South East Asia & The Pacific
Indonesia
Standing in the Grey Zone
Dr. Nurdiati Akma is one of thousands of Indonesian women campaigning for a new law restricting access to pornography, by children and young people in particular. Indonesia has the widest distribution of child pornography of any country in the world, with surveys showing 80 per cent of 8-10 years olds had viewed pornographic materials because they found it so easy. Research shows women and children are the main victims – with perpetrators citing pornography as the inspiration for acts of violence and rape. The Women’s Congress of Indonesia and NGOs have been campaigning for new laws on pornography since 1998, with little success to date.
Production company email: Producer/Director Mark Sungkar
Thailand
My Missing Husband
Angkana Neelapaijit’s husband Somchai is a leading human rights lawyer who had exposed police abuse and torture and called for the end of Martial Law in Thailand’s southernmost provinces which has resulted in thousands of ‘disappearances’ and over 1,300 deaths. On March 12 2004 Somchai was himself abducted. The perpetrators were later found to be police officers. Angkhana has campaigned relentlessly since for the state to be held accountable. “When there is violence, the impact is on the women and children,” she says. “They don’t really stand up for their rights as just trying to make sure the family has enough to eat is difficult enough. But, if women don’t fight for their rights, I don’t know who will do it for them.”
Production company links/email: National Channel (Thai only) or email Producer/Director Veenarat Laohapakakul
Philippines
In Conflict and In Peace
In 2000 Samira Usman, her husband and four children were forced to flee their home in Mindanao, in the south of the Philippines, after war was declared between the Filipino government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, fuelled by religious differences and clashes over land and natural resources. With the help of lawyer and local NGO leader Mary Ann Arnado, Samira and the other women in Mindanoa’s evacuation centre have begun to take control of their lives, setting up small businesses and playing a key role in peace negotiations. “We are all working together so that we will succeed in silencing the guns in Mindanao,” says Mary Ann. “Peace should be natural to us, so we would like this to be a legacy that we will give to our children.”
Production company links/email: Environmental Broadcast Circle (EBC) or email Producer/Director Elizabeth Roxas
Japan
A Ticket to Japan
Virgie Ishihara used to be a hostess in a Tokyo nightclub. Like many others, she took advantage of the Japanese government’s offer to grant ‘entertainment visas’ to Filipino women wanting to work as professional singers and dancers in Japan. In reality many of these women ended up working as hostesses – entertaining male customers in nightclubs, forced to work as prostitutes, or in abusive marriages to Japanese men. In 2000, Virgie Ishihara founded the ‘Filipino Migrant Centre’ which helps educate Filipino women about their legal rights and how to protect themselves.
Production company links/email: TVE Japan, Group Gendai Film Company Limited (Japanese only)
New Zealand
The Mother’s Voice
Deanie Mulu was brought up in a family where poverty, violence and abuse were the norm. Attracted to abusive men like her father, she became pregnant in her teens. After the children’s father left, Deanie began neglecting them herself and they were taken away by social services. New Zealand has the third highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the industrialized world, leading to a vicious cycle of abused children becoming abusive parents. Today with help from social workers, Deanie’s been reunited with her children. “I was a voice that wasn't heard but could only hear myself,” she says. “I thought I'm not going to give up, I'm going to carry on until you know they hear me and hear me so well that I'm going to get my children back”.
Production company links/email: Oliver Giles Productions, Eve Bay Studio or email Director Glenis Giles
Related links: Child, Youth and Family's
Fiji
Determined Women
Anshu Mala and her daughters make mango chutney for a living. Vijay Latchmi's tamarind chutney and pickle recipes have proved a hit with local shoppers and exporters alike. In the rural, cane-growing region of Fiji where Anshy and Vijay live, the new Tamarind Chutney enterprise, started with support from local NGO Friend, is revolutionizing the lives of the local community - providing an income for women who previously relied on their husbands, helping them scale up production and save money, and financing the country's only senior citizens centre. “We may not be reaching the entire country right now,” says Friend’s co-founder Sashi Kiran, “but we see hundreds of people where this has made an impact.”
Production company links/email: Fiji TV or email Fiji TV
