| Empowerment projects focusing on gender issues |
Projects |
Open Doors: Project in Azerbajdzjan 2011-2014
2011-12-16
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| Suheyla, Rena and Ulrika in discussion about women's roles in Azerbaijan and about the nordic Gilr and Boy group method. |
The Peace Institute’s first long-term project with Yuva, a women’s organization in Baku/Azerbaijan, officially started on October 1, 2011. Yuva is, just as the Peace Institute, a non-profit, non-governmental organization that promotes the rights of women and the participation of women in decision-making process on all levels of society. The project centers around the Nordic Girl group method which shall now be introduced also in Azerbaijan. The Peace Institute will support Yuva in establishing a girl club in one of Baku’s most disadvantaged districts, where Yuva will offer meaningful after-school activities with a feminist perspective. The Girl Group method will be part of the activities offered, as well as IT and English courses, which right now are extremely popular among the youth of Azerbaijan.
The project is financed by the Ministry for For
eign Affairs of Finland and Emmaus Åland.
Empowerment in Lithuania and Russia 2010-2011
2010-09-01
Since 2010 the Åland Islands Peace Institute has been participating in a tripartite cooperation project “Overcoming Gender Disparities as a Tool for Social Change” together with the Lithuanian partner organisation Nendre and the NGO Zvezda Nadezhdy (“The Star of Hope”) in the Kaliningrad region (Russia). The project results are monitored and analysed by a researcher from the Karelian Center for Gender Studies.
The overall goal of the project is to introduce a new empowerment approach for working with both sexes inspired by the Nordic girl and boy group method. The method, which is based on a group discussion, involves representatives of both sexes and aims at promoting gender equality and increasing the wellbeing of both women and men, including adults and teenagers. The group members are provided with a forum to reflect on the traditional gender norms and gender based expectations and how they influence their attitudes, relationships and actions. The group leaders were trained in autumn 2010 in Vilnius. All in all, the project involves 40 men, 40 women and 100 teenagers in Lithuania and the Kaliningrad region.
The project is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and Emmaus Åland.
Empowerment in Latvia and on Åland 2009-2011
2009-09-01
Challenging Gender roles for Prevention of Trafficking is a joint Åland-Latvian project aiming at combating stereotypical gender perceptions at a grass-root level in order to undermine conditions for development of gender related violence, human trafficking and sexual slavery.
The project is focusing on preventive work through empowerment of young girls and boys. The girl and boy group method is a Nordic model of direct work with young people aiming at strenghtening individuals, enhancing the participants' possibilities to become active citizens and at the same time questioning prevailing gender stereotypes in order to achieve greater gender equality and a non-discriminatory setting for individual development.
The Project is carried out by the Åland Islands Peace Institute, Åland, Finland, and the Resource Center for Women, Marta, Riga, Latvia from October 2009 until December 2011. The Project is financed within the framework of the INTERREG IV Programme of the European Regional Development Fund. National co-financing is kindly provided by the Government of Åland.
The home page of the project can be found here.
Girl Power in Lithuania
2009-09-01
During the period 2004-2009, the Åland Islands Peace Institute participated as a partner in the project "Girl Power in Lithuania", implemented by the Missing Persons' Families Support Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. The project, which is still running, focuses primarily on strengthening the girls' self-esteem and self-awareness and providing them with tools for formulating their own opinions, developing their individual skills and reflecting on the society from a gender perspective. The target group are girls from socially vulnerable families who are at risk of becoming victims of trafficking. Many of the girls are selected from high schools and raised by single and marginalized mothers, alcoholic parents or brought up in institutions. Even girls who have suffered from sexual slavery and returned back to Lithuania have the chance to join the girl group activities. In 2010 the project received a new name, "Girl and Boy Power in Lithuania", in connection with the plans to educate boy group leaders and to launch boy groups with a gender perspective.
Nendre – Lessons Learned
2009-09-01
In 2005-2009 the Åland Islands Peace Institute was running the project "Nendre – Lessons Learned " in cooperation with the Center for Women and Children Nendre in Vilnius, Lithuania. The project, which was funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and Emmaus Åland, aimed to share Nendre’s experiences of social work among marginalized social groups to organizations in the Kaliningrad region and Belarus. Another goal was to start similar initiatives in the partner countries, focusing on democracy and equal participation as a basis for a change on the individual as well as the societal level.
