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Alina Cuartas de Marchena

E-mail: info@trefcharlois.nl

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

PROJECT PROFILE

Socio-economic contexts

Charlois is a district within the municipality of Rotterdam. It is the home to 67000 inhabitants. The population is mixed, so are cultures. In Charlois, the percentage of inhabitants of ethnic minority background has raised form 38% to 49% between 1996 and 2002. In some parts of the districts, this proportion reaches 66%. The largest group is made up of people originating from Surinam (9,2%) and form Turkey (6,8%). The fastest growing community is the Antillean community (West Indies).

In the area within the District of Charlois where I work, which is called Pendrecht, the percentage of inhabitants on social benefits or unemployed is 11,7% inhabitant (Rotterdam average: 7,6 % and Charlois's average: 10%). 20% of people in the District of Charlois are children, 50% of whom are educated by their single mother*.

I have worked mostly in Pendrecht, one of Charlois's neighbourhoods built in the 1950's. The families that settled in at that time have grown old and little by little are moving to retirement homes. Nowadays, the remaining original inhabitants mostly white and in their seventies, live next to an increasing number of young families of ethnic minority backgrounds. Part of the neighbourhood is dilapidated; some of it is slowly being rebuilt.

In this neighbourhood - and in Charlois in general- there are big private corporations owing a lot of housing which is rented out. Market considerations guide housing restoration: some houses are renovated or rebuilt when the investment is believed to be compensated by higher rents. Actually, it seems to be the case that the neighbourhood where I work, Pendrecht is undergoing a transition towards attracting higher income people.

In the future, the area might become more mixed income-wise. The municipality, as well as the inhabitants, is looking forward to such a change. At the moment, incomes in the area are still quite low however with people who came in ten years ago: Turks and a big group of Antilleans (especially people coming from Curacao). These two groups are large, they have many children. Single mothers are common amongst the Antillean group.

Antilleans from Curacao are Dutch from the Dutch Antilles which is part of the Kingdom of Netherlands. This group of people hardly speaks Dutch, and many of them travel back and forth between Curacao and the Netherlands. Most of them hold low or no skill jobs, including in the informal sector.

* More information in Dutch about District Charlois is available on : http://www.charlois-welzijn.nl/,http://www.tarwewijk.nl/page.php http://www.wrr.nl/pdfdocumenten/V8.pdf

Project discriptions and objectives

I did two training courses for women in Pendrecht, with two groups of women made up of Antillean, Turkish, Algerian, Congolese, Eritrean, Cap Verdian and Chinese women. We tried to mix these women to get them involved. A selection criteria was that they wereable to write. The key issue was about empowering them; firstly by giving them tools to work together, in the community, and identifying each other's strengths.

These women had very low self esteem to start with. To raise their self-esteem also implied to help them identify what were their interests. We would then work to provide them with basic skills so that they could tap into the help that public services or the society provided for: we would teach them to use a phone book, enquire and use available social services, such as basic computer courses, language courses... The first goal was to help them help themselves.

My project did not provide computer courses but I could stimulate these women to look for that computer course which they identified and which they needed to follow.

Empowerment requires women to:

• Identify their own needs
• Identify their strengths and weaknesses: the women were so much better at identifying their weaknesses than they were about pointing to their strengths. Some women, I recall were single mothers who were looking after 5 children: they obviously had budget management and logistic skills.
• Use their strengths to promote their interest; and if they wanted to, to use their strength and contribute to the community.

The prime objective was to empower the women in my groups. And maybe get them involved in community work as volunteers if they were willing to (in schools or other community work).

My project was not employment related, but some women did move on to jobs, and couple of women decided to go back to school after the training (further Dutch classes, child caring courses, elderly care...).

In practice this is how it worked: we had a room where women would sit in circle looking towards each other. There was a course leader who would give individual or small group tasks.

It started with small assignments such as looking for a name in a telephone book. There were also communication exercises: I would tell a story and the task was to learn how to listen and how to respond. We would also sum up by name each other's weak points and strong points, which is an important empowerment exercise.

After that, women were charged with organising an event or a street party. The scope was to write down the logistics of organising such an event: they would have to think of each step, identify actions to be taken and think of solutions in case of problems. After that, they would start contacting people at the municipality to set up this event, preparing their questions in advance. They were very able to organise festive events based on cooking and eating, but we wanted them to do more, make them outreach and look out towards the community.

At the end of the course, women were asked to identify the progresses they had made, identify and name their objectives from then on. They were not used to think in terms of their own needs and development.

Results, evaluation and obstacles

Obstacles

1. The first obstacle was to recruit women: this can be a difficult step, and it is certainly challenging. I wanted to find women who met certain requirements and get them motivated enough to join in a first meeting. I wanted to reach women who were not involved in the community. I had to network, use contacts in the neighbourhood. In one of the groups, one woman brought her friends along (one of the reasons why this kind of project has to be longer than 10 weeks is also that the recruiting period can take a few weeks).

2. My two groups were financed from September for two weeks: I had to do the
recruitment in summer when many families are absent. This was a real challenge.

3. Finances are always a challenge, especially because I would have wanted a more intense/longer/durable/followed-up project. I would have liked to set durable contacts. This was however impossible due to the way funding works.

4. Child care issues were sometimes problematic but we managed to get around the problem quite easily.

Evaluation of results

The result that ought to be evaluated is the extent to which the project helped women be involved in the community, in a way or another. Some women became volunteer workers; some joined further training or schooling: this is how I evaluate results.

Of course, there is also a report, a paper for the funding organisation.

Resources (financial and human)

You need at least a good class room or training room, available on a regular basis.

You need a trainer who has skills in group work, some sense of how it is to work with different groups, and who has feeling towards different groups. In the Netherlands, this training skill is referred to as "intercultural communication".

In the Netherlands, the trend in policy is to encourage and fund "multiculturalism".

