URI MENA has successfully participated in Anna Lindh`s Foundation a hybrid Workshop where strategies and methods of empowering woman from marginalized backgrounds were presented and discussed. Seven young women of the URI Community in Jordan participated in the workshop from the URI MENA office in Amman. The woman connected virtually with likeminded people from Turkey, Albania, Egypt and Turkey.
The one-week -workshop dealt the following topics:
- Developing key skills for women Empowerment Personal and Soft skills
- Role and importance of Social – Cultural engagement of women
- Good practices and opportunities, Practical Tools
- Technological transformation vs. Women Economic Empowerment
- Sustainable Tourism and relevant toolkits
The activity involved building marginalized young women’s entrepreneurial and business management knowledge and skills. Also, it has improved their life (soft) skills and positively change their attitude and values. Shaden, one of the Jordanian participants says: “For me it was an overall great experience. Listening to the challenges that other woman around the globe face, made it once again clear to me, that I should fight for my rights “
The Anna Lindh Foundation has run this hybrid workshop as part of a comprehensive project cycle called “The invisible ForeWomen”. The invisible ForeWomen consist out of six phases, whereas the hybrid workshop represents only one out of all phases.
Phase 1: Research study about marginalized young women to define their needs for socio-economic inclusion. The study will be conducted in 8 countries; 5 partner countries (Albania, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Slovenia), Italy, Lebanon and Morocco.
Phase 2: Develop a Toolkit (under the name “Women Lead Change”), which will provide a guidance to empower marginalized young women and enhance their socio-economic inclusion.
Phase 3: Select a sample of 25 young women from our target group from partners’ countries
Phase 4: Conducting the hybrid workshop from woman of all 5 countries
Phase 5: Organize a 3-days conference in Jordan inviting 100+ members of the Anna Lindh Foundation’s networks in Europe & MENA Region. A half day of the conference will be dedicated to visiting marginalized communities in Jordan and we will organize a day Expo to enable marginalized young women to apply what they learnt in the training in selling their products (brought from home), showcase their talents and share their cultural rituals.
Phase 6: The trained woman shall conduct a similar workshop within their communities
Currently, the URI MENA team in Jordan is preparing the conference based in Jordan, which is expected to be held in September 2021.
The main outcome of this project cycle is a toolkit that provides a guidance on empowering marginalized young women to enhance their socio-economic inclusion in larger society. Also, Anna Lindh Foundation aims to raise the awareness of marginalized women and promote the respect for their rights.