The Young Women's Association is aimed to support the development of young women's skills and to enable them to pursue leadership roles on issues that affect their daily lives. The topical program is structured in a way that provides ingenuity and flexibility to the facilitator and can be altered at the lesson level to ensure relevancy to the specific needs and social context of each group of women. The sequence of lessons and themes can also be altered.
The themes educate women on their rights and foster the development of their strengths and confidence. The suggested activities and workshops seek to motivate and enable young women to believe in their ability to generate change and encourage others to do the same. It is a flexible tool for exploring issues from the environment and sustainability, to human rights and violence against women, to body image, self-esteem, leadership development, and career planning.
The goals of the association are centred on more than just awareness raising; we strive to ensure that this awareness is translated into practical and meaningful community action and social responsibility. Through this awareness/action approach, we create participatory avenues to developing leadership by catalyzing young women's incentive to volunteer and care for their community. We facilitate the creation of practical opportunities for these women to become involved, with the goal of self-sustenance by way of local volunteer leadership.
By facilitating the empowerment of young women and the development of strong female leaders, we hope to foster a community of local women who will take responsibility for the issues surrounding them and encourage others to do the same. Young Women's IDEA's role in encouraging local volunteers is an essential goal in creating a dedicated and sustainable presence in the communities in which we work.
We aim to:
Provide a forum for young women to meet and build alliances for individual, social and professional support:
- Empower and sensitise young women on gender issues so as to improve the quality of their lives
- Empower young women living in fundamentally patriarchal communities with self development and life skills
- Develop leadership qualities among women and spread awareness about their entitlements like the right to work, right to food and right to health
- Build the practical skills of young women, increase their confidence and capacity as leaders and provide opportunities for their positive participation in the community
