The Circle Italy visits Oxfam Italy in BiH

Enrica Ghia, Camilla Bove, Isabella Boromeo and Maria Cecilia Andretta visited Oxfam regional office in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 25 – 29 April 2013. They are all members of the Circle of Oxfam in Italy, who wanted to get familiar with the ground work that Oxfam implements in South East Europe (SEE).

---

This was the first visit the Circle members made to South East Europe region.

They were very interested to meet women of BiH from different backgrounds, to talk, to find out more about the problems that women of BiH face today, to learn about their female experiences of the world they have to live in and how they feel they can address problems in their society.

---

During their stay, the Circle members were taken to meet the partners in Srebrenica, Bratunac, Stolac, Mostar, Pocitelj and Sarajevo, the projects mostly engaging and empowering women. They have also tasted some of the BiH traditional products, such as cheese, wine and honey,  some of which they took home to their families to taste, too.

On Sunday, 28 April 2013 the Circle members met some of the women from BiH of different professional backgrounds and social engagement. They were teaching professors, researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs and NGO activists.   During the relaxed conversation, they were exchanging experiences  and stories from their own personal and professional lives. Women came a long way in claiming their right to be equally treated in the World, but there is still so much of work to be done in order to recognize the woman’s contribution to the society in both countries. They concluded that their female experiences are not so much different,  and agreed that the economic empowerment of women is the main key in enabling women to make their own choices and decisions about their own lives. That is why the women from two countries agreed to stay in touch and support each other in activities towards achieving equal recognition of the women’s influence to that of the men.

---

The women from the Circle bring back home to Italy the ideas on specific fundraising that can be done in order to help strengthen the OIT assistance to women in  the SEE region.

The Circle is a group of influential women who support Oxfam’s work with vulnerable women living in poverty worldwide. To find out more visit  www.oxfamitalia.org/the-circle