Introducing myself and my journal: Institut Perempuan

About Me:
INSTITUT PEREMPUAN/WOMEN’S INSTITUTE, which was founded on August, 9th, 1998, is a feminist, non-profit organization, dedicated to women’s issues and women’s rights advocacy work. We believe in justice, equality, and humanity for women as an unavoidable part of human values for a basic ground to build a democratic life.

Our Mission is giving our best efforts to advocate women’s rights through women’s movement in order to create a justice, equality, and humanity civil society. For that we urge to create and be part of women movement all around the world as well as develop society where women’s rights movement plays an important role.

For the last four years since we were initially begin our work, we have four main programs, there are: Campaign, Feminist Critical Education, Assistance of Women Victims of Violence, and Advocacy. Currently, we focus our self more to:

1. Feminist Critical Education and Organizing
   It’s done to build the awareness, consciousness, and skills using feminism as an ideology. Feminist critical education is done to build consciousness about suppression and injustice against women. This consciousness hopefully would bear some ideas, programs, and actions for the social movement.
   This program is done by conducting and developing gender equality, women, and feminism trainings, discussions, workshops, researches, studies, module development, etc. We created and conducting the first “Feminist School” in Indonesia for social activists and “Feminist Course” for individual who interested in feminism. The feminist critical education is also implemented in community by Reading Houses/Clearing Houses building, as an embrio of women grassroots organizations. Hundreds of social activists, community members, law enforcers (police women, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, and probation officers), government officers, students, labors, and girls were trained or facilitated by us. We carry out multidimensional themes using feminist perspective, from the politic, social, culture, law, human right, economic, psycho-social, until art and literature. One of the important issues is violence against women and assistance women and children survivors of violence, especially related to our assistances experiences.




2. Information and Documentation
   This is information and documentation center to fulfill necessity of information and documentation about women and feminism. We provide information, data, documents, clippings, and feminist critical analysis by conducting a “Feminist Library and Book Store”. In order to support the entire programs, we work in documenting and analyzing all discussions, literature, etc, to create new ideas and alternative discourses, especially on feminism. To distribute the information, we publish feminist journals and books, press release, book discussions, and reading and writing using feminist perspective activities. We routinely published the first feminist, critic, progressive journal in Indonesia, named “HerStory-Cerita Perempuan”.




3. Women’s Economic Empowerment
   It’s done to find and develop women economic program to against economic global hegemony that suppressed women. In order to initiate autonomy and independent women movements, we develop fund rising alternative, such as producing and selling merchandises as T-Shirt, pin, etc. We open a “Feminist Boutique” which sells traditional textile, accessories, etc.




4. Advocacy
   It’s done as systematic attempt to bear the national and local (province, residence, district, sub-district, and village) concerning women and children. This effort is done by initiating and actively participating in some advocacy network. In national network, we actively participated in National Advocacy Networks on The Elimination on Violence against Women, National Advocacy Network on The Domestic Workers Protection, National Advocacy on Victims and Witness Protection, and National Advocacy Network in Prolegnas Pro Women. In local, we actively participated in West Java Advocacy Network on Action Plan about on The Worst Forms of Child Labor, CSEC, and Trafficking, and also in West Java Networking in the Elimination on Women and Child Trafficking. In international level, we are member of GAATW.




5. Feminist Library and bookstore
   Library and bookstore which provides and sells books and literatures on women and feminism. Except providing services of clippings, data, information, documents, we also make some activities as discussion, books critical analys, writing competition, etc. With women movement activist nuance, this library and bookstore always follow by some exciting programs, like shopping reward with posters, postcards, specially discount for women customers, second books change programs, etc.




6. Feminist School
   It’s a model of feminist critical eduacation for pro public activist. This school attends to answer the necessary of feminist pro public activist to build new social movement where pro public activist have awareness, consciousness and skill by using feminism ideology. The uniqueness of this school is always using ideology and perspective feminist. It opens 1 class every year. This school also give scholarship for activists who need it.