Johan and I often get to feel very despondent about various things out there in the world; environmental issues, political corruption, abuse of human rights, consumerism, and poverty. We notice how often conversations of any meaning end up in what we call the doom and gloom scenario, which we deal with by saying we must just try to focus on what we can do in our own environment. So how wonderful it is to encounter an organisation like APC, which does something important globally in a progressive and heart-warming way.
APC (Association for Progressive Communications) first came to us 8 years ago - were in fact the very first workshop we had here. And if we were cheered by them then, now two visits and 8 years later, our admiration for them has only grown.
It’s not just the nature of their commitment to encourage free and open internet to create a more just world (mission statement). Nor the fact at they execute this commitment in real and tangible local and global projects (e.g. helping women activists build websites and other communication strategies, inserting gender issues into policy at various levels, helping people tell their stories of abuse and harassment online). Nor is it that they are sustainable - despite not only funding challenges, but the fact that since they come from all over the world, they connect largely in cyberspace.
But it is how they do things. Then as now we see a group of mostly (but not exclusively) women with extraordinary commitment (in fact most of the people who came now came 8 years ago). They work incredibly hard, yet integrate into their work laughter and play, caring and respect, and they conduct themselves in an entirely non authoritarian way - whatever their organisational structure.
This particular set of two workshops at Fynbos included, (for the first workshop) staff, board members, APC members and partners developing the APC Strategic Plan for 2013-2016.
The second workshop was a gathering of all partners working on an APC project called "End Violence: Women's rights and safety online" (For more on this project see http://www.apc.org/en/node/15007/)
Jenny’s account
To give a more personal account of APC, I asked Jenny Radloff, a project co-ordinator based in Cape Town, to write a bit about her experience of being a member of APC
I first encountered APC in 1997 when I met Anriette Esterhuysen (now Director of APC) at a workshop I was hosting. We were building a pan-African network of librarians working in gender activism and were just at the beginning of using email to communicate and share across the continent and beyond.
Anriette invited me to join the APC women's programme as a member.
That's when it all started! I was inducted into an online space, connecting with women's rights activists from all over the world who believed that women had to use, understand and appropriate communication technologies in their activism. They were also challenging the male dominated techie spaces, learning to code, training organisations in basic tools and writing gender into policy spaces. It was such an invigorating, dynamic, multi cultural, multilingual and welcoming online space.
Within 2 years I had met many of these women at various workshops preparing regional and global strategies to bring a stronger focus on communications technologies into global platforms. The creativity in these strategies was fantastic. Teaching women how to build websites collectively through building a live website, learning by doing, no question was regarded as superfluous and there was sensitivity to the diversity of realities and relationships to technology. We always worked from early in the morning until evening, still finding the energy to go out and eat, drink and dance. It was a time of little sleep but the beginning of friendships and an engagement with work which still builds and inspires me.
In 2002 I joined the APC staff team. It can be tough and lonely working in a virtual office where each of us is online in a different city, country or continent, working from home or shared office space. It was prior to Skype and the new online meeting platforms. We could use Yahoo messenger to text each other but mostly relied on email. Working across time zones was strange. I found that no matter how hard I worked, my inbox was still full when I woke up. My work friends (I can't all them colleagues - it sounds far too impersonal!) in other time zones were responding to emails and generating new ones.
Given the amount of training we do, our work in global policy spaces and the knowledge that building a sustainable and close APC family means face-to-face connecting, we do see each other quite regularly. And those times are very special. We have to cram in huge amounts of work, catch up on news, lovers, babies, deaths, life-challenges, create new memories together by waking up early to climb mountains or swim in the ocean and stay up late drinking tea and red wine, reading each other’s tarot cards or listening to stories of love, loss and local activism.
Perhaps it is because we are activists that it feels like the work never ends. And because we are a global family that the emails never stop coming in. Maybe it is that our team cannot say no to another challenge or opportunity or that technology moves and changes so fast. Or because there is just so much change work to do and so much passion that often it feels like we are burning ourselves out. Whatever that is, I could never replace this work family. The workshops where we are making digital stories with survivors of rape, or gay and lesbian activists telling stories of online abuse and harassment where as the facilitators we hold the participants and ourselves together - it all adds up to deep trust and connections from which I have learnt and grown.
Whether we are trying to insert gender into policy in Nairobi or creating digital stories in Islamabad or tweeting questions to our team in Geneva at the Human Rights Commission or visiting internet cafes in Kampala or working at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, this is one brilliant, inclusive, unpredictable and creative team.
Coming to Fynbos Estate for the third time has been wonderful. Each time we are here, we feel nurtured, fed and replenished - no matter how hard we work. APC thrives in natural spaces. The ethos of Fynbos of healthy food, quiet places, no waste, creative energy, politically conscious living, happy animals and curiosity about the world reflects the nature of APC.
Thanks Diana and Johan :-)
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Jennifer Radloff
Project Coordinator: The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Skype id: jenny_apc
Twitter: jen_ct
#takebackthetech
#genderit.org
Additional comments on Fynbos from participants
This place is what dreams are made of! AMAZUING FOOD! WONDERFUL HOSTS AND STAFF! BEAUTIFUL VIEWS, PEACEFUL SLEEPS, INSPIRING HOSTS etc etc. . . . MANY THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!
Lisa (Canada)
I enjoy my days in your farm. I like the food, the landscape and the people.
A lot of thank
Olga (Columbia)
This is the 3rd time here and is it possible that time stands till, yet each time it is more lovely. It is truly the best retreat space I have known both place and team inspire quiet thoughtful magic and don’t even get me started on the food
Erika (Mexico)
This is where I am actually part of the earth and sky
Thank you for opening up this magic pocket of the world
Jac (Malaysia)
This is a true nature reserve. Beautiful birds plants. Everything is amazing. The food that Johan serves is heavenly and the hospitality amazing
Shahzad (Pakistan)
Thank you for everything. Beautiful space, great people
Elly (USA)
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