• The IFWF widely educates and encourages women to gain the possibility to become owners of their own labour, and to prepare and carry out projects within this framework.  

• The IFWF defends the rights of children and struggles to ensure that, especially under war conditions, the forms of violence used against children by the system, society and the family are brought to an end.  

• The IFWF guarantees and supports the natural and wide ranging development of children.  

In spite of long lasting endeavours for emancipation, discrimination against and disadvantages met by women are still a reality within all societies. The negative influences of unequal opportunities become not only obvious in the spheres of the labour market and the professional life, but also through the continuing domestic violence against women.

The report of the United Nations World’s Women 2000: Trends and Statistics states: “Two thirds of the world's 876 million illiterates are women, and the number of illiterates is not expected to decrease significantly in the next twenty years. (…) Self-employment and part-time and home-based work have expanded opportunities for women's participation in the labour force but are characterized by lack of security, lack of benefits, and low income. Women remain at the lower end of a segregated labour market and continue to be concentrated in a few occupations, to hold positions of little or no authority and to receive less pay than men. (…) Physical and sexual abuse affect millions of girls and women world-wide - yet are known to be seriously under- reported.“ 

Especially under the circumstances of warfare there are no rights for women. In addition to the general destruction caused by war, special methods of torture and crime are used by warring armies to destroy women physically and mentally. Although forms and methods are changing in developing countries as well as in the fully industrialized countries, women are still seen as second-class citizens.    

Within the societies of Europe the conditions for immigrant and refugee women are even harder. Along with the difficulties they face in dominant Western societies as a result of restrictive foreign legislation, racist and sexist discrimination, they are confronted with an internal conflict due to their reality of living in or in between two or even more cultures. Escaping from life threatening conditions of war, torture and suppression, a violent up-rooting often traumatises refugee women. This often leads to an isolated life within traditional family structures, evokes psychological and physical problems. Therefore, there exists an urgent need for special support, consciousness raising and a social dialogue. Due to the long lasting war and suppression, the denial of their national identity, cultural expressions and the prohibition of their language by the State authorities in their homeland, Kurdish women are facing even harder problems under exile conditions.  

From August 5th to 15th, 2001 the IFWF carried out an education camp for women and children of different origins in the Netherlands. As the 83 participants of the camp were mainly Kurdish women and children, we tried to concentrate our program on their specific needs and requests.        

Apart from a program of cultural and sporting activities, such as choir, theatre workshops and self-defence training, daily seminars were given by different women professionals on different issues concerning the women’s lives. During the seminars the participants were able to gain new knowledge about their possibilities of social and political participation, women’s health care and psychology, pedagogy and children’s education. In the following discussions women tried to express the difficulties the face within the families and the societies by giving examples from their own lives as well as trying to find solutions by exchanging their experiences.

Sharing ideas and daily work together, the social relationships between the women as well as friendships between the children developed quickly. Pedagogic childcare, separate cultural activities and play facilities were provided for the children during the time of women’s education.        

Evaluating the course and the results of the camp Suna Ö.’s opinion represents those of many participants: “You all know who I am. I cannot read or write, because I was never able to go to school. I was used to speak only if the permission was given to me. I never dared to discuss about the world or to talk about what many women like myself lived through. It never came into my mind to speak out against a man. But through the seminars and through the deep discussions we led in these days I saw the power which is hidden in me and in all of us women. I hope a camp like this will be organized again.”

The sociologist Münevver K. stated: “During the camp all kinds of facilities for both women and children were available. Although the children were of different ages, they were from 6 month to eleven years old, they all had great fun and got on quite well with each other. Everybody listened to the consciousness raising and well prepared lessons carefully. It was really interesting and I was surprised, although many women were not able to take notes during the seminars, that nobody forgot anything we discussed in these days. The discussions carried on during the break times, the fields of interest got wider and broader. I saw that many women gained lost facial expressions again on their faces. The interest in each other and the rich program ensured that we all feel much more powerful.”

The education camp for women and children was one of the first practical steps in broader sense taken by the IFWF towards an encouragement and the education of women and children. The great interest and the amazing individual and collective development many women made within a small period of only 10 days as well as the request for continuing activities, demonstrate the importance of social engagement and education work for different groups of women. The realization of this project was made possible through the friendly financial support of SKaN Fonds (Hilversum/NL) and Haella Foundation (Den Haag/NL). At the same time many voluntary supporters and donators were involved. We want to thank all these institutions and persons for their engagement.

In the future we will concentrate on improving our dialogue with different women’s institutions and organisations much further in order to reach an even broader spectrum of women from different ethnic backgrounds living in Europe.