What We Do
Making a Difference around the World
Feminenza funds and directly manages five global initiatives: Trauma Healing, Forgiveness and Reconciliation, Understanding and Managing Fear, Gender Respect, and Transformative Leadership.
Trauma Healing and Community Resilience Development
Breaking the cycle of trauma and violence
International evidence shows that mental health problems invariably start in adolescence and young adults; youth suicide in Europe is high; bullying, abuse, conflict, sustained distress, and trauma is rising; youth are especially prone to peer pressure and delinquency.
Disadvantaged and refugee youth are more at risk: depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and psychosis is 3 times higher than in host populations. With that comes the risk of entanglement in street crime, violence, conflict victimhood, suicide, human trafficking, modern slavery, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, intolerance and being radicalized. In African villages where AIDs has taken hold, stress and anxiety has invariably followed. This in turn has impacted the charity and voluntary sector. In recent project we undertook for the EU 65% of participating NGO workers logged in with a prior history of primary or secondary trauma. COVID has not helped: since 2020 between 1/8 and 1/6 staff in the caring professions in the UK have reported stress, anxiety, depression and PTSD.
Forgiveness & Reconciliation
Where there is no forgiveness, wounds cannot heal
Many parts of the world today are suffering greatly due to long standing conflicts and civil war. Women are frequently the first victims, and suffer the most, and yet often it is the women at the grass roots who have played a key role in conflict resolution and who have always been active promoters of harmony in the community. There are specific pathways to forgiveness and reconciliation that people need to know about to be able to go beyond the path of revenge and violence, and that’s where the Feminenza programme comes in.
Understanding & Managing Fear
Building strength, courage and confidence
Fear is a natural human response to living. Some fears are necessary for survival, some we have to learn to live with. They moderate our lives – whether we are aware of their influence or not. In the task of becoming adult, gathering ourselves, knowing ourselves, having ourselves, having self confidence – the challenge of understanding and managing fear is ongoing. Feminenza offers a two-day experience that is thorough, safe and transformative.
Transformative Leadership
Inner development that inspires positive change
Women taking on the task of leadership need to grow their inner self-leadership qualities to the point where they have the necessary strength, intactness and integrity to be able to resist corruption, resist being undermined, are prepared to stand together in support of their sisters, and can powerfully demonstrate the qualities of feminine leadership which are vital to building a better and more equitable society.