Women Learning for Work Project-Second Year Graduation Event Report

KMEWO organised a Graduation Event for the Women Learning for Work Project on 10 July 2018. The aim of this event was to celebrate the learners’ success and to recognize their commitment to personal development in the Women Learning for Work project. On this day, the KMEWO staff shared their experiences of the Women Learning for Work Project and the progress made by the learners

The event happens at Caxton House. It was a great success and was attended by 56 students and 35 officials, staff members and friends. Also present at the event were representatives from the Big Lottery Fund, the Mayor of Islington, Cllr Dave Poyser, two local councillors: Michelline Safi Ngongo and Marian Spall, and professionals from the Working Men’s College and from the Islington iWork team, Caxton House and Islington VCS team.

The day started by a welcome word by KMEWO director Sawsan Salim. She welcomed all those present then proceeded to give a brief history of KMEWO and its achievements in the 19 years of its existence.  She said we have been working very closely with Kurdish, Middle Eastern and North African women and are proud to witness the changes these women go through. With the help of our services, we have been able to protect these women and guarantee them a safe environment as well as help them get into education or work. She then thanked her staff for all their hard and professional work and thanked BL and all the funders as well Islington Council for their support and dedication. She finished by thanking our partners who are supporting us with the project and said that she hoped to continue helping and aiding women in need.

This was then followed by a presentation by KMEWO’s Zekiye Kartal, Development Worker,  in which she outlined KMEWO’s aims: to improve the quality of women’s lives, to relieve women’s distress and suffering, to promote women’s human rights and increase their opportunities and life choices.  She then gave a brief description of the support services available at KMEWO, the courses we provide and the centres we’ve worked with to deliver them.  She ended with a rundown of the project’s achievements’ for the year 2017 to 2018 our courses and KMEWO’s plans for the coming year.

Several women shared their stories and made some touching speeches:
N.J.:  “I would like to say a big thank you to KMEWO, my teachers and my friends who gave me this opportunity to be here. I have learned a lot from the courses.  You have opened a lot of doors for me that I never thought would be possible.”

C.F.: “I would like to tell all vulnerable women who think they cannot become a better person, you can improve yourself, just come to KMEWO. They are here to support you in many ways. They will support you with any problems that are too much for you to handle by improving your English, IT skills, Health and Social care…They even help with your immigration issues. They are here to listen and help. KMEWO is the best place to be.”

S.A.: “KMEWO offered me many different courses: ESOL Entry 2 and entry 3, Computer, free advice and Zumba. Now I am going to college and taking ESOL Level 1 and a Hair Beauty Course. What have I learned in KMEWO’s courses? Before I was shy but now I am more open to talking to people. Learning English helped my confidence!  After 20 years living in UK – I was able to go back home to Somalia alone, and could see my family again, finally.”

A.M.: “I am a 36 year old graduate of International relations and mother of 3. I stumbled across KWEMO through a message my neighbour sent me regarding an introduction to childcare workshop. She knew I would be interested as I am a private tutor and I have wanted to pursue a career in teaching. I held back for so long because I am a carer to my middle child who has special needs and other medical issues. Over time I had become insecure in going back into education as I had been out of a structured learning environment for so many years. This opportunity with KMEWO gave me a chance to start again by dipping my toes back into the water, so to speak. So far I have done two courses with KMEWO: Introduction to childcare course and Teaching assistant course. I had the opportunity to also go on a safeguarding workshop through KMEWO. They have both provided me with a wealth of knowledge as well as other amazing opportunities. These courses have guided me towards taking some very big and important steps in my future for learning and teaching.”

This was followed by a short presentation by KMEWO’s Gona Saed, Development Manager, explaining KMEWO’s “Whole person approach” to migrant women’s learning. She began by identifying migrant women in the UK and the barriers to these women’s learning and how these social, political and cultural barriers can stand in the way of women’s ambitions, lifelong goals and hopes for the future.  She went on to recount the three projects that KMEWO has undertaken so far in relation to educating women (2009-2011: Volunteering and upskilling women, 2012-2015: Women Learning for Living, 2016-2019: Women Learning for Work) and explained how ESOL was a gateway for improving the quality of life of these women. Through ESOL classes’ women were coming together, sharing, rebuilding, recovering, healing, challenging, speaking, listening, learning, studying, growing and much more. Gona outlined the framework of this approach as well as the challenges facing it and outlined the good practice strategies that need to be followed in order to guarantee the continuous success of KMEWO’s approach.

Next Councillor Michelline Safi Ngongo made a short speech in which she said that women coming to UK face many barriers: immigration, language, culture and their husbands. She thanked KMEWO for the opportunity to work together with the Islington Council for the benefit of many. She stated that the Islington councillors are proud of the work KMEWO is doing and will continue to give us the support we need.

Mr. Omer Sener a teacher at Rumi Mosque, a new partner of KMEWO’s, also said it was an honour for him to participate in KMEWO’s WLW project which responds to an important need for English courses that empower women and help them to break through the language barrier.

Finally the Mayor of Islington, Dave Poyser gave out the certificates to the successful candidates congratulating them profusely and happily taking photographs with each one of them.

The celebrations continued with lunch, music, dancing, cake and distribution of prizes to the lucky winners of the raffle tickets. Nine women have won vouchers provided by Better in Islington for free swimming and other classes for women and their families.

The event ended at 3.00pm concluding another successful year of the WLW project funded by Big Lottery.

Some feedback from the student regarding the graduation event:
“The event was wonderful, everything was great”

“Everything was very good. The activities were nice and I wish you could have more events like this.”

“It was wonderful; I enjoyed the activities and the food the most.”

KMEWO’s work on the WLW project is gaining in strength continuously. We are growing in number of students, number of classes and number of women reached and helped.

We are all looking forward to the coming year ..