Mono-cultural or single community projects do not get funded. The scope is to form mix groups in order to be eligible for social municipality funds.

The project I presented is chaperoned by an NGO and subsidies come from the
municipality of Charlois. (funds for multicultural development). The project was at most 10 weeks. It is a good length. The courses were 3 hours sessions, once a week. But that is too little I think. I think some women do have time, and these women are very very motivated to learn, and to be occupied and to feel useful. One woman once said she had given birth to three children and now she wanted to become more learned, more informed. I think that many women would have been happy to meet twice a week for 20 weeks. It would be better.

Also, I think it was a pity that there was no follow up after that training but such are the limitations of funding!

Lessons learned

That once they are given the opportunity, women really do want to learn and want to give a contribution to the society.

I learnt that it is a lot of fun to work with these groups of women; it gives you the opportunity to rethink your own way of thinking .You learn a lot about yourself, and you learn how to use your language to be better understood by others.

I learnt that in many of these communities, women are binding cement that holds the community together.

Alison Reeves

E-mail: baobabloom@hotmail.com

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

PROJECT PROFILE

Socio-economic contexts

An inner city area of Birmingham called Newtown where a group called "CDG" meet on a Friday night and local young people come to drum and do poetry. The group is quite male orientated and majority is Caribbean.

In Birmingham, inner city area are inhabited mostly by ethnic minorities from African or Afro-Carribean descent, normally talked of as an "area of high deprivation" with quite a high crime rate. In Birmingham, inner city areas are normally more deprived than suburbs which are higher class.

Project discriptions and objectives

In Birmingham the Caribbean carnival has involved less and less people at a grassroots level since the city council took it over. We wanted to learn how to make carnival costumes so that we as a group could participate in the carnival. I was the project coordinator for this. Also the group is quite contained, for example it is mainly Caribbean and male participants who play leading roles.

The objectives were:

• For the women in the group to play a more active role.
• For CDG to widen their profile of activities from purely drumming and poetry to carnival involvement.
• For those involved to learn a high degree of carnival costume making skills that could open other opportunities.
• To bring together two communities of people, CDG and Martineau gardens volunteers who are mainly white people.

We worked with Mahogany Community Ventures from London ensuring a very high standard of skills was being learnt.

The workshops involved men, women and children, mainly women and children.

A small payment was made to participants enabling people to make the time to commit to the project. (£ 5 per hour). Hours were flexible so mothers could take part. You were paid for the time you came.

Children were actively involved, for example we took some of the designs from their drawings and they did more simple tasks like cutting out foam.

The workshops involved 2 groups who had not worked together before in order to provide a cultural exchange aspect and widen people's horizons and diverse experiences. The group went to London and took part in Nottinghill Carnival with Mahogany Carnival Club, and came second out of 80 clubs on the road. Everyone was very proud and amazed by the beautiful costumes we made utilising everyone's skills.

Results, evaluation and obstacles

Results evaluation
We made a DVD of the project which was The African Roots of Carnival.

Obstacles
The paid co-ordinator from CDG was not really able to do the job as he didn't have the experience of the carnival. I had to take on a lot of this role on a voluntary basis.

We found that other members of CDG were not really aware of why the project was happening and so they found it a bit threatening. This was solved by going to the drumming group, talking to more people and involving them in the project.

Resources (financial and human)

The project cost £ 5000 which was a Community Chest grant.

Lessons learned

People do not have to have already existing skills to take part in something like this, because carnival is so multi faceted something can be found for everyone. Mahogany were excellent facilitators in bringing the best out in each individual and involving the children too.

It is important to raise the aspiration of the group by doing challenging things
because there was a real sense of awe in what we had created. Mahogany were very good at stretching us in our abilities.

Bringing 2 groups of people together who wouldn't normally meet can be really great where it works. A lot of misconceptions about what white or black people are like were broken down as we worked together as a team. It helped to bring people out of their everyday routine and thus be a transforming experience on many levels.

Anneke de Goede

E-mail: anneke@adegoede.nl

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

PROJECT PROFILE

Socio-economic contexts

Charlois is a district within the municipality of Rotterdam. The population is mixed, so are cultures. If I recall well, there are 66 nationalities living in district Charlois. The women centre "Cleopatria" is frequented by women of 32 nationalities.

The percentage of inhabitants of ethnic minority background has raised form 38% to 49% between 1996 and 2002. In some parts of the districts, this proportion reaches 66%. The largest group is made up of people originating from Surinam (9,2%) and form Turkey (6,8%). The fastest growing community is the Antillean community (West Indies).

The district is quite poor, 10% of the population live off social benefits (about 6700 in 2002). 20% of people in Charlois are children 50% of whom are educated by their single mother.

Project discriptions and objectives

The project that I want to present is the Women Centres "Cleo-patria". The first thing I want to do is describe the centres: they are clean, colourful, neat.

The first step to develop a woman centre in an area is to look for women in that area, and ask them to help designing it. Neighbourhood women must have a sense of ownership towards the centre.

The second step is to find one woman who will be a host. In this centre, there are 70 volunteers. Everyone who volunteers in participating to the centre is accepted. Most people who frequent the centre can't read or write. Same goes for volunteers.

We don't look for education but skills, capacities building, in accordance to user's needs and requests.

Our main teaching activities revolve around:

• Dutch language courses and Dutch conversation courses
• Sewing
• Hosting skills: how to be a good host

For more information on the project (in Dutch) : http://www.pavem.nl/kcgs/show/id=169216/contentid=8348

It is voluntary workers who usually animate these courses, we try to work as little as possible with professionals. We only call onto professional teachers for short time courses or training. Because of policy constraints in the Netherlands, we are not allowed to hold mono-cultural activities with the funds we get for this women centre. The rationale behind this constraint is a better integration in society.

