The Asian Women in Co-operative Development Forum (AWCF) participated in the recently concluded Asia Source II held at Yawitra Resort, Sukabumi, Indonesia from 22-30 January 2007. From among its several nominees, five were selected namely Ms Wandee Panyavannasiri, IT Coordinator of the Credit Union League of Thailand (CULT), Mr. Yohannes Agusnugroho, IT Coordinator of the Forum for Indonesian Co-operatives Movement (FORMASI), Ms Sari Hidayati, Vice-Supervisor and Trainer at Indonesia’s Melati Credit Union, Ms Evangeline Lopez, Gender Program Officer of the Philippines’ National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO), and Ms Evelyn dela Cruz-Villaflor, Technical Staff of AWCF.

They are part of the 130 delegates from 27 countries from South and Southeast Asia who attended this nine-day Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) technology camp intended for IT professionals from non-government organizations (NGOs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as a means of promoting the use of FOSS for social and economic development and to build a network of FOSS practitioners and trainers in Asia. Bearing this in mind, AWCF took part in this activity mainly to expose AWCF it@coops partners to activities that make ICT more understandable and accessible to co-ops and also as a means of promoting FOSS as an alternative software program.

This activity was made possible through a consortium of nine organizations namely International Open Source Network (IOSN), InWEnt - Capacity Building International, Germany, Tactical Technology Collective, ICT Watch, Yayasan AirPutih, and Aspiration Technology as technology camp organizers while funding support came from Hivos, APDIP-UNDP, and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ).