Our young leaders have made great strides in making positive changes in their home countries. Below are some examples of their remarkable work.
Issue: Sexual violence
Carol is in the process of working with her doctor to speak during a session at her school about sexual assault awareness.
Issue: Education
Edu4Everyone-NI is a group created by our three of our alumnae, Vera, Bianca, and Adriana. They are are currently working to create more chances for younger children and their peers so that they can experience a better education.
Issue: Women2Women-conference in Norway
Our alums from Norway are working to create a W2W in person Conference for September of 2023. They are currently registering as an organization as well as finding funding opportunities in Norway.
Issue: Youth awareness
Emma is currently creating an awareness day/club and a reliable platform for students, such as an online newspaper or a podcast, in her school. She was elected as a "high school life advice" position to organize the event. She has contacted associations on sexual harassment, cystic fibrosis, and is now running for the high school region council so that the project can continue in other high schools.
Issue: Mental health
Afnan’s action plan is still in progress. She has made social media pages and is working to reach more people to spread awareness on the importance of mental health. Over the last few months she has searched for people with the same interests to help. Online, she posts topics related to mental health and teaches people ways to cope with their mental illnesses. Her group is currently looking for sponsors.
Issue: Creation of a feminist association within my faculty
Célia has decided, with her friends to rebuild a feminist association on her campus that was fizzling out, due to the majority of their campus faculty being men. The association, Alyon-nous, has worked hard to increase their membership and develop partnerships. Alyonnous is starting to do concrete actions all over the university and the city. Célia has also worked on W2W France, an alumnae group of French participants, by helping during the Women in Tech Conference at the US Embassy!
Issue: Breaking taboos
Therese is currenly working on her Backelor Thesis for school by organizing a fashion event that breaks taboos in the fashion industry.
Issue: Helping homeless children
Tarnim's action plan topic centers on helping unhoused youth in Egypt. Tarnim has researched charities and orphanages in her city that she can volunteer in, but found difficulty. She ultimately decided to start helping unhoused people by bringing food to people on the street and having conversations with them.
Issue: Girls empowerment
Since 2015, Roukhaya has been training young girls in leadership and public speaking. Knowing that not all girls can participate in the W2W program, she created One girl -One week-One leader, a capacity building program for girls. Since 2018, this program has been held for one week each October ending on October 11, the date of the International Day of the Girl. A total of 85 girls have benefited from this free program. After sharing this project with the members of W2W delegation from 2015, four members have decided to work with Roukhaya and help organize the program in Chad. To learn more about OGOWOL, check out - https://www.facebook.com/OGOWOL/
Issue: Raising awareness amongst young people
Coline started an “eco day" on the 14th of October, which was a day dedicated to environmental causes. Several workshops were organized for students to attend. There was a conference with a renowned author/economist and a round table discussion featuring around 15 representatives of non profit organizations and the mayor, to talk about actions they can take in their city. The press and media of the regions were contacted and some covering the event. Coline is planning on doing a second "eco day" in the spring with a simulation of the UN COP. Her group has created a page on the school website dedicated to all the projects they are doing so it is accessible for everyone.
Issue: Mental health awareness
To help with mental health awareness, Nada is in the process of creating a social media page for girls in Egypt to create a safe space online.
Issue: Drink/needle spiking in nightclubs in the Netherlands
Hülya is working on the issue of social drinking and needle spike drugging in The Netherlands. She is researching and mapping out the issue. She is creating awareness among club owners and speaking to politicians to make drug tests accessible and finding more help for the victims of this crime.
Issue: Women2Women Pakistan
After attending W2W Virtual University for Pakistan and India in February, and W2W in Boston in August of 2022, our alums, Kainat, Rani, Tania, Nawal, and Hamna from Pakistan organized a W2WVU Pakistan of their own. With help from the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan W2WVU Pakistan graduated over 140 young female leaders in October of 2022.
Issue: career choices for girls
Karolína is volunteering for a NGO that works with helping find career choices for females in Czech Republic.
Leonor identified the low voter turnout among young people as a social issue in Portugal she wanted to tackle. Leonor wrote, filmed and edited a 1-minute video urging young people to vote in the upcoming elections. The video was shared on Instagram and had over 3,000 views, reaching 15,000 young people on election day. She wrote a news story for a national newspaper about her efforts and it was published. On election day, a national radio program followed Leonor to the polls and interviewed her about her action plan.
After attending W2W as a delegate and an intern, Ana had the desire and felt the need to bring the program to Portugal and to provide the experience and opportunity to Portuguese women. Ana and her team developed a 5-day program for young women age 16-21 years old in Lisbon. The program was held in September 2019 with 100 young women attending.
When the delegates from Chad returned home, they created their own Women2Women Chad program. Their goal was to change the culture of early and forced marriage. They have successfully recruited women and men to participate in their project and work diligently to educate girls about how to actively engage in this effort.
Working with Women2Women alumnae from Afghanistan, Gharsanay helped to create and organize the Young Women Leadership Conference non-profit. The Young Women Leadership Conference (YWLC) aims to inspire, educate, and empower young women to lead the leadership of the country and the world. Holding their first Conference in 2017, the YWLC has gone on to hold several conferences all over Afghanistan. In 2019, they expanded the program to include young men.
Amira launched a program entitled “Half the World”. The goal of the program was to provide young girls in Egypt with the power and self confidence to speak up and make a difference in their lives. Since the start of her program, Amira has developed and implemented six workshops in the greater Cairo area for groups of young women ranging in age. The workshops covered a variety of issues impacting women including sexual harassment, women’s rights and the importance of women working together. She has received outstanding feedback and garnered the support of 47 volunteers to help with this project.
Fatima’s action plan focused on educating young people about the important role women play in society. She led discussions at all boys and girls schools to teach them not only about women’s rights but also to find the confidence to share their opinions on a variety of topics impacting their communities. Fatima received high praise for her work and was asked to return and work with more students.
With the help of her mother, Nesrine worked with “SOS Girls in Need” to provide young girls in Algeria with the assistance needed to continue their education. Nesrine helped to organize discussions with the young girls about social issues including the dangers of rape, abuse, early marriage and bullying. She worked on a school magazine tackling these important issues.