[hr-education] Evaluation report of Women for Women's Human Rights HRE Program in Turkey

Dear friends,

The report on the impact research of the Human Rights Education Program of
Women for Women's Human Rights (WWHR) - NEW WAYS has been recently
published. You can download a copy of the report at
http://www.wwhr.org/id_843

Below, you can find a short summary of the program [***The Conclusions of
the report are also included, Mod.***].

Pinar Ilkkaracan (Board of Directors) and Guvem Ture (Program Coordinator)
Women for Women's Human Rights (WWHR) - NEW WAYS
Inonu Cad. 37/6 Saadet Apt.
Gumussuyu 80090 ISTANBUL - TURKEY
Tel: 90-212-251 0009 Fax: 90-212-251 0065

---------

WWHR's Human Rights Training Program for Women

Human Rights Training Program for Women was developed by Women for Women's
Human Rights-New Ways Foundation in 1995. Since 1998, the program is being
implemented in Community Centers in 28 cities throughout all regions of
Turkey, in collaboration with a governmental agency, the General
Directorate for Social Services.

The Program aims to:

1. Inform women of their citizen and human rights under the law and
according to the international treaties Turkey is a party to
2. Assist women to develop an awareness and critical understanding of
their legal rights
3. Awaken women to the ways and extent that customary practices (i.e.
"unwritten" laws) often infringe on their rights
4. Enable women to exercise their rights in their daily lives and
instigate social change
5. Stimulate the emergence of grass roots organization and networking
among women.

The objectives of the Human Rights Training Program are realized in two
stages. First, we as Women for Women's Human Rights-New Ways
Foundation, provide trainer's training for women to become group
facilitators. Second, these facilitators form their own local groups and
begin conducting workshops. Training for the first stage consists of an
intensive 10-day course for the group facilitators who will implement
the Program. Twenty to twenty-five expert social workers from the Social
Services' community centers attend the annual training. The training
includes detailed instructions on the Program's methods and their
application to possible scenarios. The trainee trainers gain proficiency
in handling group dynamics and how, for instance, to apply a feminist
approach to aid a woman who is subject to domestic violence. We closely
monitor and support trainers for three to four months during their first
group workshop.

This approach ensures that the number of group facilitators increases
every year and that the number of women that the Program reaches grows.
The local group workshops create a safe environment for the participants
to express themselves, share their experiences and engage in
discussions. A typical workshop would have about twenty attendees and
the full program consists of 16 workshops over four months. The workshop
methods are inclusive and cover such topics as human rights, women's
human rights, constitutional and civil rights, economic rights, violence
against women, reproductive rights, women and sexuality, communication,
gender-sensitive parenting, models of grassroots organization, feminism,
and women and politics.

Characteristics of the Program:

The Program is not a consciousness-raising exercise that women's
groups can get together and implement at will. Its methods, content,
exercises and "Trainer's Manual", which is distributed as a
supplementary resource for trainers, are a unified whole and only
trained and competent group facilitators should implement it.

The extensive four-month long training is necessary because the
objective is not to simply to teach classes but to encourage
organization and begin a shared process of transformation.

Each local group starts working by holding a needs assessment exercise.
We consider this practice a prerequisite of meeting the needs of
specific women living within various settings, and a prerequisite of
ensuring the full participation of the group members, starting from the
first workshop.


[***Moderator's note: Below you will find the conclusions of  "Women for 
Women's Human Rights – New Ways. Women's Human Rights Training Program 
1995-2003. Evaluation Report" by Prof. Nuket Kardam. pp. 69-71.***]

CONCLUSIONS

The Women's Human Rights Training created awareness and understanding and
increased the level of knowledge on women's human rights. The level of
education of the participants varied inversely with the extent of
knowledge they acquired. The least educated women were also the ones who
learned the most about their rights. Most participants placed the most
importance in learning about their civil rights.

One important contribution of this program was to show women the existence
of gender based discrimination in Turkish society, and begin to dispel the
fears and ignorance around "feminism" and about "grassroots organizing."

