Celebrating Womanhood and Festival Italiano

PRESS RELEASE The Native Travel Festival and Italian Embassy announce the Celebrating Womanhood Festival and Festival Italiano.

Date: 6 – 10 March Venue: Upper Garden, National Theatre Music, dance and Story telling performances, Hip – Hop, Poetry, Bon fire, Exhibitions, Film Screenings, Cultural Dances, Debates and Discussions.

CELEBRATING WOMANHOOD AND FESTIVAL ITALIANO The Italian Embassy in partnership with the Native Travel Festival is organizing a five day festival to celebrate Womanhood and the Italian culture in the upper gardens at the National Theatre 6 – 10 March 2012. The festival will feature music, dance, story telling performances, Hip – Hop, Comedy Shows, Poetry, Debates and Discussions, Exhibitions, Film Screenings, Scientific Cooperation, Networking and Business Expositions, Italian culture and the participation of Italian NGO’s and Italian Community. Although there may be many challenges that women face in this country, we can not underscore the milestones achieved this far. It is in this spirit that we are celebrating womanhood. However, the festival will also seek to review the challenges that women face in the interest of exchanging ideas to forge a way forward. On Tuesday 6th we will open with a focus on Karamoja: Gender, Culture, and Development. With the change from cattle keeping as Karamoja’s mainstay, as men try to deal with the shift, women have found themselves bearing the burden of taking care of the family a spill over effect of which is the continuous flow of Karamajong street children along streets in Kampala and other urban towns. Honorable David Pulkol a former Member of Parliament from Karamoja and the Chairperson Africa Leadership Institute will give a talk on the state of affairs. We will screen two films from Karamoja. “We died a long time ago” a refugee law project documentary about Karamoja and “Ekisil” a docu – drama film by Italian film maker Giovanni Dall’Oglio advocating for peace in Karamoja.

Plot 6 Dewinton Road, P.O. Box 22309, Kampala Tel: + 256 414 252052 Mobile: +256 772 408257 www.nativetravelfestival.webs.org On Wednesday 7th, we will focus on Domestic Violence. The Police Family Unit department, FIDA and Mifumi will talk about their respective work, Domestic Violence generally, statistics, Challenges and their views on a way forward. We will screen a documentary from the Mifumi Heaven project a sanctuary for abused and battered women. Other films about Domestic Violence like Molaade (about Female Genital Mutilation), Italian’s Director Enrico Bisi Pink Gang and Sister’s in Law will be shown.

On Thursday, we will celebrate achievements in the struggle but also highlight the critical challenge of maternal mortality. The documentary of the Italian Cooperation’s Mobile Clinics will be projected and discussed. To that effect, we will screen “The Death Road” a film that documents challenges faced by the Islands surrounding Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary in accessing health services which could mean walking distances of over twenty two kilometers for some people to reach a health facility leading to death along the way in some incidents. More worrying is the fact that reaching the only available health facility may also not be helpful in case of a complication as they lack the facilities to operate and the doctors. We will also screen “Breaking the Silent suffering” the a UNFPA film about Fistula and how three Ugandan women who had lost hope were healed.

Friday will be dedicated to Scientific Cooperation between Italy and Uganda with the participation of Makere University, Gulu-Nap a collaboration between the University of Gulu and the University of Naples, a presentation from Dr. Giuliano Martinelli an Italian researcher fellow at Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) the Italian Ethnological Mission and National Museum among others. The documentary Kampala Babel by Prof. Cecilia Pennacini will be projected together with the movie about the life of Italian Scientist Galileo Galilei based on Bertolt Brecht’s play.

Saturday will be the occasion to celebrate Italian culture with projection of relevant Italian Cinematography and exposition and participation of the Italian Community. There will also be cultural exchange experiences with Italian food, films, music, as well as networking with Italian businesses. Daily documentaries, movies, poetry, music and story telling performances that we will be featuring shall be in line with the theme of the day. An initiative like this can not be successful with out the support of like minded organizations, institutions and personnel of which the media is key. The Media’s contribution in the milestones achieved in as far as women emancipation is concerned has been indispensable.

Plot 6 Dewinton Road, P.O. Box 22309, Kampala Tel: + 256 414 252052 Mobile: +256 772 408257 www.nativetravelfestival.webs.org We look forward to your editorial support during this press conference and through out the entire festival!!

Sincerely,

Sarah Kizza Nsigaye Marco Ballerini Executive Director, Media Program Manager Native Travel Festival AID 9110, Italian Embassy

Plot 6 Dewinton Road, P.O. Box 22309, Kampala Tel: + 256 414 252052 Mobile: +256 772 408257 www.nativetravelfestival.webs.org