Take Charlois for example, it is a multicultural area; people from so many different ethnic origins live together. It is important that they learn to know each other. If you know each other, if you know each other's differences, you are better prepared to live together. If you know how a Turkish woman would react to some events, and if you understand, you are less likely to be irritated.

The objectives underlying the establishment and the activities of our women Centres are:

These objectives can be reached better if women from all nationalities meet each other. Actually in one of the centres, there is one group of elderly Jamaican women who have been meeting for so many years and in that case, they are more at ease going on with their weekly meeting.

Activities

The objectives laid down above are conveyed through all the activities organised by the centre. In line with the objective of participation, these activities are determined by women themselves. The first activity they usually ask for is Dutch lessons, the second is sewing. After that come: fitness, riding a bike, theatre, education and expression.

Organising such activities is never recreational only, there is always a balance between recreation and education: that is the scope of the women centres. And indeed, when women come to us they usually have very practical demands: they want to learn to communicate better and to sew, and gain mobility through riding! (You should know that riding a bike is a very popular means of transport in Rotterdam and in the Netherlands in general).

We create activity groups with those who want to participate: for example a group of 10 who want to sew, one of 20 for Dutch lessons, some Moroccan women may propose a Moroccan afternoon when they present Moroccan culture to the others. If a training course is highly requested and there is no volunteer who can teach that class, we may hire a professional trainer or teacher.

I think it is important for non-native women to seek for their own development, their place in the Dutch society. It is an inner development, an inner possession of themselves: becoming conscious of "who I am" and "what do I want". This is the beginning of empowerment.

Most women I meet do not have self-confidence. In my view, they need self confidence;and they should be more independent from their husbands, be able to take decisions. They should be able to tell their husbands that they want to go to school or to the centre. For me, it is important that women become stronger: that is emancipation.

And I do not think that this will necessarily destabilize their marriage or hurt the family balance. It is a step-by-step process.

It has been observed that women who come here to the centre are also less likely to go to the doctor. They say they are happier and look better after their children. The husbands notice that and hence this is also good for their marriage's equilibrium. When husbands come to ask what their wives do at the centre, we tell them!

In one of the centres, there is a husband group as well as a husbands and wives group. One of our core points for next year is domestic violence: doing work with the husbands and fathers, on the subject.

We talk amongst volunteers about how to reach men, husbands, in order to integrate better in the Dutch society. That is what women want: they want their husbands to know Dutch better so that their husbands can earn higher salaries. Take the case of a Turkish baker: he would be likely to be much better paid if he worked for a Dutch rather than a Turkish employer.

Women are women, with common expectations, that is the reason to build women centres. They all want a good future for their children, live in a safe area. That is what all the women long for, irrespective of origin.

After half a year of frequenting the centre, the women are more "self-conscious", more aware of who they are and what they want. This is the beginning of "empowerment".

Further to that, we encourage women to gain skills and get education. If they are up to it, we can pay tuition costs. We encourage women to contribute to the society, through volunteering in schools, for the area they live in, or work in public institutions.

We encourage them to contribute to one of our "businesses" or create their own small businesses in the catering industry or sewing traditional clothes for example, in order to earn a little extra money...

Cleo- Patria links women to all sorts of activities in the area and community. And some women are really enthusiastic about this step, that of gaining emancipation and independence. We really encourage women to move out of the women centre, to progressively gain confidence and get out in the community/society. We help women to find jobs. And we have good results!

All the volunteers who accept to teach or train others, receive a special training and receive a "training certificate" (opmaat in Dutch). This certificate is a professional asset if that person desires to become a trainer or a teacher later in life. Hence, we promote people who did not originally have any kind of formal skills to professionalism.

One of our successes is that women centres are considered safe places for women. And if you don't want to do something or participate, you may not do anything. You take a cup of tea, and then you go!

But most women who frequent the centre are longing for personal development. A kind of success is also that women work for other women. They do all this for themselves and
for each other.

Take the example of domestic violence. Most women do not talk about it. It is taboo. What we do is: we give them information. We do not talk of domestic violence itself: we rather talk of the rights and duties of women. We talk about domestic violence but we do not call the meeting explicitly that way. We do speak in small groups about real and practical problems, swearing confidentiality about what is said in the group. This confidentiality is always respected because speaking about such problems is a taboo. In such groups, women support each other. The aim is certainly not about women leaving their husbands or family, or encouraging them in this direction. Nor is our scope to send abused women to safe houses. The first step is to dare speak about it. Our aim was to solve or at least improve the situation. Our main goal is to limit the incidence of domestic violence. If they left their husbands, they would be very lonesome; this is not a solution. What we try to do during these meetings is to get the women to realise that they want to stop being the victims of domestic violence. This is quite an achievement for these women. The first one who have to say "stop" are the women, the mothers, themselves. After that, we can have discussions with the children and the fathers.

Our strategy is not only to change women, it is to improve society, through women. When women want to do specific activities with men, they can ask for them: but such activities must only be set up if women ask for them. For me, it is not only important that women participate, emancipate and integrate in the society; it is important that the whole society develops, women and men too.

All the women centres are very very successful. I think this success is linked to the bottom-up development approach, the day to day management of activities by the women themselves, the fact that all decisions are made by them, that all the voluntaries have a word to say, that every culture and nationality is respected.

Results, evaluation and obstacles

Obstacles

• We do not work in a traditional way. We are a threat to those who are traditional
  such as more formal organisations providing welfare. They are afraid of our
  success; they are afraid that the state would cut their funding because we reach
  better results;
• Finance is always a problem;
• Some communities, such as the Eritrean, have been more difficult to reach but now, we managed to reach some members of these communities so that it should become easier to link with them in time. This is a community that is very closed upon itself. This is not linked to the fact that they would have arrived more recently.. I do not know why.. Religion? Culture? In general however, outreaching towards new women is not an obstacle, really: word of mouth information travels very well.

