Maroon Women’s Network

Tel: (597) 8918468; (597) 856 9789
e-mail: mvnuma@yahoo.com

Name of the organization: Maroon Women’s Network
Back ground information
The Maroon Women’s Network was established in 2000 when representatives of Maroon women were invited by the President of the Republic of Suriname together with other women’s organisations to exchange ideas which were to contribute in the writing of government policy for 2000 – 2005.  Because of the fact that maroon women do not have a forum to talk about problems concerning maroon women the founders came up with the idea to begin with a network for maroon women.
The Maroon Women’s Network is a network for individuals and women’s organization form the interior with the following objectives:
To promote sustainable development of maroon women through a network system
To stimulate collaboration between maroon women and the maroon society
To create a good consultative structure of maroon women from the city and the interior through a network system.
The mission of the Network is to have a network system among maroon women and organisation to empower themselves in a positive way which must lead to their advancement and development. The network also wants to make women aware of the importance of the use of a network system and network instruments.
In order to reach the above mentioned objective the network has created awareness program to educate the maroon community especially women.

Activities
Since her establishment the network has implemented a lot of activities. In this presentation I will mentioned a few of the activities:

The ‘Ahala’ award (an ahala is used to keep a banana three from falling): Annually in connection with International Day of the Women the network recognizes Maroon women who make a great contribution to maroon community. The purpose for this award is to thank the women for their support and make them as an example for the youth.

The Birth registration project: in collaboration with the UNICEF, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Regional Development and the ‘Medische Zending’ (Medical mission) a birth registration project has been carried out for the community of the interior. Women who give birth to babies do not register the newborn at the Birth Registration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. When this boy or girl becomes older he /she face a lot of problems. With this project the network wants to show them the importance of the birth registration.

Break the Silence: In collaboration with the University of California we implement the project break the silence. This project is to make the maroon community aware of the HIV/AIDS virus. With embroidery on pangi’s and calabash we inform the maroon community about the disease. The network choose for this way unspoken was of inform the community because still a taboo to talk about the disease within the maroon community.

Contacts details:
Coesewijnestraat 61
Email: mvnuma@yahoo.com
Tel: 597 8569789, 597 8518468, 507 8567450
Contact persons
Justina C. Eduards         juscled@yahoo.com
Tosca Pinas                  tospinas@yahoo.com
Sonja Bron                   sonjabron@live.nl
Categories
Human Rights
Women Rights
Domestic Violence
Community Development
Culture & Arts
Education