After the Walls: Breaking NEWW Ground in Electronic Communication

NEWW pursues this objective through programs to forge communication links between individual women and women's groups in East Central Europe (ECE) and the former Soviet Union (fSU) regions. These groups - women's organizations situated across the ECE, fSU, and U.S. - also hold representative positions on NEWW's governing board, the International Steering Committee. On-going NEWW projects include a committee of women from fourteen countries in ECE and fSU who monitor the legal impact of emerging governments and law in post-communist countries, an international research group that supports the formation of women's studies centers, programs, and libraries, and a training program in Russia for self-defense instructors. In recent years, rapid changes in the political and social environment of the former Soviet Union have intensified the need for NEWW members to communicate quickly and effectively. Because existing modes of communication (telephone, fax, postal mail, and face-to-face meetings) were often unreliable and always expensive, during spring of 1994 NEWW explored the possibilities of electronic mail to improve telecommunication connections. Funded by the Eurasia Foundation, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and World Learning, Inc., NEWW trained 3 women as e-mail instructors who then traveled to 31 cities in the former Soviet Union and East Central Europe, teaching over 150 women how to use e-mail and the Internet. By April 1995, forty e-mail accounts were opened and the electronic backbone of NEWW's governing body, the International Steering Committee, was complete E-mail Training NEWW further increased the efficacy of their program through an on-going support system: after the training tour, NEWW's e-mail trainers formed the core of a technical support group, available to the On-Line Project participants for trouble-shooting computer problems. Not only was this internal support group familiar with participants' equipment and telecommunication systems, but saved the women's organizations costly consulting fees. Tailored e-mail instruction and accessible technical support provided by NEWW-employed trainers has cultivated an autonomous network of skilled computer users. Trainer Victoria Vrana commented: I taught really long hours sometimes, but it was great... (T)he teaching was so easy and so fun... The trainings would be really different, depending on the group. Some groups could go all the way to the Internet. In Germany we had a two-hour discuss