BFI in action
NOTHING FOR US WITHOUT US This slogan says that we speak on behalf of ourselves and for ourselves. We have no beneficiaries. We have ourselves, and we are our own community. We are building activism to improve our own lives, rights and freedoms. For example, we cannot speak on behalf of abducted women and manage projects related to their lives when no one in our community was a victim of that. But we are building solidarity with them by involving them in our activism while sympathizing and supporting each other. This is not a problem of just one person, but for all of us. We are all oppressed by the same system.
We only had minimum resources and conditions available for working in our House, and they were used to cover traveling, communication and food expenses, medical expenses, rehabilitation and evacuation expenses (as much as our financial capabilities would allow).
Most activists work on a volunteer basis (at least 30% of all activists, but on average 70%), and some are paid such as authors, organizers and coordinators in the Working Team and Organizing Group. Participants had to adhere to the principles of responsibility, flexibility, accountability, mutual assistance, and collective care, however people often neglected with the reporting.
Our work is difficult to measure by traditional results and indicators. Existing methods for monitoring and evaluation rarely account for the invisible and visible societal impacts of our daily efforts then and now
BFI participants were given the opportunity to create their own initiative groups, to gain experience as organizers, to build solidarity and fundraising, to maintain institutional membership in various networks, and to participate in conferences, seminars/schools, exchange programs, residences and mentoring.
Collective decision making within the Working Group If even one member of the Working Group was unable to participate in a given meeting for any reason, a final decision would not be reached. Firing, written warnings or other degrading practices enshrined in the Kyrgyzstani Labor Code were never employed at BFI. 48
Several initiatives are described below. Please note that we’re not listing them in order of importance or priority given to them in the BFI, but in order that is more comfortable for us, as authors, to accurately describe the initiatives that we coordinated, rather than describe the initiatives in which we were least involved.
