Empowering young women to fight for equality
In celebration of International Women’s Day, a two-day festival called ReFest: #BreakTheBias was held last weekend, featuring an array of programmes like film screenings, performances, talks, and more.
The film screening held at the Grey Box, GMBB, featured the work of 20 participants from the Creating Agents for Change (CAFC) programme spearheaded by Lina Tan, founder of 3R Media and women’s rights organization, Empower.
The five months programme which launched in October last year, is supported by the US Embassy.
The programme saw 20 Malaysian women from the age of 18 to 30, take part in a series of workshops that empowers young women to become better advocates in their fight for equality.
This includes going through in-depth media training to incorporate creativity in promoting social change, and how to utilize media tools effectively to run their own media-focused advocacy campaigns in the future.
ReFest: #BreakTheBias which marked the end of CAFC showcased the advocacy videos created by the participants which touched on gender-based issues such as online sexual violence, indigenous and minority representation, and child marriages.
The event was also attended by social activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir and the US Ambassador to Malaysia, Brian McFeeters.
Marina spoke about how programmes such as CAFC is a much-needed platform to give women the right tools to make changes in the community.
Meanwhile, McFeeters said recognizing the importance of uplifting and empowering women is a continuous priority.
“We can equip women with tools they need to create change, but we also need to push for full participation and acceptance from all members of society,” he said.
CAFC is part of US Embassy’s Wanita Empowered Campaign which seeks to address barriers that restrict women’s role in society.
