The Ethiopian Women’s Empowerment Group (EWEG) was established in November 2003 by seven Ethiopian refugee women volunteers as a response to the unmet needs of refugees and migrants women living in the UK.
EWEG now works with all refugee and migrant women in need regardless of their country of origin. Through projects such as access to education and employment, social gatherings and family learning programmes which increase skills, knowledge and confidence EWEG empowers these women.
EWEG sees empowerment as a process of learning that creates active and dynamic individuals as main actors of the community they live in, who are able to speak up for their own rights and able to achieve their goals. The process of empowerment takes in consideration the difficulties that the life of being a migrant or refugee woman may entail, so it is deemed as a very articulate process that aims at strengthening the physical and mental well-being of women as a preamble for their active role in the community.
EWEG conceives empowerment as a tool for fighting wrong stereotypes which often label the image of refugees and migrants. Tackling this “mistrusting” tendency, EWEG promotes a fairer image of migrants and refugees women through projects whose outcomes are proof of the valuable contribution that these women offer to the UK society.