(Fwd) Albanian Women's Aid Organised; Appeal for Contributions

["Joan (Jody) Crowley" <jcrowley@xxxxxxxx>]

Apropos the discussion of the specific impact of Kosovo on women, here's an 
appeal that came up on one of my lists.  I have no direct knowledge of the 
groups involved, but the statement appears credible.

Jody Crowley


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Subject: CURRENT NEWS - Albania: women's support organized

NEW WOMEN'S THERAPY CENTERS IN ALBANIA

The women of Medica, a women's therapy centre in Bosnia-Hercegovina,
are well known to me from five years of working with them. Many of you
know them even better. I think everyone who knows them has great respect
for them. They are themselves overwhelmed with new arrivals of Kosovan
refugees in central Bosnia. In spite of that they are carrying their
careful and caring approach to war-traumatized women to the support of
Kosovan refugees in Albania. I am both inserting and attaching an
emergency appeal for financial support for their excellent, practical,
appropriate, gender-sensitive project. Please post it around widely.

Cynthia Cookburn
MEDICA KOSOVA "Woman to Woman"



SUPPORT BY WOMEN FOR WOMEN TRAUMATIZED BY RAPE AND OTHER
ACTS OF TERROR IN THE NATIONALIST AGGRESSION IN KOSOVA

Please give generously to this emergency initiative which involves:

1  Rapidly TRAINING A TEAM OF PROFESSIONAL ALBANIAN / KOSOVAN
WOMEN in appropriate, gender-sensitive, medical and psycho-social
responses to rape and other forms of war trauma.

2  The trainers will be BOSNIAN WOMEN professionals who gained their
knowledge in the earlier war and currently run the hugely successful
60-staff Medica Women's Therapy Centre in central Bosnia which has
helped more than 20,000 women and children since 1993.

3  Establishing six TENT CLINICS in refugee camps in Albania through
which the team of women professionals and auxiliary staff can locate
women in special need and administer emergency psycho-social care.

4  Obtaining, equipping and operating a MOBILE CLINIC to take women's
reproductive health care and trauma therapy to other areas of Albania in
which refugees are scattered.

5  DOCUMENTATION of violations of women's human rights in the ethnic
aggression in Kosova, to enable prosecutions. Lawyers will work
closely with psychotherapists to ensure the necessary sensitivity to
women's feelings, self- respect and future safety.

Medica's principles:  women who have been sexually abused need care in the
first instance from women; they must be respected and their stories
believed; medical treatment should always be accompanied by social care;
and self- healing is possible with the help of skilled and appropriate
therapy.

Medica Kosova is a purpose-built partnership between Medica and
Albanian and Kosovan women's organizations. These women speak the
language and share the culture of the women they wish to help. In
supporting them you will be making a direct and immediate investment
in local women's skills, learned the hard way in the war in Bosnia.

Please, please pin up this leaflet in public view, do some fundraising at
local events, approach trusts and other givers you think might help, or
just simply write a cheque to `Medica' today and send it to:

Medica, PO Box 9560, London NW5 2WF

Account `Medica',
No.0562837, Lloyds Bank,
London NW5 2LP.
Sort Code 30-94-66

Further information from:
Cynthia Cockburn
Tel 00 44 171 482 5670
E-mail: c.cockburn@ktown.demon.co.uk
autonomous women's center against sexual violence
tirsova 5a,  beograd, fr yugoslavia
tel/fax:  381.11.687.190
e-mail: awcasv@eunet.yu




_____________________________________________________
THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN FORWARDED TO YOU BY:
B.a.B.e. (Be active, Be emancipated) Women's Human Rights Group
Prilaz Gjure Dezelica 26/II, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Tel/Fax: +385 1 4846 176  Tel: +385 1 4846 180
E-mail: babe@zamir.net
CyberBaBe: http://www.interlog.com/~moyra/
--- End Forwarded Message ---



Joan (Jody) Crowley
Assistant Professor
Department of Criminal Justice
New Mexico State University
Box 30001, Dept 3487
Las Cruces, NM 88003-0001
505-646-5376