Athens, 15-18 April 2010
The 2nd meeting of the partners of the Project WOMENTOR II took place in Athens, 15-18 April 2010. The WOMENTOR II project was undertook by the Board members of the European Federation of Mentoring for girls and women. EDEM is one of the founding members of te Federation and is represented in the Board. Mentoring is discussed this period a lot in Greece because Ministry of Education has introduced mentoring concept in a new law. The meeting was hosted in Athens so local organizer of the meeting was EDEM.
The meeting was hosted in the premises of the Panhellenic Association of Engineers Contractors of Public Works (PEDMEDE) in the centre of Athens. EDEM’s Board and EDEM’s secretariat made their best to organize a fruitful meeting with interesting social part and support the WOMENTOR partners.
The opening of the meeting was on Thursday 15th April 2010 and the General Secretary of Equality Mrs. Maria Stratigaki was invited and gave the official opening of the meeting, presenting the concept of the government in equality issues. The WOMENTOR partners were also introduced to her and they represented their major initiatives.
This first session continued with the presentation of psychological tools one of the partners (CENTRAS CONSTANTA) use for the mentor-mentee matching. It was very interesting experience as at the end all of us we were separated in mentors & mentees and practiced these tools.
Friday, 16th and Saturday 17th April 2010 were dedicated to discussions to finalize the texts of the guidelines for Mentoring for girls & women. For this reason every partner presented his own methods and tools for the mentoring projects realized previously and also the conclusions (advantages-disadvantages-tips) from their experience.
Aim of the 'European Federation of Mentors for girls and women'- WOMENTOR is to establish and facilitate the communication and contact between NGO’s which are preoccupied with mentoring for girls & women as a tool for achieving equal opportunities. There are different concepts and practices for mentoring and WOMENTOR can support exchange of opinions about different views and methods practicing mentoring especially for girls and women. WOMENTOR should also organize a network of experts in mentoring for girls and women which will promote equal opportunities and no-discriminations in education and occupation.
On Sunday 18th April 2010, the future activities and collaboration between partners were discussed. EDEM’s collaboration with CENTRAS CONSTANTA from Romania was an example on how all partners can exchange their mentoring methods and experience.
In the Athens meeting also participated: EDEM’s Board member selected as experts, EDEM’s young members interesting in mentoring and representatives of other women associations and NGO’s.
EDEM would like to thank specially:
- Mrs. Edi Kendrou, archaeologist and historian, ex. President of the Greek Women Scientists Association, who guided us in the new Acropolis Museum in Athens for free.
- Mrs. Nicl Tsatsouli, Manager and funding member of DESMA, an association of Greek women managers, who offered her car and her driving skills for the visit in the Poseidon Temple at Sounio Cape.
Although economic situation on Greece did not allow national support, EDEM succeeded to have the support of PEDMEDE, of members of EDEM and also from members of other women NGOs and succeeded to fulfill the social part of the event as it was scheduled.
We hope that our efforts to organize a fruitful and pleasant meeting were successful and WOMENTOR partners left Athens with mentoring guidelines in their PC’s and full of ideas for future projects.
