Moving to our new home!
Hello everyone. To celebrate our 1st year anniversary, we will soon be moving to our new home www.dewaproject.org. We are still working on it though, so keep checking here for updates. . Don’t forget that we love to hear from you! Keep in touch and let us know how you are doing. Contact DEWA Project.
The team profiles are up here for your reading pleasure and to give you information about each one of us.
DEWA Project Launch
Please click on the link above to download your invitation to our official launch. Thank you for supporting us through the last months. We encourage you to book your place by emailing: Dewa@dewaproject.org
Looking forward to seeing you on 17th May 2011. There will be a £3.00 raffle with great prizes. All proceeds will go to supportin the work of DEWA Project and some other great charities
Women’s Voices is back!
Different Cultures One World
Following the publication of our first book in September, Different Cultures, One World: Women’s Voices from South Yorkshire, we were overwhelmed by the support we received, with the books being bought by people from South Yorkshire to Canada! Needless to say, we soon sold out and had to order our second print run. Women’s Voices is now back in stock and ready and waiting for you to read it! If you’d like to find out more about the book, the women who wrote it and the support of our donors, please visit our Women’s Voices page or order a copy from us via email: dewa@dewaproject.org. We promise you won’t regret it!
“Let us now praise women who have faith in women’s voices”
This isn’t just a book about women or about exile; this is a book about human experience.
Northern Refugee Centre’s Women’s Networking Event: 19th February, 10-4, Northern College
Northern Refugee Centre are holding a Women’s Networking event at Northern College in Barnsley (Saturday 19th February, 10-4). If you want to know why networking can play a vital role in the success of a women’s project, please join DEWA for the first workshop of the day – The Importance of Networking. It promises to be a very exciting day, especially with the speakers and workshops NRC have planned for us!
AGENDA:
10.00 Registration and refreshments
10.15 Workshop – The importance of networking run by DEWA
11.45 Break
12.00 Speaker – Juanita Charles, PCS Union on the effect of the cuts on women in Yorkshire and Humber
12.30 Speaker – Helen Todd, Refugee Council on the work of the BASIS Project nationally and how it links with women’s networking
1.00 Lunch (All food will be vegetarian and/or Halal)
2.00 Speaker – Beatrice Botomani, Bradford Refugee Forum on the successes of the Refugee Women’s Conference in November and work that has developed as a result
2.30 Workshops – choice of:
- Supporting women’s conversations clubs
- Taking the Women’s Charter forward
- Addressing the cuts: strategies for survival
3.30 Feedback from workshops
4.00 End
If you would like to book a place, please contact Diem-Tu at Diemtu.Tran@nrcentre.org.uk or get in touch with us.
Please note that this is a women-only event.
We are speaking at Sheffield WILPF – Join us
DEWA Project ladies will be speaking at the forthcoming meeting of Sheffield WILPF on 17th February at the Quaker Meeting House, 7.15pm.
Please note that our book ‘Different Cultures; One World: Women’s Voices from South Yorkshire’ will also be on sale at the event. It will make a good International Women’s Day gift for your loved ones.
Kindly circulate the attached notice to your relevant networks.
REPRINTED – ‘One World, Different Cultures: Women’s Voices from South Yorkshire’ available to purchase now!
When we put our book out there before Christmas 2010, we didn’t realise just how popular it was going to be. We sold out just before Christmas and there was an increasing demand for more books! Thank you everybody.
Well, we listened to you and we now have reprints of the book available to purchase! To get yourself and your loved ones copies of ‘Women’s Voices’, please email julia.wilde@dewaproject.org or violet.dickenson@dewaproject.org. Alternatively, give us a call on 07931900220.
We will also be selling some books around Sheffield during the week of International Women’s Day. Watch this space for venue details 
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
November 25th is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women – what will you be doing to mark it?
As well as raising awareness of the End Violence Against Women message, DEWA will be attending The Angelou Centre‘s Reclaiming the Domestic Violence Agenda Conference being held at Northumbria University in Newcastle. We are very excited about this opportunity as it will give us the chance to learn how to meet the needs of BME women, identify how we can influence policy on violence against women and network with similar organisations.
We hope that by attending the conference we will be able to campaign more effectively against violence against women and provide better support to women survivors, enabling us to help more women reach their full potential.
For more information, please contact our Campaigns Officer, Tchiyiwe, at tchiyiwe.chihana@dewaproject.org.
Empowering Women Refugee and Asylum Seekers Conference
Tomorrow, DEWA will be attending the first ever Empowering Women Refugee and Asylum Seekers Conference organised by Bradford Refugee Forum. The conference is being held from 9am – 2pm at the Carlisle Business Centre in Bradford.
