The ENGAGE Small Grants Programme will be funding two Gender related projects submitted by Civil Society Initiatives across the island. The projects have been selected by means of a Call for Proposals issued by ENGAGE in April 2012.
The successful applicants are the partnership between the Multifunctional bi-communal centre of the Limassol municipality and the Department of Social Work of the Frederick University for their interactive education project “Combating domestic violence and promotion of equality”, and the partnership between the Yeni Bogazici/ Ayios Seryios Women’s Association with informal women’s groups for their project “Join Us for Awareness” [on gender issues].
These projects, which will be receiving four thousand Euros each (€4,000), will be addressing gender and diversity issues through a series of interactive educational workshops and advocacy actions. The focus will be on a variety of social problems within Cypriot society including raising awareness on women’s rights and sourcing help if these rights are violated, asserting gender equality within the family and society, as well as capacity building for women’s entrepreneurship particularly in rural areas.
The theme of “Gender and Diversity” was selected as a result of the Advocacy Campaign that ENGAGE is implementing in its second phase. Within the scope of this campaign, a working group has been established (Active Dialogue Network-ADN), whose aim is to bring together key actors of Cypriot society, each with a different background and expertise. These actors will research gender and diversity issues and develop recommendations that will address aspects of gender role balance and coexistence of diverse and disadvantaged groups. The Network will later promote these recommendations to relevant policy makers with the intent to enact policy change, in order to resolve some of the existing gender problems.
The first round of the Small Grants Programme is designed to strengthen the impact of the work produced by the Gender and Diversity Network. ENGAGE is therefore pleased to support these two initiatives, through the activities of which, the policy recommendations of the Network will be given further boost.
The ENGAGE programme is implemented by the Management Centre and the NGO Support Centre, while supported by the UNDP-Action for Cooperation and Trust (ACT) programme in Cyprus, since April 2009.
