Women Supporting Women at Heart of the NETWORK's Community Outreach Event

On Wednesday evening, the NETWORK, Luxembourg's oldest international professional business women's association, held a community outreach event at Sofitel Hotel Kirchberg.

In the run-up to its 30th anniversary, the NETWORK organised this unique event to showcase the work of other local associations engaged in supporting women. Attendees received tokens upon arrival (one for non-members, three for members); these each represented a sum of €500 and would be used as a voting chit at the end of the evening, following presentations by a select group of women's organisations.

The evening began with opening remarks from the NETWORK President Marie Louise Ashworth, who explained the event concept: to celebrate the milestone of supporting women for 30 years, the NETWORK wanted to "honour and acknowledge other organisations engaged in supporting women in Luxembourg". Attendees would first listen to presentations from the various organisations and chat with them at their information stands before voting for the one(s) they would like to support with a donation. The number of votes would then be turned into a percentage. 

In this context, Marie Louise Ashworth announced that the NETWORK planned to organise several charity events over the next year as part of its 30th anniversary, and these organisations would thus receive the stated percentage of proceeds. She emphasised that every one of the organisations present would receive some kind of donation over the coming twelve months. The NETWORK President also announced that the organisation was currently looking for a charity liaison officer to help coordinate these events for the one-year period.

Organisations

Think Pink Luxembourg: Margot Parra explained how the organisation began ten years ago when a group of women, mainly coming from the International School in Luxembourg, decided to hold a Ladies Night. The unexpected turnout led to the creation of the Think Pink Luxembourg organisation, which supports women diagnosed with cancer, outside their home country and who may lack the necessary language skills to fully understand the procedure. As such, Think Pink Luxembourg has published a guide in English for cancer patients. It also organises support groups (often with survivors) and talks and regularly participates in charity events such as the ING Night Marathon and the first Race for the Cure in Luxembourg, which Think Pink Luxembourg actually organised. The organisation raises awareness but also money for research with these events. 

Femmes en Détresse asbl: Representatives from Femmes en Détresse, which this year celebrated its 40th anniversary, presented four of the association's fourteen services on this occasion. These were: NAXI, a professional training and integration centre for women in Luxembourg seeking employment; ViSaVi ("Vivre Sans Violence"), which offers guidance and support to all women who have experienced different forms of domestic violence and seek psychological consultation, legal information and help with administrative procedures; KOPPLABUNZ, which offers a meeting point for women and allows them to participate in various workshops on topics such as personal well-being and the Luxembourg school system, as well as cultural visits and language course; FRAENHAUS, which runs a number of protected women's shelters for women and their children affected by violence and social discrimination.

LuxMama Club & ParentPrep: Founder Marise Hyman presented the non-profit organisation's mission of raising awareness of child birth rights, perinatal mental health and
green parenting alternatives. Set up in 2013, LuxMama advocates the message of "Heal birth to heal earth", particularly placing emphasis on the need to fully acknowledge and respect human rights in child birth, i.e. family rights. Marise Hyman highlighted the need for the state to support women's choices regarding "how, with whom and how long they want to give birth" and reduce "unneeded medical interventions", such as unplanned or unwanted caesarean sections.

Dress for Success (Luxembourg): Founding member Rachel Treece, who was awarded Most Inspiring Women in Entrepreneurship in 2012, presented the mission of Dress for Success of empowering women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help them thrive in work and in life.

The NETWORK will count up the votes and decide how much of the money raised during 2020 for this initiative will be allocated to the participating associations according to the percentages.