5. Documentation and Research Department

It has been more than ten years since the BWU began its struggle for democracy, equal rights in Burma and advocating for women's rights and gender equality in Burmese society as a whole. With the financial support from NED since 1998, the BWU has contributed in establishing the Women’s League of Burma. The aforementioned organization was viewed by all founding members including the BWU as a platform Burma’s women's voices could be collectively gathered and used to increase women's involvement in the political processes of the pro-democracy movement.

Moreover, BWU has fought to get women's participation and to get their rights guaranteed in the future constitution-drafting committee. And as a result of such works, there is currently a demand for the need to include women within the constitutional drafting process. Although the BWU has been always been deeply involved with advocating for women’s participation, lack of systemic documentation work made the BWU unable to record of all the organizations activities and work previously initiated and implemented by it and the results that it has made with regards to increasing women's participation.

The aims and objective are to increase public access to information about the situation of women from Burma and the events and works of BWU. To advocate and publicize women rights and gender equality in Burmese society. To have a public forum to discuss and present information about current topics and events. To back up and systematically archive all the documents, papers, pictures, books, written reports, events, products, and activities that have been initiated and implemented by BWU.

The documentation department has done research, documented information and organized roundtable discussion to get all the background information and activities that have been done by BWU and the achievement of BWU. During these three months, could organized two practical roundtable discussions with regional leaders, members who have joined since the beginning of BWU to get their story for the record and telling about BWU with their own illusion and feeling.

The systematic documentation and research program have started from September 2006 with the two staffs and the program is closely supervised and administrated by Tin Tin Nyo, joint general secretary of BWU.

The department started to collect and gather the information and brief background of women organizations inside Burma and women organizations in exile. They also gathered organizational past activities, collect pictures, photos and news about BWU. Accumulate background of BWU leaders in general and founders of the organization with details data together with photos. They also do research and collect cases of violation against women, dialogue on women rights, and quotes of women leaders of the movement, and filed women activities those were published and posted in the newspapers and e-bulletin.

The staffs did research and gathered information about two women organization inside Burma, women organizations along the border to Thailand, India, China and Bangladesh, continued to collect data and information of BWU, documented discussions about women issues by the leaders of the movement from websites, researched about case studies about international women issues for documentation and filed weekly presentation on women and children from the radio.

Moreover, the documentation and research department staffs prepared the interview questions for interviewing the leaders of BWU and the program coordinators and staffs. They also sent out membership renewal forms to all the members of BWU living in the refugee camps, migrant community, and members living in the cities of Thailand, India, China and members who are living in other oversea countries. The staffs also assisted the coordinator with writing the report on migrant women workers by aiding with interviewing, collecting data and transcribe the recording and typed in the computer.