The Nieuw-West district is fully committed to women’s emancipation. With a Women’s Agenda and extra attention for International Women’s Day, next Wednesday. That is badly needed, say women from the neighborhood and members of the district committee. At the Women’s Breakfast this morning, issues are discussed that ladies from the district encounter. “Women here face health issues, domestic violence, learning disabilities. You can’t solve their problems without knowing the context.”
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Domestic violence. Exploitation. Unacceptable behavior. It is certainly not light fare that is discussed at the Women’s Breakfast, an initiative of female administrators of the Nieuw-West district committee. Yet it remains airy and above all practical. With accessible tips about childcare, or course offerings at community centers.
There is also laughter. “Can’t we give those men a training course?”
Women’s agenda
Wonderful to see, says Esther Tienstra (GroenLinks). Together with the other women from the district committee, she is the initiator of the breakfast. The themes that are discussed transcend political dividing lines, she believes. “It’s important that we work together on these kinds of topics.” Tienstra is not alone in this in the district committee. Last month she and her colleagues discussed the Women’s Agenda, which Nieuw-West started five years ago.
Because (young) women in Nieuw-West are more vulnerable than their male neighbors, writes district chairman Emre Ünver. “Four years ago, there was little walk-in for girls at youth work in Nieuw-West, there was only a walk-in for boys. There was no assisted living program for girls and no preventive program about social media, online shaming and exposing or the use of nitrous oxide.”
A lot has been achieved since 2018. Welfare organizations in the district are increasingly employing girl workers and have programs specifically aimed at women and girls. And schools pay attention to the risks of social media, such as shaming and exposing: shaming girls by spreading gossip and photos.
“Individual projects that only tackle one problem are of little use in the long term”
Long-term
It is precisely such a central approach that is necessary to bring about changes, says the breakfast. “We don’t have much use for separate projects that only tackle one problem in the long term,” says Ineke. For twenty years she has been involved with Vrouw en Vaart, the development center where breakfast is served.
“The women here often have a migrant background, they have to deal with health problems, domestic violence, learning disabilities. You can’t solve their problems without knowing the context,” she says. “Projects of three or four months are pointless. It does not help the women to develop independently.”
The women’s breakfast at Vrouw en Vaart is organized in the context of International Women’s Day, next Wednesday. There are also activities elsewhere in the city on Sunday. The first Feminist March, the successor to the Women’s March, will take place on Dam Square.
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