Evaluation of results

Women decide which activities they want to hold on a weekly basis so that evaluation and satisfaction enquiries are an ongoing process built into the organisation of the centres. Every person who visits the centre is entitled to express wishes.Another evidence of our success are the following:

• We reach 800 women every week, of 30-40 nationalities;
• 200 women follow Dutch classes;
• 15 women are following education and are sponsored by us;
• Last year, 10 women entered formal employment.

We do ongoing evaluations with women every week in a meeting in each centre:we go over what we can improve and what went wrong.

Resources (financial and human)

Cleo-Patria has a board of 6 employees. Work in the centers is done by 40 volunteers. If we add to that number the women volunteers who have moved to doing volunteer work for public services such as schools and museums, our catering "business", the number raises to 55.

Our financial resources are provided by the municipality (also some Dutch courses are provided by the municipality). We also get funding from private sponsors and businesses as well as foundations.

The buildings, we all rent. We only get, on a temporary basis, to use rooms from the local building corporation. The local building corporations consider that it is a win-win situation for them to encourage women projects in the community because they contribute to raising the safety, quality of life and comfort to the neighbourhood.

Lessons learned

I learnt not to be afraid to let the others make their own mistakes.

I also learnt that women are more able than what they think. I am impressed by what they can do, by how strong they are. Women are very determined to develop themselves.

Working with all kind of people has enriched my personal life. The time I spent with people from all those different cultures has made me more aware of my own. I didn't think of it before. It is a very important lesson.

Another lesson is that what comes out in the media in the Netherlands is that we are afraid of other cultures, but when you work with other cultures, you enrich yourself.

Through reaching the women, you reach the whole family. After all, it is them who educate their children, the girls and boys of the next generation. Women can do so many things; when you reach them, the whole area changes. I am very impressed.

Several years ago, I though that Turkish women were not educated, that they were dumb. I did not understand why they did not speak Dutch. Now I understand the loneliness. The Dutch society did not understand the loneliness of all these women who raised their children, most of whom are integrated and employed. After 30 years, they are criticized by the Dutch government. I however believe that these women have done a great job for the Dutch society.

Every body has qualities that can be used for other people and society.

Antonio La Banca

E-mail: Ass_GenitoriOggi@libero.it

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

PROJECT PROFILE

Socio-economic contexts

The area where the association "Genitori Oggi" meaning "Parents Today" in Italian, is a problematic area called Porta Palazzo. It is right in the city centre of Torino, in the North of Italy.

These areas are inner suburbs, characterized by a high concentration of social exclusion and conflicts due to the poorness and cohabitation of different communities and cultures.

It's an area home to a large proportion of immigrants. The percentage of foreign-origin children in the 4 schools which the association works in is 80%. These children come from 32 different countries, but they are mostly Maghrebans and Rumanians. This makes up a particularly delicate situation with potentially a high risk of clashes. This situation isn't being looked at with the necessary attention by school institutions. On top of that, school institutions lack specific competences to deal with this particular context.

When problematic cases started to explode, the association's members-to-be interceded as informal conciliators to help resolve the conflict. This is, in a few words the context in which the association was born in 2003.

Project discriptions and objectives

Antonio La Banca is the president of a schools' parents association which was set up about 2 years ago (in 2003). The organisation aimed to organize formally a number of actions already taken informally by some parents. At that time, a group of parents organized themselves to form an electoral list with a clear programme with the scope of presenting themselves in the school board's elections. The main points of this programme were: improvement of the full-time school system and courses, improvement of after-hours training courses on offer, and integration.

The main purposes of the association are: to improve the relationship between school and families, to point out families' needs and give answers through self-help actions.

Amongst the actions undertaken by the association, the first one is to provide better and more in-depth information, hence tackle the lack of information which many parents suffer.

Another objective is to promote self-reciprocal help between parents, for example about children transport, or meetings to exchange ideas and discuss education matters.

Integration is a priority theme as well: the association tries to promote activities allowing to discover the different cultures and traditions represented at school, in order to overcome prejudices through mutual comprehension.

Moreover, an activity focusing specifically at immigrant parents is foreseen: meeting foreign parents to explain what their children learn at school and how. This is obviously a way for the parents to learn, at the same time.

The association proposes also that a foreign parent representative participate in the school management: this proposal came out as it appeared clearly that it would lead foreign parents to give a constructive contribution to the school management board, and not only pressing claims.

Some other activities are organised for the children, such as extra-curriculum karate and modern dance courses. These courses are given by parents.

Results, evaluation and obstacles

The expectation at the beginning was to create a sort of "parents' club", with plenty of activities not necessarily strictly connected to the school. But for the development of such an ambitious idea, great investment in time and care is necessary, while it seems that school is not considered a priority for the majority of parents.

In fact, the hardest obstacle encountered is the majority of parents' state of mind. Most of them consider themselves just as school users, and not part of the school community.

Also, involving mothers of foreign origin has been a challenge.

I am personally convinced that the integration between different cultures passes among relationships between women, because they are the most involved persons in the care of children. They have more occasions to meet each other in accompanying their children to school, in waiting for them at the exit when they come out from school. Meeting in the school when preparation of sweets and other dishes is required are very important to overcome diffidence and learning about each other's habits and customs.

But this natural stream of informal meetings must be coupled, with a "cultural"
education in the host country about differences and about social organisations.

As women are actors of "meeting" and "getting-together", they are also actors of conflicts. These conflicts may stem as mothers defend their own children from aggressions by other students. I can think of one example of a conflict situation that came up when a certain number of parents had judged that the Nigerian mother of a pupil was a prostitute.

In periods of "crisis", it is easy that we see groups of mothers based on ethnic affinities. This can be based on the fact that these mothers share particular customs for example. That is why I think that this natural stream of informal meetings should be coupled with an effort to encourage cultural education about differences, to encourage meetings across groups.

