>>german

EUROPEAN LEARNING PARTNERSHIP
EUROPEAN WOMEN – IMAGES OF INTERACTION
1st trans-national meeting in Wexford, Republic of Ireland
31st October – 4th November 2002
photo galery
 

1. Short description of the meeting

Hostess was ACCESS 2000 Wexford Limited, Wexford, Republic of Ireland
The external participants came from:
Denmark - Daghojskolen “De Frie Fugle“ (day high school „The Free Bird), Esbjerg (3)
Germany - Frauenakademie (Women’s Academy), Ulm (6)
TIFS, Tübinger Institut für frauenpolitische Sozialforschung e.V.,
(Tübingen Institute of Feminist Social Research), Tübingen (2)
Hungary - International Women’s Academy (IFAB), Budapest (5)
The “Ardoyne Women’s Group” from Belfast, Northern Ireland was not able to attend.
Most important topics from the agenda:
-  introduction to the history and structure of ACCESS 2000 in their office
-  presentation of the work by WEXFORD AREA PARTNERSHIP – EMPLOYMENT GUIDANCE NETWORK; a social employment agency
-  information visit to F.A.B. (Fendale, Ashfield & Belvedere), a communal social and supporting institution
-  official presentation of the certificates for the participants of the “Women Making Choices”- programme and training for trainers
-  workshop in the conference room of WEXFORD AREA PARTNERSHIP:

  • presentation of the work by the individual European guest group

  • discussion on the contents of our joint project “European Women”

  • discussion on the planned photo exhibition during the 2nd trans-national meeting of our project in Esbjerg, Denmark in March 2003

  • ways of communication between the meetings

  • bi-national meeting in Ulm

  • financing

  • expansion of the project by a group from southern Europe

  • European Union application for the project ongoing for one more year





    .

.We were impressed by the efficiency and kindness showed to us by our hostesses. They had prepared an interesting, formal as well as informal programme and we were very pleased with the outcome of our joint work shop.

The most important thing of this first meeting in Wexford was the process of getting to know each other, to hear not only about the history of ACCESS 2000 and the convincing concepts and programmes, but to also hear of the difficulties and successes. Furthermore, to get in touch with all these women who are actively involved in making our joint project a success: the teachers and learners.

to the top 

 

 
2. Participant’s personal report
.
Thursday, 31st October 2002

As soon as we entered the cosy country house prepared for us by the women of Wexford, we forgot all about our strenuous journey.

We: Gesa, Gabriele, Gerrit, Inge as well as Käthe, Ina and Marianne began our journey by train from Ulm to Frankfurt via Mannheim. We had a long run through the enormous Frankfurt Airport, a little coffee break and then we flew to Ireland on an obsolete type of aircraft! We safely landed in Dublin and still had time for a sightseeing tour on an open top bus. It was quite chilly but we, nevertheless, had a nice tour of Dublin. The bus driver’s singing made it even more enjoyable! At 6 p.m. we reached Dublin’s main station where we met Mona, Dorthe and Lene, the representatives of the Danish institution “De Frie Fugle”, Esbjerg. We rode together in a frigid, old train to Wexford. Our first meetings and talks took place. The Danish women even understood some German! In Wexford the Irish women of ACCESS 2000, most of all Pauline, gave us a warm reception with tea, salads and sandwiches. Right away, we all felt very welcome. At around 11 p.m. we got a taxi back to our comfortable accommodation.
.