As a result of the project, several partner organizations have started their own social initiatives, which continue to a varying extent even after the end of the project term. The NGO Zvezda Nadezhdy (“The Star of Hope”) in Kaliningrad has chosen underage pregnant girls as its target group. Through counseling and guidance the young women receive support for developing their maternity skills and dealing with the mental, physical and social changes connected to the pregnancy. After the child is born the mothers are given continuous support in accordance with an individual action plan, which aims to strengthen the emotional connection with the child and to create conditions for a safe family environment.
Another organization in the Kaliningrad region, Vozrozhdenije semji (“Rebirth of the Family”), has been working with single mothers who lack motivation to raise their children and improve the living conditions of their families. The mothers are offered social, legal and psychological counseling; the children are involved in art therapy and other activities and the families receive an opportunity to participate in various cultural activities. The cooperation with the Belarusian organizations, which was established during the project "Nendre – Lessons Learned", continued since 2007 with support from the Nordic Council of Ministers under the name "Nordic-Baltic-Belarusian Network for Empowerment of marginalized groups and prevention of trafficking" (read more below).
During the project, twelve network meetings have been arranged for the partner organizations. Apart from sharing the experiences and getting acquainted with the different social services offered at Nendre, the meetings also included workshops and discussions on such topics as social, gender and family policy, social inclusion, gender equality, organization development and human trafficking. The project also resulted in a method manual that describes the model of social and educational work developed at Nendre; a new website for Nendre and a series of publications by the Russian partner organizations, which are addressed both to their clients (women and children) as well as to other actors working with this target group.
Nordic-Baltic-Belarusian network for empowerment of marginalized groups and prevention of trafficking
2009-09-01
The cooperation with the Belarusian organizations Duxovnost (“Spirituality”) and Provintsija (“Province”), which was established during the project "Nendre – Lessons Learned", continued in 2007-2008 with support from the Nordic Council of Ministers. As the partner organizations viewed an increase in trafficking in Belarus as one of the most urgent social problems, they chose to focus on preventive activities in form of the girl groups. After receiving an introduction to the method and studying the experiences of the girl group activities at the center Nendre in Lithuania, the Belarusian leaders initiated own groups in five different cities in Belarus - Gomel, Mogilev, Minsk, Borisov and Molodechno. They also received a deepening training and met with the author of the manual for the girl group leaders, Mia Hanström, in connection with a seminar on the Åland Islands. The method manual was translated into Russian.
Apart from the girl group activities, the Belarusian partner NGOs organized various activities and workshops for youth with fewer opportunities, among others orphaned teenagers and children from socially vulnerable families. The aim was to empower young people in socially disadvantaged groups and to enhance their individual skills so that they become better equipped to face various problems and situations in life. A group of teenagers who have taken part in the project continue to share these experiences on a voluntary basis.
The project has also been important for the capacity development of the Belarusian NGOs in the view of the difficult conditions for NGOs that prevail in the country.
Bridging experiences –prevention of gender based violence and trafficking in Finland and Northwest Russia
2009-09-01
In 2009 the Peace Institute established a contact with the Karelian Center for Gender Studies in Petrozavodsk, Russia. The purpose of the cooperation was to share the experiences of promoting gender equality and the various methods that can be used for combating gender-based violence, including sexual slavery. The project was funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Representatives of the partner organizations met both in Petrozavodsk and on the Åland Islands in order to study the local efforts and community initiatives related to prevention of gender-based violence, promotion of gender equality and different activities targeting young people. The Peace Institute’s partners from Lithuania, Belarus and the Kaliningrad region also had a chance to take part in the network meetings and contributed with their own experiences. Besides, the meeting programme included presentations on the situation of women, gender debate and the development of gender as well as family policies in different countries, including Åland and Finland. During the final conference on the Åland Islands, the Karelian Centre for Gender Studies presented the results of a study on how media in Lithuania, Belarus and Russia reports on questions related to gender equality, trafficking and gender based violence.
The cooperation with the Karelian Center for Gender Studies continues under the ongoing project "Overcoming Gender Disparities as a Tool for Social Change".