Wemin at the 5th European Migration Forum
Maio 5, 2019
Women’s stories
Maio 21, 2019Migrant and Refugee Women restarting their lives in Athens (Greece) and participating in WEMIN empowerment and training cycles
The 1st empowerment cycle in Athens was completed on May 13th 2019. The sessions have taken place at a public primary school (104th School of Ampelokipi, Athens-Greece) during non-working hours, within the framework of the “Open Schools” activity of the Municipality of Athens. This is an initiative of “Stavros Niarchos Foundation” as founding donator, coordinated by Athens Partnership and supported by “John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation”. HOU-DAISSy Research Group and Olympic Training Ltd are thankful for this collaboration.
More specifically, the fourteen MRW who joined the empowerment sessions had the opportunity to become more aware and practice on how to set up and present themselves by giving key facts, how to track job advertisements by understanding the vocabulary used (in relation to occupations, skills, abilities and knowledge), so that they can figure out if the their own profile fits the ad descriptions. The emphasis was put on the creation of their CV using the Europass CV tool and the management of their professional dossier. In addition, the MRW focused on procedures for issuing and/or renewing important legal documents and gained knowledge on legal issues related to asylum, anti-discrimination and human rights. The sessions were developed in Greek, this way the MRW practiced speaking as well. The whole effort was successful taking into account that the MRW did not wish to end.
At the meantime, the second training cycle has been prepared and is expected to start within May 2019, in Athens. In parallel, the development of specific digital training material is undergoing – through a 2nd animation video that addresses the reproduction and the sexual health for MRW. It is a topic that was pinpointed to be of vital importance by the majority of MRW in Athens.
The MRW expressed very positive opinions on the WEMIN actions. Currently, they are also looking forward to the upcoming cultural workshops and are actively involved through a participatory process in the design phase. The first workshop is planned to be organized in June.
