Check out the Google map of Ronnie’s trip here.

During the “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence,” which wrapped up on December 10, Ann blogged the first phase of the project from Cote d’Ivoire. You can catch her earlier posts here and sign up to get an e-mail alert about her next series of posts — from Liberia — at theIRC.org/join16days.

A Global Crescendo: Women’s Voices from Conflict Zones: Update on the project in Cote d’Ivoire

When the IRC Gender-based Violence team started this project, they were often questioned about its title: “A Global Crescendo: Women’s Voices from Conflict Zones.”   Some found it confusing.  Why use terminology of sound—“crescendo”—for a visual project in photography? 

Here’s why.  This photo project isn’t about photos. It’s about women raising their voices. The photos women take to document their lives start the conversation.  They provide incontrovertible evidence of what women dare to speak about.  In the end, it’s those voices and their echoes that count.  It’s that crescendo.

If you followed the postings from Cote d’Ivoire during the 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women (November 25-December 10), you know that courageous women photographers in three Ivoirian villages spoke up for women.  That was just the beginning.  Those voices still reverberate.

In Zatta village, the women photographers elected officers and officially registered the group—“Anouanze”—with village authorities.  (They chose as secretary Kasso Roseline, the Internally Displaced woman who first found friends by joining this project.)  They regularly attend village meetings, and they accepted an invitation from the progressive chief to become part of his board of counselors.  In that capacity, they give advice on devising effective laws and punishments to stop violence of all kinds in the village, and they discuss all issues of concern to women and children.  In effect, in six weeks time, women who previously had no voice at all became full, influential participants in local governance.  (Those who like to warn that change always takes a long time, please take note.)

In Koupela-Tenkodoko, without official support from village chiefs, women continue to work for household reforms and an end to violence against women.  They know their rights.  The photographers still meet as a group and informally give advice and support to women in need.  Local hero Samandougoulou Assetou and her husband—still a changed man—have set a powerful example. So too have Yougoubare Veronique and her husband, the village exemplar of a “good man.”  The effects seem to be rippling from house to house.

In Zokoguhe, the women photographers continue to meet regularly, and they have expanded their efforts to collect food, clothing, and supplies to support abandoned women.  They too have become strong campaigners for their rights, and their voices have been heard in neighboring villages.  Recently, Zokoguhe women went to the nearby village of Zoukougbeu to join a march for Women’s Rights.  The village chief refused to acknowledge the event, but when the marchers passed his house, all four of his wives left the compound to join the parade.  And after that joint celebration, the women of Zoukougbeu decided to “take action.”  That’s “crescendo.”

In all these villages, IRC GBV field agents still work daily to raise awareness and to support the advocacy and action of these new women leaders.

On Sunday, December 2, a formal exhibition of 45 photographs by women of the three villages opened in the Basilique de Notre Dame de la Paix in Yamassoukro, the legislative capital of the country.  In the new year, the exhibition will appear on March 8 (International Women’s Day) at the Grand Mosque in Yamassoukro, and it will also travel to Abidjan.
 
You too can join the Global Crescendo, wherever you are.  Speak out against violence against women.  Speak up for human rights.