Friday, 1st November 2002
After a substantial Irish breakfast, a bus took us to the office of ACCESS 2000. Here we met Angela, Claudia, Liz, Ingrid and Anja from the women academy of Budapest. Pauline, Marian, Nuncie and Maria presented the weekend’s programme. Afterwards, they explained from the beginning, the complete development of their women’s education programme ACCESS 2000. It developed gradually step by step. What these strong women got off the ground and reached over the years, was very impressive.
Around noon, we visited the institution of F.A.B. (Ferndale, Ashfield & Belvedere) in Wexford which works together with ACCESS 2000. Social worker Paul is in charge of this project. A complete house in which real social work is done, with childcare in two rooms, education, offers of different courses, group talks and offers of help for men and
women.
After lunch, we all met in a bigger conference room to continue with the meeting. Here, each country delegation: Wexford, Esbjerg, Budapest, Tübingen and Ulm presented their own concept for women’s further education. Certainly the women of Wexford accomplished hard and concrete work. Not only for other women and girls, who, for example, do not have any school-leaving qualifications or training, but also for themselves they are able to help themselves.
Mona, the teacher from Esbjerg, explained their programme intended for unemployed girls and women; often single mothers. A convincing concept, unfortunately only for a couple of weeks for each woman. At the end, Gerrit presented what the institute for social research on feminist politics in Tübingen stands for. After coffee break, Gesa, the leader of the Women’s Academy Ulm introduced us to their programme. Angela from Budapest, one of the leaders of the newly founded women academy in Hungary, gave us an insight into their work in Budapest. This institution slightly differs from the Ulm model, as the courses, not only differ in duration, they do not cover six semesters.
As different as these concepts may be, they all have one thing in common: women set off to change something.
In the evening, we were invited to an ACCESS 2000 party where 18 women, who had passed their final examinations in the different parts of the ACCESS-programme, received their recognized certificates. After several speeches and impressive presentations of participants the party began with Irish music, a good honest buffet and wine. There was a perfect atmosphere, a real women’s party! Later on Maria and other Irish women sang. Also the Danish women staged a performance. And then it was our turn, the women from Ulm, we were completely unprepared! Gerrit had a good idea that made everybody laugh! A perfect evening was ended by the crackling fireside with a glass of wine in “our” living-room.
.
Saturday, 2nd November 2002
In the morning we all met again in the big conference room. Now the discussion was about the photo project and how it was viewed by every group. It had been quite tiring to find a common procedure. Different discussions were taking place that were deepened in small groups. The following title was agreed on:
„What is the story of your journey as a woman into further education?”
Pictures would be placed on the Internet as well as a photo exhibition would take place during the next meeting in May 2003 in Denmark. Many participants were taking pictures throughout the whole meeting with digital cameras, video camera or conventional cameras. A first exchange of photos could soon take place. By the way, each country group was supposed to work out together with the project group its own proposals and ideas at home. Not all have the same amount of time to draw up such picture stories. In the evening we all quite had it and Nuncie, for all of us, threw her text markers.
It had been raining all day in Wexford and for our final dinner we met in a fish restaurant which could only be reached by a long bridge. A whipped up sea and stormy conditions accompanied us during our crossing! But it was all worthwhile! After dinner, we went to an ancient run-down theatre where Irish step dance was performed; taking turns with a sentimental story. A great performance from all the dancers. The women of Budapest said good-bye to us after the show. They had to return to Dublin on Sunday. It was a real pity, as it would have been good time to get into a conversation with them.
.
Sunday, 3rd November 2002
On Sunday we enjoyed our Irish breakfast with tea, bacon and egg. As the weather was great, we could take a close look around our country house: lush green meadows, a hillock, a small river, cows and horses grazing on willows and to top all of that a blue sky. Ireland at it’s best! Around 1 p.m. we met in Wexford at a quaint pub with live music. It was all very cosy and we could all taste our first Guinness. At 2 p.m. we had a very interesting tour through Wexford, although it became very stormy again and rained.
Afterwards, we had to take leave from the Wexford women as Maria’s and Nuncie’s families were expecting them back home. Pauline and Marian had already sincerely said good-bye to us the evening before. It was really impressive what these women had prepared for us - hopefully we will hear from one another again.
.
Monday, 4th November 2002
Thanks to Käthe’s wake-up call we got up on time and after a short breakfast we returned to Dublin by train. This time we could enjoy the rail journey as we were able to see something of the Irish countryside, including all the lovely beaches of Wexford. We also saw a lot of sheep and for once, it didn’t rain. In Dublin we said goodbye to the three Danish women. At least some of us will be able to meet with Mona during the next meeting in Esbjerg.
We had a stop over of three hours in Dublin. We split up in small groups to see something of the city. At Trinity College we met again for the tour of the library and the “Book of Kells”. Before leaving for the airport we had some refreshments at “Bewley’s Oriental Café”. At 4 p.m. we were on board our flight to Frankfurt, all through it was crowded and hot and we had a lot of turbulences. The approach on nightly Frankfurt was great. We had to jog through the airport to reach our train to Mannheim. We not only reached this train on time but also the connecting one to Ulm! In Stuttgart Gerrit said goodbye and invited us to her institute in Tübingen.
During the remaining train journey to Ulm, Gesa explained how we should present our journey to Wexford to the rest of the project group. All of us got a share of work to do.
Shortly after 10 p.m. we were happy to have reached Ulm and home.
We have a lot of interesting impressions; our admiration and deep respect goes out to the strong women of Wexford. Within our Ulm FA group everything went well and all in all it was a splendid group sharing.

to the top