According to the Bradford Refugee Forum website, this is what we can look forward to:
‘The aim of the conference is to bring women refugees and asylum seekers together under the umbrella of Bradford Refugee Forum in order to enhance the Forum’s inclusive agenda and to enable the women themselves to take ownership of their problems and solutions. Specifically, the conference will provide an outlet for women asylum seekers and refugees to discuss and define their needs and expectations; and explore innovative ways and programmes for meeting those needs taking into account the need to strive for community cohesion and gender balance and engage partners in the private, statutory and voluntary community sectors including funders and service providers for purposes of working together to improve the quality of life for women asylum seekers and refugees and to create a sustainable organisation.
The Theme of the conference is “Empowering Women Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Bradford”.
During the day there shall be several organisations present and community members from Bradford and across Yorkshire and Humber and some from London to support the women refugees and asylum seekers such as Immigration Advice Service, OXFAM, Northern Refugee Centre, Horton Housing, Our Project, HALE Project, Legal Aid, City of Sanctuary Bradford, Bradford Immigration and Asylum Seekers Network (BIASAN), Bradford Action for Refugees, ABL, etc), offering advice, and assistance.
Included in the day’s events are two keynote speakers namely, the CEO of Northern Refugee Centre Mr. Jim Steinke and (Aynalim/Elizabeth Benson, woman refugee). Other activities shall include various workshops providing an outlet for expression and recognition. These include five workshops in the following areas:
- Destitution and Poverty
- Housing
- Health and Well Being
- Immigration (process and legal aid)
- Children and Women (including maternity)
It is hoped that in the long run, the conference’s work will help lay a firm foundation for creating a voice for women asylum seekers and refugees in Bradford and in defining pathways for greater access to essential services.’
We are grateful for the opportunity to promote DEWA and are very excited about meeting the amazing women of Bradford!
Why Refugee Women? Charter Launch Event (23rd November 11-1pm)
Members of DEWA have been working with other organisations in South Yorkshire and Humberside to launch the Why Refugee Women? Charter:
The Charter aims to get organisations and key stakeholders working with refugee women within Yorkshire and Humber to agree to meet minimum standards.
Therefore, organisations signing up to the charter are committing to:
- Create an open and safe environment and treat all refugee women with dignity and respect
- Ensure all workers are aware of the need for gender sensitivity and implement appropriate practices for achieving this.
- Understand gender based issues and act appropriately to take account of these
- Offer the choice of female workers/interpreters to refugee women wherever possible
- Ensure refugee women are routinely supported with childcare during asylum interviews so that they feel able to speak about confidential and sensitive issues
- Ensure refugee women are aware of their rights and independence from their partners
- Support others in understanding Why Refugee Women?
You are all warmly invited to the launch of the Why Refugee Women? Charter. Please look at our Future Events page for the details and feel free to circulate the invite within your networks. This event is free but booking is essential – email marco_barnsley@hotmail.com to book your place.
If you are unable to make the launch, the charter and sign up form are also available from the Why Refugee Women? website.
We hope to see you there!
Thank You!
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The women at DEWA would like to thank you for the support rendered during the launch of our book. We would not have done it without you. It was a privilege to meet everyone. We are delighted that we have made new friends and colleagues through the process and we look forward to working with you on future endeavours. For those who were not able to make it, or if you just want to relive the experience, please have a look at our YouTube video.There are many people who we would like to thank individually, especially all the contributing authors – the women whose stories, poems, recipes and words of strength made the book a must-have. Please take a moment to read their profiles at the end of the book.
We are also forever indebted to several people who worked hard behind the scenes. Their diligence, patience and inspiring personalities have not gone unnoticed. The publicity through ‘off the shelf’ festival was an added advantage. Special thanks to Northern Refugee Centre, CAM Yorkshire, DFID, Northern College, Sheffield City Council, The Helen Tetlow Memorial Fund and City of Sanctuary for making this possible.
Different Cultures. One World. Women’s Voices from South Yorkshire is still available to purchase. We would appreciate it if you continued to support us by spreading the word. There is also an interactive section here on our website, where you too can send us some of your stories as well as give us your word of advice. We would love to hear from you, just head to Contact Us to get in touch.
The book launch was only the beginning of the work that lies ahead for us. We will continue to forge relations with you so that we can work together in pursuing equality, dignity and respect for all women worldwide. DEWA is committed to raising awareness of diversity and integration, and of the issues facing the thousands of displaced women who are living in South Yorkshire and beyond.
