The main focus of the training was on taking care of yourself from a personal and organizational perspective. Workshop was organized with aim to present a new model for creating security, but also with goal to map the threats that women within marginalized women face on a daily basis.
Women are confronted with different forms of discrimination and violence in the public or private space on a daily basis, which is why workshops have been created to discuss the daily threats that they are facing and to discuss strategies they use every day to overcome stress, threats and challenges.
The ultimate goal is to accept the fact that taking care of yourself is not a matter of hedonism, but a basic need for survival in activism and in today’s world.
For most of the workshop participants, engaging in activism started from the personal need to change society that discriminated them and gave them specific roles.
– When I turned 45 I decided to put myself first. By then, I was serving the whole family. I got married at 16, I was a child and I had to grow up in one second. Now I finally put myself first and few years ago I started to live – said one of the participants.
Working on yourself also involves working on emotions and how to accept them, whether they are pleasant or not. Every emotion has its own purpose, which is there because of the current psychophysical state of the person.
Participants discussed the mechanisms they use to overcome these kind of challenges and they said that they find helpful to keep themselves busy in some kind of activities to cope with different emotions.
– Up until two years ago, I had experienced anger, sadness and stress, until I started practicing yoga. Now it is very uncommon to find myself out of balance. It’s important to dedicate time to yourself, because when you work on yourself it always has a positive effect. Now I am pleased with myself – said one of the participants.
The exchange of experiences within members of this group was motivating for the participants of two day workshop and one of them said that she has been serving as a care and cleaning service for 57 years, but now she wants to change that and spend time with women of a positive spirit.
At the end of the workshop, the participants stated that they were leaving richer for a sense of empowerment and satisfaction and the need to take care of their own health and emotions.
They also emphasize that they had learned the fact that taking care of themselves was a pillar of any engagement, but they also learned importance of being honest with yourself and others, and they stated that this group gave them sense of confidence.
The training was organized within the framework of the project “Women’s Rights – Agenda for Positive Change”, funded by the European Union and implemented by the CURE Foundation and the Foundation for Women’s Empowerment (FWE).
The implementation of this project intends to contribute to the promotion of respect for women’s rights, and to the eradication of discrimination against women, with a particular focus on women and girls within marginalized and minority groups in ten (10) municipalities, and Tuzla is one of them.
