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In a world where information and networking are seen as ubiquitous, especially after the emergence of the new ICTS, new collectives and communities and their concerns have forged new solidarities through newer platforms. These collectives have transcended the usual understanding of politics and dissent. They have widened the concept of a 'political' and a 'civil' society.

A journey in a woman's life doesn't necessarily proceed in one direction but in multiple ways and through various paths. Lata Sachdeva who works with Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS) describes the journey that KMVS has undertaken to empower the political and social participation of women from the margins. KMVS has grown as an organisation over two decades from working with women to make them self-dependent in socio-political and economic contexts to moving towards ensuring their larger participation in their respective communities. This blog takes you through a journey of an organisation that has build many roads and paths as alternatives for women, in Lata's voice.

These videos were produced as part of the Yalodês Action Research Project, which is being carried out in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as part of the Women-Gov initiative.

Vanessa Ludwig

From the beginning of our work with the women's collectives (sanghas) in Mysore district, we have been cognisant that our field intervention strategies must not lead to the creation of alternative power structures at the village level.

On August 22nd the Yalodês Project held a Basic Photography Workshop, ministered by the young and talented photographer Valda Nogueira. In total, twenty-four women came to participate: from experienced religious and community leaders to their young assistants.

The photography workshop was driven, as is the research process as a whole, by the will to strengthen marginalised women's active citizenship and their participation in local governance, through technology, information and communication.

A couple of days ago, we had an internal discussion at IT for Change to reflect on our vision for the village level information centres (Namma Mahiti Kendras) we plan to set up, as part of the 'Women-gov' project. From our earlier work in this area, under which we have set up two such centres, many of us felt that 'community ownership' is at the heart of our imagination of these centres.

Young women from disadvantaged backgrounds on the Cape Flats in Western Cape, like many other countries of the South face multiple barriers in receiving and communicating information regarding public services and local governance. Traditional communication tools were not used successfully to catapult young women into the arena of participatory governance as many political spaces have closed down on them.

In the Yoruba¹ language, Yalodê is the word used to refer to women who represent and speak in the name of other women, who emerge as political leaders, agents of transformation, who are emblematic in the development of their community, in the defense of rights, in the maintenance of cultural and religious traditions, and in challenging the status quo, fighting against the stratified powers of the dominant order – male centered, euro cen