Help young women develop self-esteem, self-confidence, and good will to take collective action
What does feminist training in collective intelligence actually mean in concrete terms? Learning to work together by focusing on our points in common to defend the women's cause which is so important to each of us, even if we approach it differently. - Caroline Sakina Brac de la Perrière
The MedWF designed a training program that is meant to strengthen personal capacities and bring out collective intelligence. It is intended for young women and new organizations from diverse Mediterranean countries.
Lasting a total of 15 days, the collective intelligence training program aims to awaken or consolidate participants' self-confidence and esteem of their personal capacities and potential, and equip them to know how to work collectively by managing points of disagreement.
The training consists of three sessions:
The first, "Meet others and get to know oneself", concerns women's relationships with the world, at the individual and collective level: knowing oneself, and understanding the mechanisms of the social system in which one is part as well as those involved in the implementation of a movement for change such as the feminist movement.
The second, “Affirm and defend oneself in public", focuses more on learning how to communicate within a group, including conflict management and communicating with the general public.
The third, “Build and create together”, provides the opportunity to implement the collective intelligence that gradually has been formed over the two preceding sessions.
Our goal is to lead participants to clarify their conscience about the situation of women, to dare to defend their rights and define themselves as feminists without fear of being judged. We make sure that each participant knows how to adapt the form of her engagement to the context in which she lives so that she can protect herself.
Over seven years, this program has been held seven times in four Mediterranean countries (Algeria, France, Morocco, Tunisia) and has trained 180 young women.
"I have been involved in and witnessed periods when there were so many possibilities to move forward but our personal and psychological shortcomings made us miss opportunities. Above all, we were unable to be confident and demonstrate kindness to each other." Caroline Sakina Brac de la Perrière
In the words of participants:
"The training gave me considerable self-confidence to be able to write and implement the projects that I was planning, and find funding for them. I believe in the collective power of women, of our ability to mobilize within a feminine and feminist group. I have learned to listen to and trust myself. The ties forged with the Mediterranean Women's Fund have helped me a lot, because I was given financial support for this project." Atiqa - Aswat Association – Oran (Algeria)
What does feminist training in collective intelligence actually mean in concrete terms? Learning to work together by focusing on our points in common to defend the women's cause which is so important to each of us, even if we approach it differently. - Caroline Sakina Brac de la Perrière
