Europe

The YWCA of Greece has created ‘Athena’, a new residential women’s service centre in a suburb of Athens for women, young women and girls. The centre is named ‘Athena’ to honour the late Athena Athanasiou, who was President of the World YWCA (1967-1975) and President of the YWCA of Greece. The centre is the result of a full scale renovation programme as the original building was in severe disrepair. The original building was founded in 1960 and operated as a care unit for elderly refugees and later became a women’s shelter. Since its beginnings the YWCA of Greece has been among the few women’s organisations in Greece with a long and rich record of innovative actions in the fields of lifelong learning, vocational training and social services, for women, young women and girls. The current activities and services in 26 local centres aim to support women in vulnerable situations, helping women and their families, and assisting in employment through training and counselling.

YWCA-YMCA Sweden hosted a meeting of Nordic YWCA-YMCAs in Umea, Sweden, from January 27-29, 2012.  The annual meeting provides space for member associations from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden to report on their activities and future plans, and to discuss current challenges facing their respective movements.

Building upon the prayers that have been spoken for over 100 years staff, members, friends and well-wishers of the World YWCA and World Alliance of YMCAs gathered at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on November 14, 2011. Together they worshiped and opened the Week of Prayer and World Fellowship.

In July 2011, young women from all over Europe came together to attend the YWCA European Study Session in Budapest, Hungary. During the week-long meeting the young women shared and built knowledge and skills on how to create a world free of violence through the empowerment and leadership of women.

The World YWCA congratulates the three 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Awardees: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first democratically elected female president; Leyma Gbowee, a Liberian women’s rights activist; and Tawakkul Karman, a democracy activist from Yemen and the first Arab woman to win the prize.

The World YWCA, represented by its General Secretary, Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, was invited to attend the Global Volunteering Conference held in Budapest on September 15-17, 2011. The Conference, themed "Volunteering for a Sustainable Future," was organised by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme and the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

During World YWCA Council and the International Women’s Summit (IWS) held in Zurich, Switzerland from 10-16 July 2011, the World YWCA and its partners held a wide array of informative and interactive sessions – there was something for everyone and, in fact, several enthusiastic participants shared with us that the difficulty was such in making a choice that they would have liked to be in two places at the same time…

On July 13, 2011, Peter Prove, Executive Director of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA), spoke at the International Women’s Summit on faith, livelihoods and human rights. EAA is a diverse global alliance of churches and church-related organisations and groups committed to collaborative advocacy for justice on HIV and AIDS and on food, with a growing practical experience of inter-faith cooperation.

The World YWCA had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Prove at IWS.

On July 13, 2011, Peter Prove, Executive Director of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA), spoke at the International Women’s Summit on faith, livelihoods and human rights. EAA is a diverse global alliance of churches and church-related organisations and groups committed to collaborative advocacy for justice on HIV and AIDS and on food, with a growing practical experience of inter-faith cooperation.

The World YWCA had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Prove at IWS.

Nancy Kapembwa is the young YWCA woman recipient of the Mary Robinson Award for Young Women’s Leadership in Human Rights. Ms. Kapembwa, from the YWCA of Zambia, was awarded for her preventative approach in schools and communities to empower women and girls with knowledge on how to protect themselves from human rights violations and report cases of abuse to the relevant authorities. Her work has improved dialogue between parents and children, and between men and women, involving a process which moves community members from problem identification to action by addressing relationship building, problem identification, concern exploration, decision making, action, review and reflection.