Partners
Our project partner for Weaving consensus: the Papua New Guinea - Bougainville peace process (Accord issue 12, 2002) was The Bougainville Inter-Church Women's Forum (BICWF)
BICWF grew out of the strong tradition among women in Bougainville of organizing within their churches. By drawing in ‘non-politicized women’ and as a pan-Bougainvillean and ecumenical organization, the BICWF complemented the work of the Provincial Council of Women and their district structures.
The BICWF carried out dialogue work in northern Bougainville with the Bougainville Resistance Army, the Papua New Guinea government and the Papua New Guinea Defence Force on various human rights abuses against civilians.
Since 1995, volunteer staff have operated an office with support from the National Council of Churches, Australia, the Uniting Church Assembly of Australia and the Marist Mission Centre through AUSAID funding. Their founder, Sr. Lorraine Garasu CSN, also works with the Catholic Church, providing family counselling services and running training workshops in conflict resolution.
Their work today focuses on popular education, capacity building for women and women's groups, and small business education training and income generation for local communities.
Inter-Church Women's Forum
PO Box 209
Seville Haus
Kokopau
Buka
Bougainville
Papua New Guinea
Tel: +675 973 9983
Fax: +675 973 9157
Email: bicwf@tiare.net.pg
Contact: Sister Lorraine Garasu
Events
Weaving consensus: the Papua New Guinea - Bougainville peace process was launched in Bougainville on 30 September 2002 with a photo exhibition illustrating the peace process, with other events and seminars held in Port Moresby, Canberra and London.
Top | PNG-Bougainville | Contents