Another obstacle is that the association has to face the school system's inertia and resistance as well, as its administration is not open enough to receive proposals from non-professional sources.

Last but not least, there are big difficulties in finding human and financial resources.In spite of these difficulties, the association has obtained growing credibility and authoritativeness.

Resources (financial and human)

The human resources are limited to the voluntary parents' contributions.

The association can use some school spaces, but they are available only before 6 pm, and this doesn't match very well the parents' availabilities, who are often free only after work.

At financial level, the only resources are the subscription fees, 10 € per person (50 people are currently members of the association).

Most people in the association are mothers. We sustained and obtained election - during year 2004 - of a mother as president of the Consiglio di Circolo (School Council), an institution stated by Law. This woman is the "Secretary" of our Association.

It is not secondary evidence that most of the teachers at level of basic school (maternal and elementary) in Italy are women, so that the role that they could play is particularly directed to the relations with mothers than with fathers of their groups.

Another resource is missing, but it would be extremely useful: that is a reference person, maybe an educator, a psychologist or a social assistant, permanently present at school.

Its function would be link the school with the families, developing a relationship network. It would be easier and more efficient to organise the parents' voluntary work around this reference person.

Lessons learned

Thanks to the contact with "The Gate" and the project "Latent Potential", there's a growing awareness of the importance of the women's role.

The role of women is central in the actions undertaken and foreseen.

Given the fact that mothers, especially for the foreign families, are more present in relation to children and school, the actions of the association (for example the courses for parents) should concern mostly women.

Furthermore, the courses for the children are held by women, who are protagonist in these spaces.

Finally, resulting from recent reflections, it is foreseen to set up an exchange meeting to bring out female sensibility on the core issues dear to the parents' association: learning, training and integration.

Dipana Patel

E-mail: dpatel@northamptonshire.gov.uk

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

PROJECT PROFILE

Socio-economic contexts

The County of Northamptonshire is situated south East of Birmingham, it is characterized by pockets of wealth and pockets of great poverty. The global representation of ethnic minorities in the County is 10%, mostly concentrated in the city of Northampton. Traditionally, the County's economy was dominated by manufacturing.

I am going to present my personal experience and involvement in a voluntary capacity in the Racial Equality Council (an organization run by voluntaries) in order to illustrate how every one has this potential and can contribute to improve equality in our society, despite the challenges.

I was born in Uganda where my father was a respected man: he was involved in the community and made people from various ethnic backgrounds work together. When Uganda gained independence, we had to leave and my family lost everything. My father lost everything as an immigrant in the United Kingdom, except his experience, his will. He never gave up of what he knew was right and this is reflected in how I approach life.

As a child here, I suffered extreme forms of racism, at school and outside school, part of which I thought could have been challenged, had I been a boy. This is the context on which I built my involvement in the Racial Equality Council.

Project discriptions and objectives

I joined the Wellingborough Racial Equality Council (an organization run by voluntaries). Information on the Wellingborough Racial Equality Council can be found on the internet: http://www.northamptonshirerec.org.uk. The Northamptonshire REC's vision is to challenge and eradicate racial discrimination (both personal and institutional) and racial prejudice or hostility in all its forms; so that all Northamptonshire's diverse communities and citizens can enjoy peace, achieve their full potential and live free from injustice. The Council aims for a socially cohesive society in which diversity is recognized, celebrated
and valued.

The aims are to:

• Assist and support individuals and groups who have suffered racial discrimination, harassment or injustice
• Campaign and develop strategies to influence public opinion, legislation, practices and procedures to tackle racial inequality and discrimination and to promote social and community cohesion
• Work closely with black and ethnic minority communities to enable them to develop their own organizations and strengths
• Work in partnership with others - other Racial Equality Councils (regionally and nationally), the Commission for Racial Equality, voluntary organizations, local authorities and public bodies in the achievement of the REC's objectives and realize its vision

The Council was mixed ethnically, there were a couple of Asians, but they were mostly men. There were only a few women, white. I joined because that experience of being a female subject to racism. I wanted to fight back with politics. I noticed that I was young, I was a woman and I had experienced racism personally.

My first objective was tackling racial discrimination, but within that, there was a gender challenge too. I wanted to make sure that within the management operations of the Council, a male dominated field, the voice of women was heard.

I wanted:

• Equal representation
• Getting the voice of women heard so as to affect positively the way in which the organization operates
• Making sure that the organization worked efficiently so that people who needed support would get it

To do that I started getting involved in every activity within the organization, even if I did not understand: I went to meetings, read etc. I wanted to understand why this organization was'’t there when I needed it and wanted
to challenge its rigidity. I think I didn't know about that organization at school and my school didn't take its responsibilities.

The best thing I had was innocence, and I was never afraid to ask questions. Innocent questions catch people out. With time I got to understand the management of that organization. I thought it needed to redirect its options.
Hence I became a Committee Member, one of the youngest.

Most Committee members had a day time job. They were in the situation I am in now. But that was fifteen years ago. When I saw the Committee working, I realized that it needed different operating mode, because it wasn't doing well. It wasn't focusing of existing issues. It dealt with victims of racial discrimination, immigration case-work, legal advice, communication about immigration, employment, training, politics, lobbying, things about communication, letting people know their rights.

The organisation pretended to do many things with a too little budget. We knew what the issues were, we knew what we wanted to improve, we knew that we could not change it all over-night and we knew we needed to have money to do some of the work. The organization needed focus again. The focus we gave it was: education and social care.

In the organization, we looked at how they communicated with schools: how teachers taught race education, how to ensure that people felt at ease reporting race bullying. One of the major obstacles we faced was people not recognizing the issues of race and gender discrimination: people with power, teachers, police, parents groups…

I went to schools, talked with children, and explained the bullying that I faced, for me as a woman, it gave me power. I could address my own fears. Being involved in all these stages gave me training and experience to use in my career. We have so many skills which we can adapt. Women are much more flexible.

