On Friday 18th September 2015, over fifty individuals from twenty five  Refugees, community, Voluntary sector organisations, and statuary service providers – including local councillors, health, education and employment celebrated with KMEWO the success of the Big Lottery funded “Women Learning for Living” project and the launch of “Lost in Translation – No More!”, the evaluation report of the project.

The day’s programme includes the screening of a short film (Lost in Translation). Following this was the launch of the report by Michilline Safe Ngongo, the Islington Hillrise Ward local Councillor. There was then a presentation by KMEWO’s Project Manager on the project’s achievements, key findings, lessons learned and user’s profiles. Two service users also shared their experiences about KMEWO, their learning experiences and achievements. Other speakers from education and community organisations that KMEWO worked with, including Finsbury Park Mosque, KOMKAR,  Learning Unlimited and NETECLA, along with speakers from Islington Council, Skills, Learning and Employment, and ACL departments that who provides adult learning and employment support to residents in Islington. .

The main discussion points were barriers to women in accessing main stream education and employment support, different methods of reaching out to vulnerable women and engaging them at places such as community centres, Mosques, supplementary schools. Some of the methods employed to help the women were highlighted, e.g. peer advocacy, participatory ESOL , the necessity of sharing information, linking up together and networking so that resources could be used more efficiently.

The “ Lost in Translation “ Report highlighted the achievements of the project, where 686 women attended on 1084 occasions. There were in 95 activities over the three years, delivered from 20 different community venues. The majority of the women taking part in the project were of working age , residents of north London, many were helped with Employability and CV updating, IT skills and Confidence Building. 85% of the women said their confidence has is increased, 38% used took part in more than one activity and 80% asked for more classes and courses. Another point of discussion was about accessibility for women, the different modules and tools of learning that could be used in community learning and settings, for example using children centres for mothers with children , participatory ESOL and, etc. and working to influence the Government in to increasing accessibility for vulnerable women

Almost everyone contributed to the discussion on how best to support disadvantaged women in overcoming the barriers they face, enabling them to be confident and make use of the support to which they are entitled. In particular these are education and employment services that are available to them. However we do need to work together to influence polices for more Government funded ESOL and learning opportunities for women .

The event ended with a light lunch and networking and continued until 2:00pm

Feedback from participants:

“It is so good and comforting to see an organisation that is helping and supporting these women. Thank you for doing this inspirational work. My only suggestion is to keep going and please continue your fantastic support “

“I really hope you succeed in getting continuation of funding for this work, well done to KMEWO team “

From the feedback we had: %100 of attendance through that “one of the best useful part of the event was the film that acted as an eye opener for many “

“Very enjoyable event “

“The most useful part of the event was showing and explaining steps of women learning for living project, shows how it was successful and how it is needed in our community in the UK”

“Congratulations on a fantastic achievement. I hope we will have the opportunity to do more work in partnership in the future “

To see photos from this event: click here

To see the full “Lost in Translation – No More! “report :  click here

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