I was introduced to APC by Anriette in 1997 when I invited her (via Nancy Hafkin who spoke very highly of Anriette) to the Gender in Africa Information Network workshop which we were hosting at the African Gender Institute. Anriette was promoting the idea of Women’sNet. On hearing about the plan, I remember saying “I think i have died and gone to heaven. I will do anything to be involved!” It was just so inspiring. I then joined APC WNSP and met more inspiring women and got involved in really interesting, creative and challenging work.

In 1999 during the Beijing+5 review process, WNSP had been instrumental in setting up a global media and communications network of women’s organisations who wanted to input into the platform for action and advocate around Section J. And achieve many more things like building regional networks, a global network, training women in using ICTs etc etc.

We had a regional workshop and built a network and website called Flamme. It was an extraordinary workshop where French and English speaking African women’s activists came together to build a website, create a network, teach each other (based on the Women’sNet methodology we had pioneered in 1997) around the Beijing+5 platform for action. I had just learnt how to build a website using HTLM (the old way of doing it) and was one of the trainers at this Flamme workshop. I felt so scared and inadequate but all the women trainers helped each other, shared skills, asked if they did not know… it was so supportive even though we had been thrown in the deep end. So few women know much about technology but each one who knew something taught and we built our skills through this and our confidence.

It was so fantastic to see women in a safe, supportive and nurturing space working on computers that used to scare them. And they were building something REAL that would be useful, used and developed. Women came from diverse cultures, races, backgrounds, languages and everyone made an effort to contribute, understand each other – it was quite extraordinary. We threw ourselves into the work and produced a website, a network, we produced newspapers at conferences, interviewed women, produced really cutting-edge research (no-one had PHd’s).

We took this to New York to the UN and there we set up information and communication systems so women who could not afford to attend could send through emails and we would put them on websites, channel through to regional caucuses etc. We partnered with radio FIRE who interviewed women, reported from NGO caucuses and put this all online in audio files so radio stations could download these to broadcast further. I had never facilitated a mailing list but Karen Banks patiently showed me how to do this and it was not a trial run but “the real thing”.

As we were working around the clock, she was snoozing on the couch and I was hunched over a laptop trying to work out how to add emails to the list, moderate settings and each time I was stuck I could wake her up and she would guide me through. (3 am in the morning!). At the same event we were constantly updating the website with news, events, interviews etc and I sat next to Anna Feldman and she would guide me through how to do was very pleased when women started asked me how to do things.

At big events such as the World Summit on the Information Society I watched my colleagues/friends address huge plenaries with confidence and passion. They could segue between “on the ground” activism and “fancy” policy spaces with ease and never making out it was a big thing – just necessary. With APC, I have often been thrown in the deep end (so to speak) but always known my colleagues are watching out for me. It has taught me huge confidence.

There are many other stories… more recent ones – 2007 at the Women’s Electronic Network Training (WENT) Africa which we hold every 2 years. l storytelling – women’s experiences of violence – started, had to go and support my friend who’s 10 year old boy had been killed. I arrived at the workshop quite shattered but my colleagues held the space, were so supportive, I found the energy to “hold back” the part of myself that was in pain and be present for the workshop. I could never have done that if the trainers and the participants had not been so caring. This workshop also reinforced how good our methodologies are. The technologies seemed easy to the women because they really wanted to make their digital stories.