Cyberstreet
Contributions of Civil Society Organisations to the Well-Being of Families
World Federation of Ukrainian Women's Organizations
Adress:
2118 A Bloor Street West
Suite 205
Toronto, Ontario M6S 1M8
Canada
Contact person:
Martha Kichorowska Kebalo, Main UN Rep/ECOSOC
Contact e-mail:
mkebalo@aol.com
Telephone:
718-291-4166
Content:
Established in 1948 in Philadelphia by ten women’s organizations, the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations (WFUWO) is now based in Toronto and unites 27 organizations from 17 countries outside of Ukraine. Committed to the success of democracy and respect for human rights in their once-Soviet dominated homeland, the WFUWO supports the women’s NGO sphere in independent Ukraine and often holds annual meetings there in order to encourage the participation of Ukraine’s women’s movement organizations. Most of the WFUWO member organizations identify as families-oriented, while engaging in a spectrum of civic, religious, cultural, educational and humanitarian goals. They typically support ethnic identity and Ukrainian literacy in the diaspora communities, sponsoring preschool and Ukrainian language/heritage school programs, folk-craft seminars, and establishing museum exhibits. The Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, Inc (New York) in particul!
ar has a longstanding scholarship program and has recently (as of September 2012) endowed a women’s studies lectureship for gender education at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. WFUWO member organizations also conduct humanitarian work targeting orphaned, disabled and seriously ill children and families in crisis both in Ukraine and in the Ukrainian diaspora. The major diasporan communities of the post WWII era were in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Poland, the USA; but in the recent post-Soviet decades, Ukrainian self-help organizations have appeared in several more countries to which Ukrainian migrants are relative newcomers: in Scandinavia (Stockholm in particular) and also Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Italy.
One of the largest new Ukrainian migrant communities is that of Italy, where the industrial region of Naples has become a focal point of community organization. The Ukrainian community of Italy has 174,129 regular residents, of which only 35,811 are men which means that this migrant community is mostly female (138,318 women according to ISTAT 2009). Two new women’s organizations have formed in Italy to address the needs of these female migrants and have joined the WFUWO federation in the past decade: The Association of Ukrainian Women in Italy (a voluntary NGO which tends to the educational and cultural needs of the children and families) and the Association of Ukrainian Women Workers in Italy (Associazione delle Donne Lavoratrici Ucraine in Italia,) which is headquartered in Rome (www.ukrit.org ).
As of 2004, the Association of Ukrainian Women in Italy runs a school of Ukrainian Studies in Naples. In 2013, the association was the co-organizer along with an international Ukrainian literary society (Nadkhnennia/Inspiration) of a children’s international poetry competition (called Dzerelo Nadiji/ Source of Hope) which encouraged children to describe their experiences and express their aspirations in a literary genre beloved by the Ukrainian community. This sort of exercise instills pride in one’s heritage among a foreign born generation and supports their fluency in the language of their homeland, which in turn, encourages better intergenerational communication as well as supporting satisfying contact with members of one’s extended family across political borders.
As an example of one of the many projects taken up by member organizations of the WFUWO, this report highlights the work of the Association of Ukrainian Women Workers in Italy, founded in 2004. The mission of this Association is to advocate for the rights and opportunities of immigrant women, to promote their inclusion and integration in Italy, and to help their families cope with the negative consequences of migration. In general, the Association collaborates with other organizations to implement various research projects and seminars (round tables, conferences, lectures, debates) and conducts adult training activities (extension courses in the economic and social sciences). It also publishes materials re international politics, economics, social issues, science, the arts, leisure, business training and consulting. Association members also enjoy an array of sponsored recreational activities (libraries/reading rooms, opportunities for theater-going and attending concerts,
entertainment for the elderly and for children, social dinners, screenings of films and documentaries).
In 2011 the Ukrainian Women Workers in Italy collaborated with the administration of the city of Rome in a project called Pink Positive. Pink Positive is an initiative funded by the Office for the promotion of equal treatment and the removal of discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin (the Department for Equal Opportunities - Presidency of the Council of Ministers) implemented by ACLI (Christian Workers\' Associations Italian) with the cooperation of the city of Rome. The project was designed to address issues concerning Ukrainian migrant women in Italy: especially issues of work, their individual rights and their opportunities for integration into Italian society. The project also launched an information campaign for women in Ukraine, as there is a widespread and high degree of misinformation circulating in Ukraine about the job prospects awaiting the female emigrant.. The project also serve to prepare migrants for the significant discrimination they might encounter due to stereotypes harbored in Italy about Ukrainian and Eastern European women—stereotypes that are linked to gender and age and which serve to limit their participation in the Italian workforce to domestic and care-giving roles.
The Association’s activities 2007-2012 include the establishment of “Ukrainian School On Line” and a series of sponsored community efforts. Among these was a multifaceted event called “The World in Rome” which featured a dramatic theatre production, a concert (organized by the Ukrainian School “Prestige” in Rome), an exhibit of traditional Ukrainian cookery, and a show of Ukrainian traditional folk costumes. The Association also sponsored a conference on transnational families featuring a lecture (delivered in Lviv, March 22, 2012) entitled “Transnational Families, The Drama of Being a Mother from a Distance: Problems and Possible Solutions.” The topic of transnational families is of particular interest to those experiencing the social up-rootedness of migration and to those concerned with monitoring and ameliorating its negative effects on the family.
Also, the Association of Ukrainian Working Women in Italy collaborated with an IOM Study of the negative consequences of mothers’ labor migration on their children left behind, using a community-based approach to study children in the regions of Ternopil and Chernivtsi in western Ukraine. The final report was published in November 2010 ( “Final Report: Capacity Building action towards Ukrainian local institution for the empowerment of migratory an social-educational policies on behalf of children, women and local communities” authored by Cristina Montefusco, Project focal point, Psychosocial and Cultural Integration Unit, IOM, Italy.)