Kitakyushu Forum on Asian Women (KFAW) conducts a technical training for central/local government officers in charge of gender mainstreaming in developing countries every year, commissioned by Japan International Cooperation Agency, Kyushu International Center (JICA Kyushu).
In fiscal year 2016, the training was held twice, in June and January. The second one was for nine government officers from nine countries of Afghanistan, Albania, Cambodia, Egypt, Fiji, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama and Papua New Guinea from Wednesday, January 11th to Friday, February 10th, 2017.
The participants are exposed to lectures, workshop sessions, field visits, and presentation sessions of what they achieved from the training in order to comprehensively learn about concept, methodology and theories for gender mainstreaming. On a theme of “Women and Peace” they listened to a female atomic bomb sufferer’s experience after visiting Atomic Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima. The participants stood in front
of Atomic Bomb Dome and felt horrible power of destruction, and the Museum displays showed them the fact that people’s ordinary lives had been taken away instantaneously. Some participants could not hold their tears at the sufferer’s sad and vivid story.
One of the participants said, “I respect the sufferers’ courage to keep on sharing their tragic experiences with others. I would like to share her story with as many people as possible in my country. I will never forget what happened in Hiroshima.”
The program in Hiroshima on “Women and Peace” gave the participants an opportunity to think about peace, which is a foundation to promote gender mainstreaming policies, across the borders of countries and religions.
