Another Development Foundation were happy to arrange a talk with the title ”DOING DIGNITY – Revealing the crucial resistance to violence and how to support survivors of violence in reclaiming their lives” with two of the advisors for the foundation; Alan Wade, The Centre for Responsed-Based Practice, Canada and Meghan Donevan, Talita, Sweden.

The talk was organized together with The County Adminstration Board of Västerbotten, The City of Umeå and the study association Bilda.

The text below is from the invitation to the talk at P5, Väven, Umeå December 3rd, 2018.

WELCOME to an inspiring, thought-provoking and hopeful afternoon with two brilliant speakers who celebrate the unending desire for dignity and justice evident in resistance to violence and other forms of injustice, focusing on a colonial discourse and men´s sexualized violence towards women and children.

Another Development Foundation invite practitioners from different fields, activists, academics and the general public with a common interest in understanding violence and oppression in all its forms from a colonial discourse and a women’s rights perspective, improving social responses and identifying possibilities for structural and practical change.

Besides of their organizational affiliations, Alan Wade and Meghan Donevan are appreciated advisors to Another Development Foundation – both with extensive experience of work against violence and for human dignity.

PROGRAMME

Welcome

By Ingvar Rönnbäck, Another Development Foundation

 Lecture I: Dignity and resistance in the colonial context

By Alan Wade, Founder of the Centre for Responsed-Based Practice, Canada

Brief summary:
Children and adults resist violence as it occurs and often long after. Resistance can be open and direct or subtle and disguised, depending on the circumstances. Perpetrators of all forms of violence – from sexualized assault to colonial domination – anticipate and try suppress resistance by their victims.  Although resistance is an inherent part of the fact pattern in cases of violence, it is often obscured in colonial mental health concepts that posit pathology and conceal protest.  Accurate descriptions inspire effective institutional responses, challenge victim blaming and the colonial code, uphold the dignity of victims, and provide a factual basis for work with those who perpetrate violence.

In this talk, Alan Wade from the Centre for Response-Based Practice will outline that everyone resists violence and injustice, and how important the language is in relation to the crucial social responses from the surroundings, coming from institutions, professionals or friends and family, and give concrete examples of how language can be used to create change.

Coffee/tea

 Lecture II: The “Sex Industry” – Nothing to do with sex, everything to do with violence and vulnerability

By Meghan Donevan, Researcher at Talita, Project Manager for Reality Check

Brief summary:

Prostitution in all its forms is built upon patriarchal structures and colonial legacies. Traffickers and pimps prey on young, socioeconomically vulnerable women who have been exposed to earlier sexualized violence and subjected to discrimination based on sex, race and ethnicity. In prostitution, women are further subject to extreme physical, verbal, psychological, and sexualized violence by pimps and sex buyers. Leaving the industry and dealing with the consequences of violence is perhaps the most difficult journey an individual can embark on.

In this talk, Meghan Donevan from the NGO Talita will describe the realities of prostitution and share how Talita’s holistic and long-term program is able to support women exploited in prostitution in reclaiming their lives.

Dialogue

Facilitated by Peter Söderström, Another Development Foundation