When there was an opportunity to do something different, I wanted to be part of it: take part, join training sessions.

I was a Committee Member now, the only ways to reorganize the organisation and steer it in a new direction was being a Senior Member within the Committee (I did not want to become a chairperson because I am not so good at money).

I asked if I could be vice-chairman and so it happened. Over the years, I had good experience to replace the chair. I also gained my own confidence as a person.

Results, evaluation and obstacles

During the course of this trajectory, there were no visible obstacles: the organization allowed anyone to join in; however, it happened that members were mostly male and their say was predominant. So there were challenges indeed.

I had the time, and I was not scared to ask simple questions such as: How did you spend that money? How do you know the money we give out reaches the right people? Why is it me who makes tea and coffee?

The keys to success are patience, thorough understanding and seeing what is being achieved. Seeing is believing: where I see something, I believe it; if you treat me equally, I believe in equality.

My way as a chair was making sure everyone was involved and making sure that
practically, women could take part in meetings (because the Committee would pay the babysitter for example).

I became chair of the organization. Once I got there we knew we had to rethink goals. I was certain that we weren't doing things for free. We needed to be paid. We needed financial resources.

The Council, for example, would pay for external trainers. We decided to work at top level. We couldn't address single schools directly and needed to go through the school authority. We were able to do that using the legal framework. You have to use what you have got. That was our weapon and that was rewarding too.

At that time, I was single, only after fifteen years I had my family and decided to take a year off. Now, I've gone back to the organization as a committee member. The organization has spread to county level.

Whoever you are, you have something to contribute!

As chairman, I made a memorial to the victims of the holocaust in Wellingborough, and launched ceremonies. People did not want to take part because people were afraid. They do not understand the whole picture; they do not understand the holocaust, the genocide. Now it has become part of education.

Resources (financial and human)

More information about the Race Equality Council can be found on:
http://www.northamptonshirerec.org.uk

Regarding my personal experience, I think that the keys to success are patience, thorough understanding and seeing what is being achieved.

Lessons learned

Society needs immigrants, black women, to stand out. You have to believe in
yourself. It is the most powerful belief you can have. Be prepared to speak, show your actions.

Never say no to a challenge: if you do you fail before trying. If you fail after trying, you can learn at least.

I learnt to just accept that some people you are never going to change. Then you learn to work around them: if these people don't accept what is changing and improving in society, it is their loss, certainly not ours.

Continuously ask questions; never be afraid to ask naive questions to achieve thorough understanding.

Never say no to a challenge, that is how one learns.

The keys to achieve a fairer and better society are determination, patience, thorough understanding and seeing with your eyes what is being achieved, going to see, on the grounds, what happens: don't believe things have changed until you see they have. I can only be satisfied that actions have been successful if I see the result: only if you treat me equally, I believe in equality.

These business men, they don't build their job overnight! It takes time. Same as with raising a family. It takes time.

Felisa Velasco

E-mail:

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

PROJECT PROFILE

Socio-economic contexts

Castilla-La Mancha is one of the least populated region in Spain, with a surface of 80000 squared Km and just 1800000 inhabitants: 908125, a bit more than half of them, arewomen, while 20% of the population is older than 65, and 24% is composed of women older than 65.

This ageing process of the population is due to migration during the last century which produced a massive depopulating dynamic, but in the last 10 years we can see a trend reversal due to an immigration which has corrected the previous migration movements.

Castilla-La mancha is composed of 919 municipalities, but nearly all of them live in very small villages, just 59 of them have more than 5000 inhabitants. As many as 800 municipalities are less populated than 3000 inhabitants, and 9,8% of the population live in villages with less than 1000 persons. 4 persons out of 10 live in towns with less than 5000 inhabitants. So the population is very spread out in little villages in the middle of a very extended area (this is the third most extended region in Spain). The borders of this region are the Autonomous Community of Madrid, in the north, Andalucia in the south, and Estremadura and Portugal in the east side.

Historically, Castilla was a region forgotten and left behind by governments and kings, but since democracy and the entry in the E.U. it has known an incredible development, which in 25 years has completely changed its look and its deeper social and economic structure. From being mainly based on agriculture, its economy has become now service-oriented, even though still 10% of the active population is employed in agriculture.

A heritage from the past is the heavy unemployment rate affecting women three times more than men: in the fourth term of 2004 the males’ unemployment rate was 5,66% on the active population, versus the 16,90 of the women's one; the rate of the males' employment gets up to 66,53%, while the women's is stuck at 36,38%.

But this is just a synchronic picture, which does not register a dynamic movement, changes and improvements; we can say that women are integrating in the professional life more and more in the region: in four years (2001-2004) the women’s employment rate had an increase of 5,5%, and in 2004 3 new jobs created out of 4 were taken by women. This is due to the new positive discrimination policies carried out by the regional government, and the new attention developed since the 90’s to the issue of a higher women's participation.

Toledo is the Capital City of the autonomous Region Castilla- La Mancha: in this system based on devolution of powers the governement here lies in the "Junta de Comunidades" of Castilla la Mancha. This institution comprises a Women Institute and a Project for Equality, which affects and concerns all of us at a regional level.

You can also check for reference the web page of the Junta www.jccm.es. The
Province Council ("Diputacion") does not have any specific programme concerning gender equality and women, even though many people in charge of policies and programmes are gender focused.

Project discriptions and objectives

Key issues and problems to be addressed

I am married, mother of three children, and have been have been contributing actively to society since 20 years, taking into consideration either my professional activity out of my family environment, and my family tasks.

I have been working for 12 years in different primary schools in the Province of Toledo, fighting actively for the gender equality and recognition of the women rights in the labour market and in a professional frame: equality towards the pupils, equality in the decision making process, equality in the appointing process of managing positions with a certain degree.

