Purpose:
Women are the primary victims of the intertwined causes of conflicts, underdevelopment and migration. To address these issues, in a sustainable and humanitarian way, migrants should be assisted in building a new life in the respective host societies and upgrading their potential.
Stimulus/Rationale:
The 241FE community developed, tested and implemented new concepts of training, forming business models and introducing experimentation and piloting, so that the migrant women develop their entrepreneurial skills, train others and enter the labor market. Emphasis was put to establishing links with their places of origin (where possible) in order to encourage bilateral agreements and exchange of best practices.
Process:
The 241FE is a European project funded by ERASMUS+ program. The partnership includes:
CERES (NL) – Coordinator / http://www.ceres.cc/
COOSS Marche (IT) / https://www.cooss.it/en/
MedWomen (ES) / https://medwomen.es/
DAFNI KEK (GR) / https://www.kekdafni.gr/en/ (linked with the local ICC network and the city of Patras)
The activities and outcomes are briefly described hereafter:
-Train the trainers/coaches: this activity developed the coaches who then accompanied the refugee/migrant women during their self-development process. A national train the trainer course was implemented in each partner country for this regard that was be based upon the handbook for trainer/coach .
-Implementation of an online training course: The content was designed through a participatory process with the active involvement of migrant women, so that to safeguard that a gender sensitive approach is applied (gender lens – equality), by providing them with the opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial skills and to start their own business. The migrant/refugee women who participated in the training course were accompanied by a trainer-coach.
-Formation and activation of a learning network: in each partner country (city) a learning environment was shaped, that supported the activation of migrant women, i.e. ¡input from workplaces, chambers of commerce, banks, labour agencies, tax authorities and business consulting agencies ¡opportunities offered by asylum seeker centres, refugee reception organizations, (re)migration services and self-organizations of migrants and refugees
-Testing the 241FE business model: During the pilot phase of the 241FE project, the business ideas of the refugee/migrant women were applied in practice. For this regard, the trainers/coaches and the learning network infrastructure provided full support to the women, in order to achieve their entrepreneurial goals into the labour market. The links with the place of origin were exploited, where applicable, according to the business idea.
Remark:
The DAFNI KEK is the Greek partner of the 241FE project and implemented it in Patras, through active cooperation with local stakeholders (migrant communities included) within the framework of the effective intercultural management at city level (ICC activation).
Impact:
A learning infrastructure was created accompanied by new learning tools that were developed. Mentoring and assistance to refugee and migrant women were provided regarding entrepreneurship as means to enter the labour market.
Migrant and refugee women were supported to believe and use their potential, being equal members of the host society.
The infrastructure and the tools are maintained even after the end of the project and are available, free of charge, to the migrant associations to be used by anyone interested in launching business initiatives and/or coaching.
Key reference documents: https://241fe.eu/
