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Women's
Feature Service
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The
only international women's news/features syndicate, Women's Feature Service
produces crisply-written features and opinions on development from a gender
perspective. WFS has a global outlook, with writers from 40 countries and
media clients all over the world. The articles brought out by WFS are
published by small and large newspapers, magazines, journals and newsletters
across the globe. WFS' wide range of clients ensures penetration at the
grassroots, in small towns as well as metropolises, providing a wide
coverage of issues and dissemination of information.
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As
of April 2001, WFS has launched its own website, which can be viewed at www.wfsnews.org.
WFS features are also used by several websites.
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WFS
articles are also useful as reference material for researchers, academics
and specialist publications. With archives going back 10 years, WFS has a
rich collection of articles that can help trace developments and trends.
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WFS
is upgrading its photo bank with the objective of offering this as an
independent service.
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As
part of the NGO community, WFS frequently collaborates with other
organisations. Recent examples include contributions to initiatives such as
Best Practices Surveys, a report on 'The World and Its Peoples', strategies
to bridge the digital divide, preparation of a gender-sensitive media tool
kit, and so on. WFS is on the Executive Committee of Women Action, an
international network of women's groups.
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WFS
is headquartered in New Delhi, India, and is staffed by an all-women team.
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History
WFS
began in 1978 as an UNESCO-UNFPA initiative to create "Women's Feature
Services" with the specific purpose of impacting mainstream media. With
funding from UNFPA, for a five- year period, UNESCO contracted five news
agencies for this work designed to be controlled and operated by women within
existing news agencies. From 1978 to 1983 UNESCO played a major role in
supporting the feature services both programmatically and financially.
Today,
of the five women's feature services initiated, the Inter Press Service exists
as also the WFS connected to it. WFS has been a completely independent
organisation since 1991 and is now headquartered in New Delhi, India.
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WFS
has been among the first to report on:
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The growing power of the Taliban in Afghanistan
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The effects of the break-up of the Soviet Union on women
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AIDS and its impact on women and sexuality.
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WFS was the first to report how Parlodel, the breastmilk
suppressant, had generic side effects.In the same year, WFS wrote
about Intissar Al-Wazir, the first woman in Palestinian government.
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'Men Oppose Wife Abuse' described one of the first
initiatives by men, in India, to campaign against domestic
violence. A Bombay-based journalist placed an advertisement in a
daily: Wanted: Men who believe wives are not for battering.
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WFS coordinated a series of investigative reports of child
labour in different countries, as well as a series describing
successful attempts to rehabilitate child labour in India.
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WFS initiated a series of studied features on maternal
mortality and the drive to ensure safe motherhood in different
countries -- Peru, Zambia, Bangladesh and Jordan -- representing
different regions.
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WFS correspondent won an award to investigate female
foeticide in India.
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WFS focuses on civil society organisations contribution to
constructive change.
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