I give contributions and I participate to seminars and workshops of Co-education and equality.

As Consultant in Psycho-Pedagogic Orientation in Institutes of Secundary Education, I keep the same attitude and the same focus in carrying out my activity and targeting my purposes, taking into account that the social and cultural context where my action takes place are villages with 1000 to 10000 inhabitants, in rural areas, where the gender differences are stronger, as in the pupils mentality as well as in the teachers'.

For two years I have been taking a political commitment and working as town councillor at the Toledo City Council, for the Socialist Party group, in the opposition, and at the same time as a member of the Province of Toledo Council for the matters concerning assistance to Municipalities and training.

The province Council is an institution established by the new Constitution of 1978, whose purpose is the organization of the Province of Toledo, comprising 200 municipalities of different size and with different needs. The Province Council is in charge of balancing the diffences between the municipalities, in the name of the principle of solidarity, it is in charge of giving technical, economic and legal support to them as well as training courses not only to its own workers but also to people working for the City Councils of the Province.

Objectives delivered and actions taken

In September 2004 I was invited by the FEMP-CLM (Federation of Municipalities of Castilla-La Mancha) to participate to a workshop of the Latent Potential Programme, taking place in Belfast. More concretely I participated to a Peer Review: during the different sessions we got to know the issues affecting the Belfast environment and two concrete experiences. We analysed phenomenons of social destructuring because of political and religious conflicts, and the need of basic welfare services for a better childhood care. In the social setting where I come from there were no social issues like that, but nowadays we assist to new social problems related to the childhood care and education, notably referred to the immigrant population, a very recent issue in Toledo.

Analysing the projects carried out in Belfast, results and objectives we got several suggestions on how to act in our situation, and progress in the future also concerning the social and professional involvement of women as for controlling and implementing the programmes.

Results, evaluation and obstacles

Being a Member of the Province of Toledo Council I participate to the political
decision making process: in my area of expertise and interest, ie. assistance to
Municipalities and Education, positive discrimination policies are not carried out
concerning gender equality matters.

Discrimination against women exists, but not at the level of the Province Local
Government and in professional terms: the access to working positions is equal
for men and women, as well as salaries and working conditions.

The obstacles and real discrimination lies in the cultural and social system based on domestic work for women, which is now a second activity for every working woman. But specific projects have not been launched, and it is very difficult to change mentalities and deep social structure with political means.

Lessons learned

The lessons I could learn from this experience are several, and can be summed up this way:

• When you face concrete needs, you have to look absolutely for solutions, and make many efforts to sort something out;
• Working in a public position, and having taken a political commitment, there is the absolute need of listening to citizens, in order to try, from the positions you have in public institution, to solve the basic problems of society.
• The Belfast project is meeting its inhabitants' concrete needs. I will have to make sure that when I advise policy changes, I am meeting the real needs of people.

This project itself cannot be transferred and applied to my local situation, as the issues focused are not the same: but the rules, and the methodology, of implementation are the same: identifying needs, trying to meet them in the short, medium and long term, involving the social actors in the process of finding solutions, and controlling and accompanying the process.

E-mail:

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

PROJECT PROFILE

Socio-economic contexts

Project discriptions and objectives

Results, evaluation and obstacles

Resources (financial and human)

Lessons learned

E-mail:

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

PROJECT PROFILE

Socio-economic contexts

Project discriptions and objectives

Results, evaluation and obstacles

Resources (financial and human)

Lessons learned

E-mail:

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

PROJECT PROFILE

Socio-economic contexts

Project discriptions and objectives

Results, evaluation and obstacles

Resources (financial and human)

Lessons learned

E-mail:

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

PROJECT PROFILE

Socio-economic contexts

Project discriptions and objectives

Results, evaluation and obstacles

Resources (financial and human)

Lessons learned

RUBIO ROJO Jose Luis

Contact Details

Organisation Federacion de Municipios y Provincias de Castilla-La Mancha
Position Technical Coordinator – Urban Project

Plaza Ayuntamiento
45002 Toledo, Spain

Tel. +34 925 26 97 60
Fax +34 925 24 57 16
E-mail Progcom1@ayto-toledo.org

Participates: Steering Group Meetings

MOYA OCANYA Isabel

Contact Details

Organisation: Institute of the Woman of Castilla la Mancha
Position

Tel: +34 925 286010
Fax: +34 925 286016
E-mail:imoya@jccm.es

Work
I am the director of the Institute of the Woman of Castilla la Mancha. The Institute is an independent body of the Government of Castilla la Mancha in charge of implementing and coordinating appropriate policies on gender euqality as set out in the Regional Government action plan.

A high-priority objective is to encourage the participation of the women in the social life, policy making, the labour market, etc. and the Institute particularly supports the promotion of women in senior positions. The Institute has 78 Women Centers in the region of Castilla la Mancha. These Centers have 5 professionals each dealing with legal, psychological and work related issues. They provides advice, information and training for women from all walks of life. Additionally, the Institute of the Woman implements specific programs to achieve the government's objectives as concerns participation and political leadership.

Interests
The conciliation between labour and family life continues to be a great obstacle for women to become more actively engaged in politics or senior positions. Social prejudices and stereotypes still exist and stop women from getting more actively involved. I am interested to learn how other European organisations and Women Institutes deal with these problems.

Participates: Belfast PREW

DIAZ CACHO Luiz

Contact Details

Organisation: SEPECAM
Position

Tel: +34 925 265689
Fax: +34 925 286982
E-mail: luisd@jccm.es

Work
I am the director of the Directorate of Public Use of Services of Use for the region of Castilla la Mancha. I have the following responsibilities:
* Coordinating Local Area Development for the City Council of Solana
* Manager of the Mancomunidad (Associations of Municipalities) of La Mancha
* President of the Association of Professionals for the Local Development and the Economic Promotion of Castilla la Mancha (APRODEL)
* President of the National Federation of Professionals of Local Development (FEPRODEL)

I have been working on a 'Plan for Woman' to facilitate their access to the labour market in Castilla la Mancha. This plan incorporates a cross-sectional commitment to ensure an increase in employment of women of up to 65% for 2007.

