This launches the first JASS e-newsletter and brings to a close an extraordinary year for JASS. As Barack Obama’s historic election showed us, there is nothing like community organizing and the mobilizing power of hope to bring people together across differences, to achieve real change from the ground up. This is what JASS and our many allies have been doing -- strengthening the voice, visibility and organizing power of women in different communities around the world.

Cross Regional Dialogue, Cape Town South Africa JASS' two-day Cross Regional Dialogue was the first ever face-to-face meeting among activists working with us from diverse regions across the globe.  It generated exciting debates, inspiration and new thinking about the JASS movement-building process. Women from all backgrounds and dramatically different contexts forged a common vision for what it takes to make women's voices heard, and to put their agendas into action. Grassroots organizers, leaders, activists and scholars exchanged ideas and strategies for leveraging the power of women's numbers to change the world, one family and one community and one policymaker at a time. Watch the video! Cross Regional Dialogue Webpage
Southern Africa Movement Building The International AIDS Conference in Mexico City in August was an opportunity for JASS Southern African delegates to grapple with the politics of global decision-making on HIV/AIDS and to make their voices heard in these debates. Watch the video that looks at HIV/AIDS from the lens of power and stigma in order to define the many ways that this urgent challenge facing women presents opportunities for energizing women's rights agendas and alliances. Watch the video! Southern Africa Webpage
Mesoamerica - Las Petateras JASS and our Mesoamerican allies, the Petateras, in collaboration with Radio Feminista, mobilized with hundreds of feminist activists at the Americas Social Forum in Guatemala, October 7-12, 2008. In keeping with the theme of Another World is Possible, the group is striving to ensure that feminist agendas – economic, political, social and cultural -- are at the heart of progressive alternatives for the Americas. With an eye toward bringing the Petatera process northward, JASS was joined by four US grassroots activists from Women of Color United, the Asian Domestic Workers Assembly, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, and the Pa'htilkalli Community Space, who are working on many issues, including a boycott of Western Union in an effort to challenge the excessive fees charged for remittances. Watch the video! MesoAmerica Webpage
Southeast Asia Regional Institute JASS SEA held a Regional Movement Building Institute in Parapat, North Sumatra, Indonesia, June 9-14th, 2008. The institute brought together an intergenerational group of grassroots activists and women leaders who are organizing at local levels, where conservative social and religious forces are the most powerful, and where young women especially are dealing with taboo issues of sexuality and stigma. They are using their learning and connection with each other to gain confidence and increase their impact. The regional institute brought out three important themes: fundamentalisms and sexuality, NGO-ization, and young feminists in social movements. These women are taking on discrimination based on class, sexuality, age, and ethnicity within women's movements and on the community level as a build up toward regional action in 2010. Watch the video documenting the voices of young feminists from Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam and Thailand. Watch the video! Southeast Asia Webpage
AWID Forum November 2008 JASS Southeast Asia Regional Co-Coordinator, Nani Zulminarni (Indonesia) and JASS Southern Africa core team member, Martha Tholanah (Zimbabwe) were featured in the third opening plenary on the "Context of Our Work," while Srilatha Batliwala (India), Co-Chair of JASSī Board and Sindi Blose (South Africa), also a member of the JASS Southern Africa core team, were part of the Forum's final closing plenary. JASS was able to bring over 45 women to the AWID (Association for Women's Rights in Development) Forum. For many, especially the emerging young leaders from Southeast Asia and Southern Africa, this was their first opportunity to participate in a global women’s rights event. JASS staff and allies contributed to and led half a dozen workshops and presentations, JASS videos were a big hit, and the JASS booth was the heart of the ballroom where friends could mingle, share, and network. JASS at AWID Webpage