The local newspaper, Kaleva, had a news item today that the Chairman of a new organisation to help women of ethnic minorities in Oulu will be none other than Chaff participant, Ildikó Hámos.
at the last CHAFF Meeting
Ildikó produced this carved TURNIP with a little bit of help from the Master Vegetable Carver: Unnop!
Ildikó had emailed me about 2 weeks ago:
What concerns immigrant women and problems with violence in Oulu, I have something new to say. Last week I was elected spokesperson of the newly founded Oulun Monika Naiset ry, which is a voluntary organization fighting for the rights of foreign women in the region.
Right now there is no funding available, but one of the most important tasks - and one of the reasons why the organization was created - is to apply for money in order to be able to sustain an emergency phone line for immigrant women with violent family members.
At the moment Anna Vasilieva is working for the organization with the help of the labour market service, they are paying some työllistämistuki to her and she keeps a phone line open where she gives advice to Russian women with such problems.
In the future the aim is to have more languages and to arrange trainings for immigrant women so that they can be support persons for other women.
Monika Oulu is an daughter organization of Monika-Naiset Liitto in Helsinki.
At this moment the active and professional support of victims is unfortunately impossible without resources, but at least what we can do is to help the women in orientation and linking them up with proper professional help.
I think it is a good idea to make the existence of such an organization public in immigrants´ circles, so that immigrants supporting immigrants is made visible also when trying to get funding from different state/local organizations.
I do hope all of you in CHAFF will be able to find it in your heart to extend support to our Oulu Monika organisation. Annikki and I have on several occasions had to extend our personal support to women in distress - so three cheers for Oulu MONIKA.
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