Working Women's Network

The International Federation of Business and Professional Women is a worldwide organisation that promotes the concerns of working women everywhere. It was formed in the early decades of the last century when women had to fight hard for the rights of education and employment.

Today the federation boasts thousands of members in clubs all over the world - from America to Zimbabwe. South Africa has some half-a-dozen affiliated clubs, and one in particular, the Outeniqua Business and Professional Women's Club, has been active for over 15 years. It is a great way for the working women of small towns to meet, to learn, to exchange ideas and to share their expertise - not only with other women locally, but with women from all over the country and the world.

BPW Outeniqua is also making its mark in the community with the Phambile! (a Xhosa word that means "Onward!") group of projects that it pilots. Phambile! consists of four inter-linked ventures, all designed to improve the lot of women in the area:

Rape Crisis offers immediate support and counsel to rape victims, and it has established a secluded Rape Crisis examination room at the local hospital. Rape victims can be comforted, medically examined and treated there, away from the bustle of the rest of the hospital.

The Refuge for Battered Women accommodates, for three months, the women and their kids who must flee domestic violence. During that period the women undergo a life-skills and empowerment training program to help them to return safely to their homes.

An Interdict Office has been opened at the magistrate's courthouse. Volunteers sit there every morning to comfort and advise people who are in need of a protection order in terms of South Africa's new Domestic Violence Act, and also to help them to fill out and submit the necessary forms.

And, an Intermediary Room (a separate room from which rape and sexual abuse victims can testify via closed-circuit TV, without having to face their abuser in the courtroom) at the court house has been re-decorated to make it more welcoming for the traumatised victims who qualify to testify there - many of whom are very young children.

But the club does not only look to the interests of the needy women in the community, it also actively serves the needs of the professional and business women who are its members, tries to help them overcome the gender based problems they encounter.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic