NETWORK of EAST-WEST WOMEN
1601 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Suite 603
Washington, D.C. 20009
Tel: (+1 202) 265-3585
Fax: (+1 202) 265-3508
E-mail: eastwest@neww.org

ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY AND PROGRAM

The Network of East-West Women (NEWW) is a vital communications network linking over 1,000 women's advocates in more than 30 countries in the former Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and North America. Members represent all strata of society -- writers, students, health care workers, journalists, lawyers, parliamentarians, professors, artists, union organizers, and feminist activists. NEWW is coordinated by an International Steering Committee (ISC), composed of representatives from 24 countries. The ISC governs NEWW and its projects via periodic electronic meetings. Its representatives are leaders in their communities' efforts to include women in the building of democracy. Many are founders of their own institutions who are well-established and internationally known. Others are at the forefront of democratic change in their respective countries. Still others are grass-roots activists currently learning to influence political processes and build coalitions with other interest groups. All of NEWW's members are active in a wide range of women's initiatives and promote public awareness about gender concerns.

GOALS & PRINCIPLES

NEWW's overarching goal is to support the formation of independent women's movements. Its primary objective is to increase the capability of women and women's NGOs to intervene effectively on policy regarding women's lives. NEWW's members have agreed to a set of common principles emphasizing the importance of women's full participation in all aspects of public life; their right to reproductive choice; and their right to be free from discrimination, violence, racial and ethnic hatred, and censorship. "Including the excluded" is the Network's reason for being.

PROJECTS

NEWW coordinates projects, ad hoc committees, training workshops, consultations, conferences, and informational exchanges that reflect the programmatic areas its members have identified. Although NEWW expects the setting of priorities will evolve democratically and change accordingly, at present, the program areas are:

• law & policy
  
• communication and media
  
• employment
  
• the war in ex-Yugoslavia
  
• gender scholarship
  
• reproductive rights
  
• violence against women
  
• health & environment

Current projects include the following:

• NEWW ON-LINE is an electronic communications network that links women's NGOs in the former Soviet Union, East and Central Europe, Western Europe and the United States in an effort to maximize informational exchange, develop technical and institutional building skills, coordinate research and activist projects, and influence policy decisions.

• THE EAST-EAST LEGAL COALITION examines and monitors the legal impact of the post-communist transition on women's lives. Women's rights lawyers from 14 countries in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe organized this legal reform, advocacy, and outreach network in an effort to articulate and enforce laws and policies that strengthen women's legislative status and sense of citizenship in their respective countries.

• THE BOOKS AND JOURNALS PROGRAM oversees the seeding of gender libraries and women's studies centers and programs that are both university-affiliated and free-standing. This donations project, coordinated by NEWW-New York, arranges the collection and shipping of gender studies materials to interested centers and libraries in the region.

• THE SELF-DEFENSE INSTRUCTORS TRAINING PROJECT provides Russian women self-defense instructors with advanced trainings to improve their physical demonstration skills, to organize self-defense workshops for women in cities and towns throughout Russia, and to empower women physically and psychologically.

• THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN PROJECT aims to strengthen the movement to end violence against women in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and to provide support to women in the region who are building a movement against violence themselves.

For further information, please contact one of our offices:

Washington, D.C.
Melissa Stone, Acting Director
1601 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 701
Washington, D.C. 20009
Tel: +1 202/265-3585
Fax: +1 202/265-3508
E-mail: eastwest@neww.org
Web site: Network of East-West Women

Moscow, Russia
Lena Kotchkina, FSU Program Director
Moscow Centre for Gender Studies
Institute. Socio-Economic Population Studies
Academy of Sciences
27 Krasikova Street
117218 Moscow, Russian Federation
Tel/fax: +7 095/332-4532
E-mail: mcgs@glas.apc.org

Warsaw, Poland
Urszula Nowakowska, Regional Director, East-East Legal Coalition
Emilia Piwnik, Regional Coordinator
Centrum Praw Kobiet/Polish Women's Rights Center
ul. Wilcza 60 m. 19 V-pietro
00-679 Warsaw, Poland
Tel.: +48 22/622-2517; 621-3537
Tel/fax: +48 22/652-0117
E-mail: temida@medianet.com.pl

Moscow, Russia
Irina Doskich, e-mail trainer
Moscow Center for Gender Studies
27 Krasikova Street
117218 Moscow, Russian Federation
Tel/fax: +7 095/322-1443
E-mail: neww@glas.apc.org

Cracow, Poland
Roma Ciesla, e-mail trainer
ul. Mazowiecka 104A/27
30-023 Cracow, Poland
Tel: +48 12/345-097

NEWW International Steering Committee
Albania: Delina Fico (Tirana)
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Selma Hadzihalilovic (Zenica)
Bulgaria: Christina Kotchemidova (Blagoevgrad)
Croatia: Vivijana Radman (Zagreb)
Czech Republic: Lenka Prusova (Prague)
Estonia: Anu Laas (Tartu)
Hungary: Ildiko Szineg (Budapest)
Kosovo/a: Sevdie Ahmetic (Prishtina)
Kyrgyzstan: Asel Djumabaeva (Bishkek)
Latvia: Inna Zarina (Riga)
Lithuania: Regina Lopienie (Vilnius)
Poland: Viola Cywicka (Cracow)
Romania: Mihaela Miroiu (Bucharest)
Russian Federation: Olga Lipovskaya (St. Petersburg)
Russian Federation: Valentina Uspenskaya (Tver)
Serbia: Lepa Mladjenovic (Belgrade)
Slovak Republic: Etela Farkasova (Bratislava)
Ukraine: Alexandra Rudneva (Kharkov)
United States: Sonia Jaffe Robbins
East-East Legal Coalition: Urszula Nowakowska
Human Rights Education Project: Julie Mertus
Self-Defense Project: Melissa Stone
Violence Against Women Project: Emily Stoper

NEWW, Inc., Board of Directors
Ann Snitow, Chair
Mariam Chamberlain
Cheryl Lehman
Shana Penn
Anastasia Posadskaya-Vanderbeck
Joanna Regulska
Melissa Stone

NEWW Staff
Melissa Stone, Acting Director
Robert Gibbs, Accountant
Lorena Torres, Bookkeeper Galina Venediktova, FSU On-Line Consultant

NEWW On-Line
Irina Doskitch
Victoria Vrana

East-East Legal Coalition
Donna Axel
Lena Kotchkina
Nadezhda Kuznetsova
Natasha Mandelbaum
Isabel Marcus
Urszula Nowakowska
Dorota Majewska

Interns (Summer 1997)
Diana Howansky, EELC Project
Stacie Williams, Web page and database
Krista Zongolowicz, Bulletin

NEWW Donors 1994-1997
ABA/CEELI American Council of Learned Societies
ARD/Checchi
James R. Dougherty Foundation
Eurasia Foundation
Ford Foundation
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Open Society Institute
Samuel Rubin Foundation
Shaler Adams Foundation
Jules and Doris Stein Foundation
Van Camp Foundation
Vanguard Foundation
World Learning, Inc.