This project was implemented to strengthen the knowledge, capacities and skills of New Women Connectors staff and volunteers in informal inclusive education for the (self)empowerment of migrants and refugees. By making use of capacity building opportunities such as this project, we will be better equipped and learn new and innovative educational tools and methods to apply in our daily work. By exchanging best practices we not only strengthened the professionalization and capacities of our staff, but also on a personal level reinforced the key competences needed for personal development and fulfillment, employability, active citizenship and social inclusion of our staff and volunteers. This is especially relevant since our staff and volunteers are simultaneously our learners: migrant and refugee women who face multiple economic and social obstacles in their lives in Europe. The project also facilitated an inclusive space where our team had the time to share and exchange challenges, concerns, strategies, best practices and approaches for self-empowerment and self-advocacy. By empowering our members - including our staff, volunteers and learners - we will be able to create a greater impact in the work we do.
New Women Connectors (NWC) is a refugee and migrant women-led movement striving to mainstream the unheard voices of migrant and refugee women living across Europe. Our programs exist mainly of on- and offline informal learning activities focusing on capacity building and strengthening the confidence, leadership skills and self-representation of migrant and refugee women. A major challenge in refugee self-representation and in our organization at national and EU level is the limited opportunities to come together and collaborate on areas of shared concern. Advocating effectively requires skills, capacities and resources. After the online fatigue as a result of the Covid pandemic, there was a strong need to reconnect again. This project has provided the opportunity to bring together our team members and up-skill our staff and volunteers and expand their capabilities through informal learning. With this project we aimed to remove barriers confronted in coming together and set a base for effective and inclusive migrant and refugee participation through educational activities. This mobility project provided us the opportunity to acquire new knowledge, skills, tools and techniques relevant to empower our team and organization at large.