Si Jeunesse Savait (SJS)

Si Jeunesse Savait (SJS, “If Young Women Knew” in french) is a feminist group formed in 2001 and based in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It has representation in three provinces of eastern Congo. SJS builds the leadership skills of young women in sexual and reproductive rights, information and communication technologies and entrepreneurship. SJS has 115 members and more than 2000 supporters around Congo. They are involved in advocacyⁱ work for a national ICT policyⁱ plan for DRC and are also active in research and studies to make sure that gender ⁱis at the center of this ICTⁱ policy plan. The group also does crosscutting advocacy with other ministries such as education, gender and justice to see a clear plan to train women and girls in ICT and to have a VAW plan that addresses violence in the manner in which it has intersectionalities with ICT.

Si Jeunesse Savait is a national country partner in the “MDG3: Take Back The Tech!ⁱ to end violence against womenⁱ” project. This is being implemented by the Association for Progressive Communicationsⁱ Women’s Networkingⁱ Support Programme and it's partners in 12 countries from África, Latin América and Asia, supported by the MDG3ⁱ Fund. In the context of this project, thee partners have worked on national ICT policy and advocacy, conducted national strategy meetings, localized the Take Back the Tech! campaign, organized training events called Feminist Tech Exchanges, developed issue papers on violence against women and ICTs, and distributed small grants for projects that use ICT to address or prevent violence against women.