Robert Bosch Stiftung

The goal of Female Fellows e.V. is to give refugee women and girls the opportunity to unleash their potential and find their place in society. The Empowerment Project focuses on strengthening women’s partnerships (Tandems) and supporting the resulting sense of belonging. Workshops in the areas of self-assertion and self-defense, implemented in collaboration with women from all countries of origin, as well as workshops on topics such as migration, integration, societal development, and cultural events, are intended to support this initiative. Trained personnel work on these projects, catering to the individual needs of the women. In addition to experts from various fields, a personal contact person is available to support the partnerships in the long term to assist the women. Providing childcare is an important prerequisite to enable women with children to successfully participate in our Empowerment Project. One of the project’s outcomes should be that the integration of women leads to better overall family integration. It is also crucial that the project operates at the local level, allowing the offering to be very efficiently managed through personal contacts.

challenges and opprtunities in covid-19

We were extremely excited to finally begin the Female Empowerment Project. The project was funded by the Bosch Foundation from 2020 to 2022. However, everything took an unexpected turn: COVID-19 arrived, and as a result, all planned events were canceled. It was a very challenging period for our organization, as we had been struggling with limited resources even before, and our success relied heavily on personal relationships with our partnerships (Tandems). Internally, we had to completely rethink this concept.

Fortunately, the pandemic brought a surge of volunteers who wanted to support us, especially in terms of organization. This led to the development of our first digitalization concepts, such as online events and online tandem interviews. We cooked, laughed, exchanged ideas, did yoga together, and even sang together online. For all these wonderful events, we owe a huge thanks to our amazing organizing team, without whom it wouldn’t have been possible.

Flucht & Integration – “My name is not refugee”

In the workshop on the topic of escape and integration, Masooma Torfa criticized the fact that people are often reduced to their flight from their home country and emphasized that her name is not “refugee” (“My name is not refugee”).

In German, we predominantly use the word “Flüchtling” (refugee), whether in the media or in daily life. According to the Neuen deutschen Medienmacher (New German Media Makers), a collective of media professionals with and without a migration background, words ending in “-ling” tend to diminish and are often negatively connoted (e.g., intruder, pest, etc.). Furthermore, the word “Flüchtling” reduces individuals to a part of their biography and turns their flight into an identity marker. An alternative term that can be used is, for example, “Geflüchteter/Geflüchtete” (refugee).

In the workshop, we also discussed what integration means to us and arrived at the following answers:

• Equality
• Tolerance and appreciation
• Mutual communication
• Expectation: Adaptation
• Participation in society
• Mutual learning from each other

self-perception and mindfulness

On June 29, 2022, Sophia from @kopfkultur.stuttgart conducted a mindfulness workshop for us. We explored how to be more mindful in our daily lives, how to integrate meditations into our routines, and engaged in exercises related to perception. Together, we learned to meditate, gaining initial experiences and insights into how we perceive things and the difference between doing and being. With snacks and beverages, we spent a lovely afternoon filled with engaging conversations and valuable workshop content.

Women and Integration