European Young Women discuss what safety means to them
What does Safety means? And more precisely, what does it mean for young European women working or volunteering at the YWCA? Those were the questions that the participants at the European YWCAs Study Session, held April 11 to 18, 2010 in Budapest had to address. Facilitated by Marisa Ribordy, volunteer at the World YWCA in Geneva and member of the preparatory team of the Study Session, the session started with a creativity challenge as the participants had to draw their vision of safety. The drawings were then translated into words that were input on a brick wall, thus making a visual the participants could always refer to.
The session was articulated around workshops on safe sex, safe communities and safe spaces. The workshop on safe sex and condom programming was a great experience for the participants as most of them had never seen a female condom, or didn't dare to talk about the issue of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in their daily environments. As the participants were required to move from workshop to workshop using their creativity again and improvising dances and songs, the theme of “female condoms are great” soon filled the rooms of the European Youth Centre. The workshop on safe spaces referred to the definition of a safe space for the YWCA movement. Using, amongst other materials, the toolkit provided by the YWCA of Canada “Girl Space”, the participants had to reflect on how to create a safe space for women in their own YWCA, but also to assess the safety of their member associations at the moment. The workshop on safe communities had the young women sharing about their own experiences of violence and safety and come up with statements and suggestions on how to improve young women's safety in their communities.
The third day of the session was a busy day. Focusing on SRHR, HIV and Violence Against Women (VAW), the participants were invited to share what they knew about the three subjects and how each of them was linked to the other. The participants kicked off the session by positioning themselves on different statements that were enunciated to them, such as “It's ok to regularly refuse sex to your partner” or “Real men can always perform sexually speaking”. The young women had to position themselves using the room space and then explain why they had chosen such a position. They afterwards received a presentation on the linkages between SRHR, HIV and VAW, and the World YWCA Global Strategy on SRHR and HIV was introduced to them by course director Paola Salwan, followed by a browsing of the World YWCA website to help them identify what resources on these priorities they could find online.
The preparatory team had a big challenge in store for them as the young women were then asked to pick a topic relating to SRHR and to draft a mock proposal that they would submit to a donor, working in groups. The participants will on the last day of the study session will receive training on fundraising and the Power to Change Grant Mechanism, and will be asked to transpose their draft onto the Power to Change Fund Application Form, and to then give feedback on what they thought of the form in itself.
Despite the packed schedule, the vivid social activities and the almost constant attention that is asked from them, the European Young Women are living up to the challenges without a flicker of bad mood, and with a permanent joke on their lips, or smile on their face, making this event not only an outstanding professional experience, but also a fabulous human one.
Link:
European Young Women Learning and Sharing
European Young Women start off the 2010 Study Session, European Young Women Creating a Safe World
