Women’s Panorama Soko, Entertainment and Women Empowerment Programme - Zanzibar International Film Festival ZIFF

Women’s Panorama Soko, Entertainment and Women Empowerment Programme

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Zanzibar International Film Festival ZIFF 

ZIFF has used the platform of the Women’s Panorama to highlight and address pertinent gender, – health and social issues. The Panorama therefore becomes a medium of Women’s Power and Visibility. The Women’s Panorama commonly comprises of a series of workshops, seminars and symposia organized and centred on the visibility of women in and through the medium of cinema, the arts and the media.

Greater effort is made to attain social relevance in this year’s WP program. Interventions intended to bring about noticeable changes in women’s lives by addressing through and mainstreaming the topic Gender Based Violence and empowering women to act through attending the opening Parade, the women entrepreneurship workshop, sell their products at the ‘soko ya filamu’ – the market in from t of the House of Wonders – and participate in the talks on Gender Based Violence at the Reclaim Women Center just behind the House of Wonders.

The festival will open with a big opening parade 14 June with music and entertainment a great opportunity to – unite against gender based violence- . Women organisations and other supporters will be mobilised to join the parade and with banners and signs the participants can voice their ideas and advocate to open the discussion on this important topic. The parade will start at Ben Bela School at 15.30pm and will end at the Old Fort.

Dhow race: Will take place on Sunday 15 June and about 10 Zanzibarian companies will race against each other in front of the new construction next to the Serena Hotel. The winners will receive a price and the honour of being the fastest dhow in 2014.

The women panorama at the House of Wonders will host the women vendors who will be selling their handicrafts and goods and will also host several local women groups who will be selling their own local produced products. This is a great opportunity for the women to be exposed to international customers and to learn how more experienced vendors, package and sell their products.

The daily entertainment will encompass music, drama shows, fashion show and a Women Chill Out Corner with Zanzibarian refreshments. The awareness raising on Gender Based Violence will be done through Women Talks; on what GBV is, what you can do if you are a victim of GBV; if your witness GBV in your community and women who talk about their own life experiences.

The entrepreneurship workshop will be held in a separate venue. The participants are the women of local women groups who are invited to sell at the market and have been part of the Village Panorama. The objective of the workshop is to enable the participants to discover their entrepreneurial potential and talents and to empower them through information on financing possibilities, learning from and with each other and through participatory sessions.