October 8, 2020

Grantee:  Women’s Initiatives, Blijniy, Moldova 

Project: Group and individual psychological and legal counselling for women suffering from domestic violence, developing guidelines on the theme: ‘Your family is not the place for fear, violence or cruel treatment’.

Being a woman means to improve oneself, develop and always be happy.  

Many women would like to fulfil their creative potential and exist as an individual without having their lives restricted exclusively to day-to-day work and household issues. But unfortunately our lives are like that of a zebra, and a black stripe can last much longer than a white one. How can we let ourselves relax, stop thinking about problems and seek support, most of all if you are alone or find no understanding at home? The times have passed when women’s main role was home-building and raising children. Now we build our careers and work more or less as equals with men. So, in order to get some respite, exchange experiences in our career development and lives, we are setting up women’s clubs. 

‘I’m a woman’ is the name of the club which was opened with financial support from the BEARR Trust on the basis of the non-profit partnership Women’s Initiatives, where women meet irrespective of nationality, status or age. Here they experience unity, learn the real meaning of support and mutual assistance, and learn more quickly than before how to resolve personal problems and how to extricate themselves from stressful situations, including those involving violence.  

Our town is small, and offers few opportunities for personal development, so the women’s club is the place women go back to again and again after attending a course there. It is a unique and interesting place, attracting a stream of new clients. Their meetings help bring about a new understanding of themselves, as women, while learning how to work with their inner child, to see life in a simpler way, gain the ability to resolve issues by themselves, and push back their fears. Meetings at the women’s club are not just discussions with experts and trainers. Films and cartoons are shown, there are relaxation and visualisation sessions, and a whole range of ways for participants to feel stability and confidence in the present and their future.  

Today the role of the club is especially important: self-isolation has had a particularly strong effect on family relationships, so it is especially important to stay positive, strong and patient. Organising thematic training sessions, debates, competitions, and exchanges of experience in preventative work as well as the consequences of violence in the home, as well as raising the status of women in society as a whole, help with positivity so that women are not lost in the flow of events.  

The ‘I’m a Woman’ club was set up so that during a time of global change the role of women in modern society can become stronger, participants’ professional and entrepreneurial skills can develop, so that their status rises and they are able to access a better quality of life. Participants can build on their success, achieve ways of being happy and seek new opportunities in their lives. It is important to enable more women’s clubs to be set up. Getting together in these clubs, women can lose their inner tension, gain energy and strength, broaden their outlook and discuss with others the things they aren’t able to say to their husbands. Such clubs have become part of the lives of most European women and bit by bit are becoming part of everyday life for the female half of our country’s population too.  

All this was possible thanks to the support of the BEARR Trust! 

Contact: 
Natalya Basyul 
Women’s Initiatives
Blijniy, Moldova 
jenskieinitsiativi@mail.ru