The story begins with a group of inspired feminists, many brilliant ideas and a good typewriter to put them together with... From the setting up of a feminist information and communications collective in 1974, to the first published bulletin that Isis put out in 1976, and all the way through to the present, Isis has been blessed with the courage, creativity and vision of the many women who committed to realising the organisation's vision for social transformation and women's empowerment.
Isis International-Manila is giving out a compilation of Asia-Pacific women’s music in compact disc (CD) and cassette tape formats, free-of-charge, to women’s radio programmes and community radios in countries within Asia and the Pacific.
Music in the compilation presents an alternative to the ‘sexist’ pop music by featuring songs that promote positive images of women, as composed and/or performed by women musicians who would otherwise not be promoted by big commercial radio stations.
Isis has produced, for non-profit purposes, the following 30-seconder radio plugs on various issues confronted by women in Asia-Pacific.
1. Violence Against Women 2. Women and Migration 3. Women's Images in the Media 4. Women and Food Security 5. Women's Empowerment in Agriculture 6. Women’s Reproductive Health (not yet available in English)
"A common scenario taking place in many rural communities in the Asia and the Pacific region is that women are leaving and finding jobs in economic zones, urban areas and in the service sector economy. The majority of women who leave the farm behind do not want to return. Many mothers also discourage their daughters from choosing the rural way of life as it is viewed as a hard life with few rewards. Without women there are no agricultural communities. Economics is surely part of the problem that underlies this diaspora, but another factor is the lack of equity and empowerment amongst women in many rural communities." - from "Mainstreaming Gender into National Food Security Policies" by Luz Maria Martinez, Women in Action (3:2000).
