A wonderfully inspiring story of building a feminist movement!

- An interview with Shireen Huq

Highlights of the achievements at the national and local level in the first six months of the year 2009

• Nepal :BBC has increased its working area very significantly and adopted a new approach; mobilization of surveillance group
• Pakistan: Shirkat Gah has built awareness at community and district level, strengthened networks at national level and is now invited to the Steering Committee Meeting on the SAARC Gender Data Base – thank you also for your assistance with the Torch campaign of the Danish Government
• Bangladesh: BWHC has accelerated work plans and established joint member monitoring teams locally. BWHC has included two marginalized women in the Joint Member Monitoring Team to generate right based demand. Naripokkho has advocated the formation of Standing Committees of Health and as a result the Ministry has issued a circular with instructions for women`s participation in District and Upazila Hospital Management Committees.
• India: Sahayog has mobilized the media to put pressure on the government and organized a public hearing resulting in the State Human Rights Commission “recognizing preventable maternal deaths as a human rights violation and setting up a Committee to look into it and make recommendations.” While the focus states of CHETNA remain Gujarat and Rajasthan, they have contributed towards state level dialogues on maternal mortality in Maharashtra state, placing maternal mortality as one of the agenda among civil society which is facilitated by Human Rights Law Network.