Creating a Voice for Women in Gulu thru Drama

October 2013

Creating a voice for WOMEN Annual Event Report

Between 4^th and 5^th October 2013 WGEF, and our community partners, hosted our 6^th annual Community Dinner and Drama Festival, Creating a Voice for Women event in Gulu. At the community dinner we hosted 125 registered guests, and another 40 staff, volunteers and performers in attendance for our WOMEN4Peace Awarding ceremony.  This far exceeded our target goal of 100 attendees. Our keynote speakers, WGEF Founder Karen Sugar and Mr. Daniel Komakech made presentations about the Resilience, Agency and innovation of Northern Ugandan women which kicked off a lively discussion about women’s role in sustaining peace.  We awarded Amony Evelyn Naima and Aol Josephine for this year’s WOMEN4 Peace awards.  Both gave very moving speeches.  This year’s awardees truly enhance the quality of life for women and children. Their passion is inspiring and we hope that by awarding their tireless efforts, they will continue to foster motivation and inspire the younger generation to contribute towards consolidating peace security and democracy in Northern Uganda.  

Our day long Drama Festival event on Saturday, October 5th was equally a huge success.  We had 150 participants who performed in drama, Dance, and gave testimony.  They represented 7 Sub-counties. We were able to conduct 114 HCT, 93 Cervical Cancer screenings, and 5 IUD implants. These services were offered for free and we were able to offer tests many of our festival participants, including some men.

In addition, we had the a great number of community members turn up, including children who continuously participate and watch their mothers carrying the flag to challenge structural roles in the end we will see a change in perception in the community as children grow up participating. In total 360 participants attended our day Kikopo Pa Mon event, 11 community based organization supported the Event both in Kind and monetary terms.

This year's festival and community dinner were both inspiring and critical in recognizing the work of women, not only in their communities but their important role in conflict resolution. These events provide a platform for elevating women's voices and we are committed to continuing this annual event.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• The turn up was good
• The awards were given to the winners
• All the key invited persons including the invited guests turned up for the event
• The resources were enough for the people especially in terms of feeding

CHALLENGES

• The numbers of people who turned up was over those invited and this created a budget stretch
• The visitors came late for the event and this interfered with the schedule for our program
• Resource mobilization was not very successful since most partners were not able to provide support due to so many reasons