The Women and Media Collective was part of the ‘We Women’ coalition in the month of January. ‘We Women’ is a coalition of individual women and women’s groups who came together in the event of Sri Lanka celebrating 60 years of independence in 2008. The objective of forming this coalition was to collectively and critically reflect on the achievements of the women’s movement in Sri Lanka in a context of civil war, economic liberalisation and globalisation, the continuing and emerging challenges to achieving substantive equality for women, to rethink our strategies for the future, and embark on some collective activities to rebuild solidarity amongst women’s groups. Some critical areas of concern for women in Sri Lanka on the 60th anniversary of Independence identified by this coalition were: War and militarization; women’s participation and representation in politics; feminization of unskilled labour; women’s health; the feminisation of poverty; and violence against women.
Five of radio spots were conceptualized in Sinahla and English to be broadcast on Independence Day (February 4). The radio spots were broadcast on TNL radio network 35 times during the day. A declaration was prepared based on the critical concern areas mentioned above and was published in the Sinhala (Lankadeepa), English (Daily Mirror) and Tamil (Veerakesari) news papers on the same day.
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