🔖 Documentation

Session Zero: Introductory session

In this introductory session, mentees of SPACE 2022 - consisting of participants selected from Asia, Latin America, and Africa — were asked to:

• Share their name, where they come from, and the kind of work they do
• Share what they hope to experience at the SPACE programmes
• Bring and share an artefact that they have been sharing a lot or meaningful to them

The participants come from all sorts of backgrounds, including those already in community networks and NGOs, academia, working in advocacy to end child marriage, working with the indigenous communities, and many others. They also shared some expectations in being at SPACE, which includes networking, learning from others’ experiences so they can apply to their own contexts, learning on how to engage in policy advocacy, and to do more work which empowers women and gender diverse people in their community. 

The artefacts shared included:

• Lots of mugs, water bottles, and cups to dehydrate
• Aromatherapy oil and candles
• A book of poetry 
• Plants, succulents, and flowers  
• Flower pot that they made themselves
• Jewellery made by indigenous women
• The pillow that represents her own space
• Stationeries like journals, pens, post-its, bags, and marker pens
• Earbuds to listen to podcasts and audiobooks
• Makeup brush
• Fruits
• An ultrasound of their new baby!

The organising team shared some housekeeping rules:

• Introducing the team
• Interpretation and documentation
• SPACE wiki

Before concluding the session, Cynthia shared an overview of the SPACE programme and the topics and mentors throughout the sessions.

Memorable Quotes

“When you educate the women, you will educate the nation. Just like the saying, “Give a woman a house, she will give you a home.” — Noxy 

“We together weave a fairer and more inclusive ICT environment.” — Adriana

“While I already know the technical perspective of community networks, I want to know more about the political implications of adopting it.” — Lungile

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