NEWW On-Line:

International Electronic Communications
for the Network of East-West Women

If only one-third of US Internet users are women, then imagine the tiny number of women in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union who have access to telecommunications technology. Yet the technology is ideally suited for citizen groups and democracy champions - electronic communications provides reliable, steady, and affordable communication, and represents a mechanism that enshrines values of communication, cooperation, and collaborative working relationships.

Women who are pioneers in every area of life in the newly emerging democracies of the former Soviet block can certainly benefit from access to telecommunications and the lessons it inevitably teaches. We at NEWW are committed to helping more women in the merging democracies get that access and that power.

A NEWW Strategy

Telecommunications and Women's Empowerment

In the summer of 1994 the Network of East-West Women launched NEWW On-Line, the first women's electronic network in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The NEWW On-Line project enables participants to exchange information, develop techical and institution-building skills, and coordinate research and projects by and about women in the swiftly changing environment of the former Soviet bloc. Two years later, grass-roots women's organizations are linked in 31 cities, including groups in Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Kosova, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Pland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. On International Women's Day in 1995, we placed the first women's groups on-line in Romania.

NEWW's pioneering telecommunications work with female democracy champions across the region has brought close to half a million dollars in support from the Eurasia Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, World Learning, Inc., and others.

NEWW On-Line Is Unique:

1. We emphasize e-mail's value as a tool for social change, locally and internationally. For example, our democratic leadership body, the International Steering Committee, meets on-line to govern NEWW and formulate a regional political agenda.

2. We are the only e-mail network to provide participants with stipends to subsidize use. In exchange, users must participate in Steering Committee meetings, distribute e-mail materials to nonusers, and send in quarterly memos on usage and expenses.

3. We developed various incentives for successfully motivating women to use e-mail, thereby overcoming many of the obstacles faced by other grass-roots e-mail training projects. Unlike most programs, we arrange week-long on-site trainings in participants offices to ensure in-depth learning.

4. Our four trainers provide ongoing technical support to On-Line users. We plan to expand our cadre of trainers to better meet country-specific needs.

5. We developed a gender-sensitive training and widely praised e-mail user's guide, now translated into Russian and Polish. It is the only e-mail guide ever published to address the needs of women NGO activists who work both locally and internationally.

6. We field and track requests daily (no other organization does this regularly), receiving 50 to 100 messages daily; 50 new members monthly; 40 new conference subscribers monthly.

7. We produce, manage, and distribute information on-line: a World Wide Web page and four conferences/mailing lists, including two Russian-language conferences.

For further information, please contact:

U.S. office
Network of East-West Women
NEWW On-Line
1601 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 701
Washington, D.C. 20009 USA
Tel: 202/265-3585
Fax: 202/265-3508
E-mail: newwdc@igc.apc.org
Victoria Vrana, U.S. coordinator

Central & Eastern European office
ul. Mazowiecka 104A/27
30-023 Cracow, Poland
Tel: +48 12/345-097
E-mail: ezciesla@cyf-kr.edu.pl
Roma Ciesla, coordinator

former Soviet Union office
Moscow Center for Gender Studies
27 Krasikova Street
117218 Moscow, Russian Federation
Tel/fax: +7 095/332-4532
E-mail: neww@glas.apc.org
Irina Doskich, coordinator

Locations for NEWW On-Line

Tirana, Albania: qirjaku@women-center.tirana.al
Zenica, Bosnia-Hercegovina: medica_zenica@zamir-sa.ztn.zer.de
Sofia, Bulgaria: ramona%ramona@bulnet.bg
Zagreb, Croatia: zenskainfo_zg@zamir-zg.ztn. apc.org
Prague, Czech Republic: gender@ecn.gn.apc.org
Tartu, Estonia: anu@psych.ut.ee
Berlin, Germany: Frauenforschung=ZIF%PC-POOL%HUB-ZIF@bancom1.rz.hu-berlin.de
Bucharest: ana@ana.sbnet.ro
Budapest, Hungary: tigress@nane.zpok.hu
Prishtina, Kosovo/a: sevdie.a@zana-pr.ztn.apc.org
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: cholpon@ukuk.bishkek.su
Riga, Latvia: spiceina@ac.lza.lv
Vilnius, Lithuania-Lietuva: daiva@lsdp.aiva.lt
Cracow, Poland: ezciesla@cyf-kr.edu.pl
Warsaw, Poland: temida@medianet.com.pl
Kaluga, Russia: forkalug@glas.apc.org
Kemerovo, Russia: nejzdi@womfond.kemerovo.su
Murmansk, Russia: irina@womkongr.murmansk.su
Mrnnyi/Mirnyy, Russia: formir@glas.apc.org
Moscow, Russia: mcgs@glas.apc.org
Naberezhnye Tchelny, Russia: elena@fem.kamaz.kazan.su
Sergiev Posad (formerly Zagorsh), Russia: soglasie@glas.apc.org
St. Petersburg, Russia: pcgi@sisters.spb.ru
Tver, Russia: val@usp.tunis.tver.su
Voronezh, Russia: forvor@glas.apc.org
Beograd, Serbia: zenski_centar@zamir-bg.ztn. apc.org
Bratislava, Slovakia: kfdf@fphil.uniba.sk
Kharkov, Ukraine: sasha@org4.kharkov.ua
New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: newwny@igc.apc.org
Washington, D.C., U.S.A.: newwdc@igc.apc.org
Bay Area, California, U.S.A.: estoper@csuhayward.edu

WEB SITE: http://www.igc.apc.org/neww/