The participants gained greater self-confidence and raised awareness on
discrimination against women and they developed a positive attitude
towards solidarity with other women. They have, however, experienced some
difficulty in convincing their family and community towards greater
acceptance of their rights. There was inevitable internal and external
conflict as they redefined and renegotiated their gender identities. The
changes in them necessitated complementary changes in family members. The
family relationships changed during and after the training as gender
relations and norms had to be redefined and renegotiated. Many times,
husbands and in-laws resisted the wives' demand for exercising their
rights. It was a long and difficult process that for the majority ended in
better and more equal family relationship as the survey indicated.

Husbands felt threatened at first thinking that women's rights meant that
the wives would now seek divorce. But in fact, in many cases the family
relationships improved also thanks to the section on "communication" in
the training. One of the most significant attitudinal changes occurred
towards children in respecting and applying their rights and developing
greater awareness of daughter's rights, especially awareness not to engage
in discriminatory behaviour towards girl children. Participants received
greater respect from their communities in many cases, although they also
experienced ambivalent and conflicting attitudes by neighbors and other
community members towards them.

Freedom of expression was one right that most women learned to express on
an individual level much more than before. About half of the sample
exercised their right to education after their participation in the
training. Joining an organization was still not easy for many: but 31%
reported that they had joined an organization after the training. About
one-third (28.8%) reported that they had begun to exercise their right to
work after the training, and 8% started a new business. There was still
reticence in the exercise of seeking remedy from state institutions, as
75% indicated that they had never approached government institutions on
any basis.

For many participants, the knowledge about various forms of violence such
as physical, emotional and economic violence was a new concept, as well as
the realization that they may be subjected to all three. It became clear
that gender based violence was still widespread and although the majority
were able to stop the violence they were experiencing after the training,
some experienced an increase during and after the training. Even though
one participant reported having divorced an abusive husband, there were
many reports of helping a neighbour in seeking divorce, helping to find a
shelter to a victim of violence, or to seek a civil marriage ceremony.
Continued internalization of prevailing gender norms that discriminate
against women, and fear of change in the face of potential retaliation and
exclusion from family and community kept women from exercising their
rights more extensively.

A. Factors that Contributed to the Overall Success of the Program:

* Length: the 16 week program made it possible for the participants to
take the time to get to know each other, to digest the materials, to learn
from each other and to begin to formulate common strategies; in a shorter
program, such effects may not have been possible.
* Strong follow-up and supervision by WWHR/New Ways: The social workers/
group facilitators and the participants always had the support of WWHR
staff who were in constant contact with them.
* The participatory principle of the training: The training program was
constructed as a participatory process that promoted empowerment and the
exercise of rights.
* Translation and integration of global gender equality norms in
understandable and clear language: These training modules made the
information accessible to participants.
* Collaboration with SHCEK [Directorate of Social Services, Mod.]: The
partnership provided access to community centers, to the wide
participation of women, and the oppurtunity for professional social
workers to act as trainers and group facilitators.

B. Outcomes

* Learning about women's human rights and attitudinal changes leading to
greater selfempowerment and confidence;
* Greater exercise of rights, especially freedom of expression; right to
education and right to work;
* Greater respect for children's right in the family from a gender
sensitive perspective;
* Overcoming physical, emotional and economic violence;
* Important steps towards grassroots organizing (ie. exercise of the right
to assembly, to seek, demand accountability and the right to association).

C. Recommendations for the Future

Short Term:
* Discussions with SHCEK based on mutual trust and dialogue on clear
delineation of responsibilities and airing of concerns regarding the
implementation of the program; a reestablishment of responsibilities
(which includes provincial units), follow-up procedures and persons
responsible for follow-up on each side;
* For SHCEK to institute a reward/incentive system to encourage successful
social workers/group facilitators;
* A separate future project (apart from the training program) to support
capacity building and leadership training for grassroots organizing
efforts that have already begun (A workshop with the leaders has already
been done in June 2002).

Long term:
* Enhancing participatory communication and appropriate principles and
mechanisms of action between SHCEK/Ankara general directorate, local
directorates and community centers towards greater effectiveness of joint
NGO - state programs;
* Bringing the program and its effects for discussion to the public agenda
and in the media and search for other potential partners and ways of
continuing and/or expanding the program (such as with GAP administration,
Ministry of Education or other NGOs like Turkish Development Foundation).




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