Interests
I would like to learn from experiences of other regions and municipalities in the EU and see how they have dealt with the issue of high women unemployment.

Participates: Turin PREW

HIDALGO SANCHEZ Pilar

Contact Details

Organisation
Position

Tel:+34 687/767937
Fax
E-mail phidalgos@jccm.es

Work
Councillor for Women Affairs for the City Council of Bargas.

At political level I must often make decisions since the councilwoman position demands it. Although the great decisions always are taken altogether with the government team. The individual decisions usually are on personall subjects, or with respect to the organization of activitie.

In your experience please outline what have been good ways of involving women in decision making.

The best way to involve women in the decision making is through the associations of women, speaking with them, organizing to chair them, participating in courses and getting relevant information

What do you feel are the major obstacles facing women in becoming more involved in decision making.

At times women lack the right kind of information to participate in all sectors of life. They are also less confident and fear to take up too many responsibilities because of their private lives.

Participates: Belfast PREW

GARCIA ALISES Lidia

Contact Details

Organisation
Position

Tel: 00 34 925 254 927
Fax: 00 34 925 226 148
E-mail lidia@fempclm.com

Work
I am working as the European Programmes Coordinator for the Federation of Provinces and Municipalities of Castilla la Mancha.

Please outline your experience in participating in decision making in the political, social, economic or cultural fields. (Please provide details of your role)
My experience has been mainly in the direct work with women through the active participation in associations of women, as well as taking part in the active work with them in another type of organizations.

What usually happens is that women participatein work but they are the minority in the decision making positions. This is not due to a less qualification or preparation but due to our patriarchal society. We must get rid of this mentality so that women can more actively participate in all areas of life, just like men, without problems as exist now.

In your experience please outline what have been good ways of involving women in decision making.

- Political nationals, regional and local organisations opened to the participation of the women.
- To try to break down all forms of stereotypes from public organizations.
- To open up participation of the women in all sectors of public life through workshops and training events.
- To change the image of the women through mass media.

What do you feel are the major obstacles facing women in becoming more involved in decision making.
The biggest obstacle is usually to find a solution to the conciliation of the professional and familiar life. Nowadays this is still seen as a problem of women even though it is a social problem. We need to try and change stereotypes!.

In addition also it is important to spread a new image of the women in the decision making positions, so that they serve as example for many other women.

Participates: Northampton PREW

DE LOS REYES Maria Jose

Contact Details

Organisation  Federacion de Municipios y Porvincias de Castilla la Mancha
Position        Technical Programs

Tel. +34 925 254 927
Fax +34 925 226 148
E-mail latentpotential@fempclm.com

Work

• Coordinating women working in Public Administration
• Managing a firm run only by women
• Work in industry Regional Government giving fund and support to firms run by women

Interests

To exchange information about politics of supporting and encouraging women’s employment and gender equality

Participates: Belfast PREW

VELASCO ROBLES Felisa

Contact Details

Organisation  City Council of Toledo
Position        Counsellor

Tel. +34 925 25.93.16
Fax +34 925 925.216.916

Work
Counsellor of the Toledo City Council as well as Provincial deputy.

I am responsible for departement dealing with the human resources and training of municipal workers as well as employees of the provincal institutions. Prior to my political work, my professional qualifications lie in the field of education (orientation psycho-pedagogic).

Interests
Iam interested to learn from other experiences on how to improve women's self-esteem and how to reconcile their professional and private lives.

Participates in:

Participates: Belfast PREW

SANCHEZ VILLAR Maribel

Contact Details

Tel. +34 926.25.20.45
Fax +34 926.22.67.29
E-mail alfonsoxelsabio@teleline.es

Work:
I am the President of the Regional Confederation of Associations of Parents and Mothers of Students in Castilla la Mancha.

I have been working for 20 years to raise awareness amongst families and society at large of the importance of participation in political, social and cultural life, and in particularly in education.

In your experience please outline what have been good ways of involving women in decision making.

 Organising informative 'events of participation' (Conferences, Open Days etc) in which women participate and voice their opinion.

What do you feel are the major obstacles facing women in becoming more involved in decision making.
The fact that women have women have double responsibilities, i.e. they have to take care of the house and children and at the same time many women have full time jobs. Because of the amount of work and lack of time they can not fully participate in society or reach important positions.

Participates in: Turin PREW

ROJAS MARTIN Melisa

Contact Details

Tel. +34 925 29 22 51
Fax +34 925 29 20 13
E-mail: mrmpulgar@hotmail.com

Work:
I am the Major of the City of Pulgar ( Toledo ).

Please outline your experience in participating in decision making in the political, social, economic or cultural fields. (Please provide details of your role)
Due to my job as mayor I participate in various fields concerning the daily life of citizens of the City of Pulgar.

In your experience please outline what have been good ways of involving women in decision making.
From my own experience of two years in the City council, I know that it is diffult to get women involved in the decision making process. Many women, especially those who live in the countryside are not even aware that they can participate in politics and express their views and wishes.

What do you feel are the major obstacles facing women in becoming more involved in decision making.
Personally I think there is a lot of talk about fighting for equality but very little is done in practice. I am not talking about the political or administrative sphere but rather about society at large and I believe that one of the main obstacles to the participation of the women are women themselves. It is difficult to find women who like to assume directive positions of associations or in politics.

Woman are reluctant to assume responsibility for positions which imply that they might be 'valued' or critised by others. I fear that women are not excluded by the society but that the 'auto-exclude' themselves.

Participates in: Belfast PREW