well-Being and Activism
Having care as a central platform among activists in the context of feminist and LGBTQIA+ struggles is a great challenge, but taking that space and putting it at the center of activism is a perspective with the potential to change the effects and personal and collective impacts that affect people who mobilize to fight against violence in all its dimensions.
In this session you can find narratives about the implementation of the care program from the experiences of the members of the supported organizations. We hope that the meeting with them will be inspiring for other activists and organizations. From the experiences shared here it is possible to understand the exercise of identifying needs and planning strategies to personally and collectively address the effects generated by the impact of activist work and, thus, balance the care of activist’s own lives with the care of the lives of others.
The experiences of GESMujer and WHER Initiative can be seen in two short films that bring together images of meetings and daily activities of the collectives, highlighting the importance of the program. The Perempuan Mahardhika organization prepared a textual narrative, through a collective letter, detailing the importance of the program for the activists' and the collective's trajectory.
A Letter to A Friend on the Program From Well-Being to Community Resilience
My dear friend,
Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Mutiara Ika Pratiwi. My friends call me Ika. I am the Chairperson of the Perempuan Mahardhika National Committee. First, I need to explain to you, Perempuan Mahardhika is a women's organization fighting for women's rights for freedom from all forms of discrimination and violence, including gender-based violence, and to achieve well-being as well as a decent life.
Perempuan Mahardhika was founded in March 2003 in Jakarta. During our 20 years of existence, we have had nine branches in five cities and around 200 members, the majority of whom are workers and students. Since 2009, Perempuan Mahardhika has also been designing the establishment of informal schools under the Feminist School program, which take place every year in various cities with an average of 20 participants per batch. The Feminist School engages young people and students to care for and work on building strength with the community. At the Feminist School we carry the values of feminism and advocacy for the problems experienced by women.
You know, women's issues remain a huge problem in my country. Women face various problems ranging from poverty, inequality, violence and discrimination caused by a patriarchal culture, and an economic and political system that is not in their favor.
I have been a member of Perempuan Mahardika since 2006. At that time, I was still a university student in Yogyakarta. The ideas of feminism and labor struggle piqued my interest to join the organization. In 2010, I was elected into a national leadership position at Perempuan Mahardhika, which required me to relocate to Jakarta. Since 2018, I have been Chairperson of the National Committee.