|
|
COMMUNITY OUTREACH |
A third goal of our Club, as set forth in the BWC Statutes adopted in 2022, is to support projects in favor of women, girls, and children. Through diverse "Community Outreach" efforts, we strive to get involved in the fabric of our local community at a grass roots level.
Recent BWC Community Outreach Engagements
|
Les Blouses Roses Les Blouses Roses" is a state-approved charity whose volunteers intervene in hospitals to comfort and bring cheer to children and older adults through conversation and recreational activities. For many years, BWC members donated Christmas gifts to Les Blouses Roses for distribution to individual hospitalized children. Since 2019, to adapt to the real needs of this organization, BWC members are given the opportunity to donate material items, such as infant clothing, or tax deductible funds. The latter serve to purchase needed supplies, such as the arts and crafts materials, books and games used to distract and entertain the hospitalized children. |
|
| Tandem In 2021 and 2022, our Club joined forces with Bordeaux students to help legal refugee women in the Science Po sponsored "Each One" program adapt to life in France. A dozen BWC volunteers became "buddies" for these displaced women, who arrived in Bordeaux from places with populations in conflict, including China and countries in Africa and the Mideast. We called our partnership with "Each One" and with each legal refugee woman "Tandem". The Tandem name suggests the synchronized efforts of two entities towards a common goal. While "Each One" helped the refugee women via formal French language instruction and job placement assistance, BWC volunteers were present to share a cup of coffee, conversation in French, outings in the Bordeaux area, and friendship. About a dozen motivated BWC members were involved in this Tandem effort. Even if the university partnership recently ceased due to a Science Po decision to reorganize their "Each One" program, the BWC remains open to continuing with a similar project. One-on-one actions and relationships seem to generate a lot of personal satisfaction among our Club volunteers. www.Eachone.org |
Féminité Sans Abri In 2019 and 2021, BWC members donated personal care products and sewed toiletry bags for Féminité sans Abri to hand over to homeless women.
|
|
|
Looking back on some past actions |
In 2019-2020, a first TANDEM project paired a BWC member with a foreign female student from the DEFLE at the University of Bordeaux-Montaigne. The goal of these TANDEM pairs was to create a friendly relationship between someone who had lived in France and “knew the ropes” with someone who had recently arrived and who wanted to make her life here. We feel that being involved with female refugees is appropriate because BWC members are or have been foreigners in a foreign land, and are all trying to “Find their place and feel at home” in Bordeaux / France. These enriching fellowships laid the foundations for our partnership with EachOne… |
2019 – The BWC granted scholarships to women refugees studying at the DEFLE, University of Bordeaux-Montaigne, to allow them to take an exam proving their level of proficiency in order to pursue their studies in France. In 2018, the BWC donated excess funds to Association Toutes à l’école (direct donation), Association Tremplin (school supplies and computer), and The Women and Children of Brama Charity (school fees for three young women pursuing a teaching certificate at Adkan’s College in Sierra Leone). |
The Bordeaux Women's Club is an Association Loi 1901 organisation. Bordeaux France © 2021. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED |