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WFWP Youth Europe, Report 2013

Take a look at what the Youth branch of WFWP have been doing across Europe this past year 2013. A wonderful summary report by Yoshiko Pammer with a selection of pictures covering a number of their events mentioned. Very inspiring work! AUSTRIA We set up “Coffee Meetings” with young women (until now mainly 2G) to meet and discuss certain topics we found relevant and which could connect us more as sisters, between generations and with other younger women. First Coffee Meeting: 26th May. We were 5 sisters (3 second gen, 2 first gen). Renate, the WFWP Austria Director, shared some experiences and we shared out thoughts about womanhood and what we can do as young women. We discussed different topics we would be interested in for future coffee meetings, which included Interfaith, Purity, and Education. Second Coffee Meeting: 25th August. We shared our thoughts about Mother Moon, especially as she is leading our movement after Father Moon's ascension, and about her investment into the youth. Third Coffee Meeting: 1st November. We were 12 sisters (6 second gen, 6 first gen). Maja Riehl, the previous long-standing WFWP Austria Director, shared about “The Heart Behind WFWP”, explaining Mother Moon's accomplishment becoming a woman her husband could trust 100%, after a history of women being untrusted by men. We could share together as sisters of all generations afterwards, enjoying home-made desserts brought by everyone. We have set up a “Coffee Meetings” Facebook group to keep everyone informed about the meetings, and to post up reports, pictures and other interesting articles or news. UK LONDON “Young Women’s Global Voices” event organised in collaboration with NAWO, at Houses of Parliament, April 25th “Youth Achievement Awards” at Houses of Parliament, July 10th “Importance of Education for the Elimination of Violence Against Women” event at the Houses of Parliament, November 26th Sisters retreat in Eastbourne, September Coffee Mornings: July 20th: High Tea August 31st: Traditional American Cooking November 16th: Sushi-Making MANCHESTER Young women meetings: June 30th: “What does it mean to be a woman?” July 31st: “What does the future hold for the girl child living in poverty?” Sept 18th: “How can women be enabled to break the poverty cycle and have the same rights as men?" November 27th: "What role do women have to play in ending global poverty?" December 14th: WFWP Youth Manchester Inauguration event There is a WFWP Youth UK and a WFWP Youth Manchester Facebook group actively in use, to post events, articles, quotes, pictures and reports. ITALY Second Generation sisters have been helping WFWP in Rome and Padova, with conferences, events and meetings. 5-6 of these sisters have been helping to manage the Italian WFWP Facebook page, by publishing articles, quotes, event information, and communicating with guests. NORWAY The WFWP Norway committee has three 2G sisters as board members. They have been working together to organise WFWP events. EUROPE Attendance and contribution at the WFWP International Conference in London, October 7-10th This was the first time we could have a substantial attendance of young women at a European WFWP Conference. 6 Second Generation sisters (from UK, Austria, Italy, Norway) attended the whole conference as participants, 2 other young women attended partially, and another 2 Second Generation sisters supported the conference as translation staff. In total, therefore, we managed to have 10 young women participating at the conference. The young women contributed to the conference by moderating two sessions, and also by organising and hosting the World Café session, which was an interactive series of discussions for the whole conference group. The results from the discussions in the World Café have now been compiled in a more accessible form, which hopefully can be a useful resource and inspiration, to work on our main goals as WFWP International for Vision 2020. The second generation sisters were also invited to a personal sharing with Yeon Ah Nim. This was an incredibly precious experience, where we were free to ask any questions, and could hear very personal stories and insights from Yeon Ah Nim about being a wife and mother and being part of Father Moon's family. After the conference our young women set up a “WFWP Youth Europe” Facebook group to keep in touch with each other and share ideas. For now this is mainly being used as a communication tool between just a few members, rather than a public page, while we are still building more foundation as WFWP Youth in Europe. Joint Application with Youth UPF for WFWP Europe - Women's Federation for World Peacean Youth Event 2014 WFWP Youth and UPF Youth put together a joint application for the European Youth Event, which will be held in Strasbourg in May 2014, by the European Parliament. We made an application for 17 participants (7 WFWP, 10 UPF). This application was successfully accepted (16/1/14) so we will now proceed with arrangements to attend the event.

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