Women power: 5th annual SWAN conference
Trust women to create something beautiful with a small twist of their imagination; the South Asia Women’s Network turned the letters of these words around and created a dedicated, passionate and positive platform for the empowerment of women in South Asia called SWAN. It sees itself as a powerful instrument for articulating and implementing the dreams of women of our region, by making their dreams its own. The countries represented are Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Mynamar.
The 5th Annual Conference of SWAN delegates will be held in Colombo on August 23-24. For three days, prior to the conference, the Crafts and Textiles group, along with the Livelihoods component of SWAN, will conduct a workshop to train the trainers in sustainable development in crafts production and marketing.
Among the many chapters of SWAN, which address problems, raises voices and seeks solutions are: Health, Environment, Theatre, Peace and Conflict Resolution, Education, Livelihoods, Literature and Crafts and Textiles.
For women, sustainable development requires a stable democracy, access to credit, materials and markets so that they are economically empowered as individuals and groups. Without opportunities, an income and self-confidence, women are kept out of development processes that can help reach sustainable development goals.
The programme will have presentations on the status of crafts in each of the member countries. It will discuss the benefits of natural dyes, making handmade paper, recycling waste, creation of SWAN prototypes in marketable crafts that can be upscaled towards branding, packaging and e-marketing. A model of holistic development will emerge in the three days of the workshop, which the participants will carry forward to disseminate amongst their own and associate organisations.
Jaya Jaitly, founder president of Dastkari Haat Samiti and Bhavna Gadre of Development Alternatives, is conducting the workshop. The organisations are reputed bodies in India, which have shared their expertise with many countries. The Dastkari Samiti has been working with the National Crafts Council to develop a crafts map of Sri Lanka. The crafts complex at Battaramulla is also based on Dilli Haat, a popular crafts marketplace in Delhi which was conceived by Jaya Jaitly. Hence craft links with Sri Lanka have been deep and ongoing
Crafts prototypes developed under the SWAN banner at two workshops in India will also be on display at the workshop and conference and after being fine-tuned and taken into production, they will be e-marketed across the world as a symbol of the shared power and unity of women across what is becoming an increasingly troubled region.
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