Web 2.0 What kind of ancestor will I be?

What excites me most about Web 2.0 is getting to connect and learn from other women that are passionate about issues that impact the health and well being of women and girls throughout the world. I am excited for the opportunity to contribute, reflect and involve myself in a global movement to stand up for women and girls everywhere and
I look forward to harnessing the tools of YouTube, twitter and blogs to write about women’s joys and struggles in combating gender based violence.

I believe by documenting and calling out brutality against women and girls using social medias tools, we can make our voices heard and show our refusal to be silenced by the cycle of shame, abuse and pain. I want to participate in global conversations, interview women and document their experiences, showing solidarity and sisterhood wherever in the world we are. In doing so, we can work to dismantle the systems of abuse and oppression that disregard and suppress the rights of women and girls. I want to record the voices and write the words of women who have carried the weight and burden of so much for so long, and in prose and poetry be part of the healing, a patient ear, a warm embrace that says, “I hear you and will take it with me further, so they hear and see you too.”

I think that sharing ideas and crossing journeys among women of different races, creeds, distances, whatever real or imagined boundaries, is beyond powerful. In coming together to lift up issues like gender based violence and discrimination and the spread and stigma of HIV, we show the world that there is no ‘us and them’, there is no ‘other’. There is ‘we’. We stand up and step forward together to create a world we want for ourselves our daughters, our nieces and families, from DC to Congo, San Salvador to Kabul. We are in this together.

These tools are empowering for me in encouraging and cultivating my own voice. I can think of times when I have hesitated to express my opinion and experience when I felt that what I had to offer was not enough. I will no longer fear the sound of my own call to support peace and justice for women and girls suffering abuse and discrimination based on gender. Using these tools, I challenge myself to go beyond what I think I can do.

I also believe that we can be empowered by learning about what has worked and be encouraged to take risks and be innovators. It will create the fertile soil needed to plant the seeds of change and action that we want to see in the world. I think that in each of our own beautifully unique voices we give testament and example the rich tapestry of human experience and innovation. I am truly excited to join in and sound the call!