Event took place during the International 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence
Sabine Peters President ZONTA Club Vienna I
Bettina Riedmann Vice President ZONTA Club Vienna I
Renate Pfleger Secretary ZONTA Club Wien I
Margot Fleck Foundation Ambassador ZONTA District 14
Inge Geyer Chair of the UN NGO Committee on Sustainable Development Vienna / Treasurer of the UN Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
On December 2nd, 2022, the members of the ZONTA Club Ploiesti from Romania visited Vienna accompanied by a large number of sympathizers. They initiated to organize a symposium “Inclusion of Children Affected by Migration” as fourth edition of their events “Educational Management Strategies” together with ZONTA Club Vienna I.
The symposium turned out to become quite related to practice. Five Ukraine teachers, connected with ZONTA Club Vienna I by a German Language Course the club had sponsored, took part of the discussions by sharing experiences from the ground.
Some of them have children and are happy about the project of “Bildungsdirektion Wien” supporting them. The children suffer from the complete change of their life. As well it is a great problem for them to get used to a new language.
Integration proceeds step by step, teachers are told to be really supportive, and six months later joint teaching with Austrian children works quite well. Besides, Ukraine language and culture must also be thought and is taught as well. There were special thanks to Austria and Romania for organisation and support in an outstanding manner.
One of the Ukraine Ladies spent the last month in Kiev working as a teacher. She described the poor conditions schools have to face there, working in dark bomb shelters in case of frequent bomb alarm. Sometimes it is too dangerous for children to go to school, sometimes they only can return home in delay.
A Romanian professor presented projects for refugee children in Romania. Integration is challenging and needs much support. Ukraine refugees are mostly mothers and children and the fathers left at home. In many cases mothers have to work. Often they cannot support their children appropriately. Special needs arise for some children with handicaps, who can only be taught extracurricular.
A particular problem is caused by a large number of adolescents. They abandon school and start to work without being qualified, often ending up in illegal employments. There they can easily be exploited. At least it is possible to return to school at any time and graduate.
In a second part of the symposium ZONTA Club Vienna I presented ZONTA, the organization both ZONTA clubs belong to. ZONTA International is a Human Rights organization with focus on women´s rights. There is also the aim to enable women and girls worldwide to live a self-determined and fearless life in an environment, where they can fully develop their whole potential.
103 years ago ZONTA International was founded in the USA. The first club in Europe was ZONTA Club Vienna I founded over 90 years ago. There are 1 103 clubs worldwide with more than 26 000 members in 62 countries. A lot of them have additionally Z-Clubs for schoolgirls and Golden Z-Clubs for female students. Clubs are combined in Areas, Areas in Districts. District borders do not correspond to country borders. That is intended for keeping international contacts. In case there are big countries a similar size of Districts can be guaranteed.
The Clubs work on local projects, like sponsoring or Club awards, and participate in international awards distributed by ZONTA International and in international projects organized by the ZONTA International. ZONTA International Foundation is like a treasurer and is sponsoring awards and projects.
Awards are the “Amelia Earhart Fellowship” for female aerospace engineering students (Amelia Earhart was a famous flight pioneer and one of the Zontians from the very beginning), the “Jane M. Clausman Award” for female students of business administration, the “STEM Award” for female students of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and the “YWPA Award” (Young Women in Public Affairs) for girls between 16 and 19 who do outstanding service to the community.
International Service Projects of ZONTA as a partner of UNICEF (United Nations Children´s Fund) and UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) are “Adolescent Girls´ Health and Protection in Peru, “Her Health and Dignity – our Priority” in Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste to strengthen services for survivors of Gender Based Violence, “Engaging Girls on Climate Change in Madagascar” and “Ending Child Marriage” working in 12 countries in Africa and Asia.
During November 25th to December 10th there are actions and events worldwide to commemorate the “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” initiated by UNFPA. It is to raise awareness and mobilize advocacy to combat gender-based violence in all forms: sexual harassment, child marriage, female genital mutilation, intimate partner violence, rape and other atrocities.
ZONTA International takes part in this campaign under “ZONTA Says NO to Violence Against Women” and encourages all clubs to host actions.
2022 ZONTA Club Vienna I organized information spots on all Viennese public transportation and information screens by showing data on gender-based violence.
ZONTA´s International President made a statement on the campaign: “ZONTA envisions a world where no women live in fear of violence. ZONTA is needed now, more than ever, to continue its work to end violence and build a better world for woman and girls”.
In the following discussion was stated, that many young people do not know enough about Human Rights. In Romanian Highschools there will be a contest on that concluding an essay, thus improving their knowledge.
At the end of the event all participants agreed on the importance to put our voices together to fight for women rights and freedom and against repression and war wherever in the world it occurs.
Article written by
Sabine Peters
President of ZONTA Club Vienna I
