Bengali Women’s Group forum (BWGf)
The Bengali Women's Group forum (BWGf) project now in its fourth year is a project of The Consortium of Bengali Associations (CBA) the project is financially supported by a 3 year grant from the Big Lottery Fund. The project seeks to serve the Bengali women groups across London on organisational capacity infrastructure. The idea of initiating such a project came about through a pilot study which identified the lack of women working in the voluntary sector in comparison to their male counterparts. Of those women organisations already in existence, it was found they were working in isolation. The study also recognized the need to develop and support these Bengali Women voluntary groups, who were in desperate need of expert assistance from second tier advice workers who have a clear understanding of their requirements.
Issues that were encountered by women groups in general were language restrictions, cultural problems, religious matters, lack of communication skills, discrimination faced by male led groups and inappropriate meeting times for working moms and part-time workers. As well as these barriers, Bengali women were reluctant to receive support from Male workers. Women who were overloaded with work also did not have the time to travel to a second tier organisation for support and indirectly causing their organisation to suffer. With all this in mind, BWGf was created with the intention to build a network which will present a platform to raise issues, work in collaboration with other groups and represent the welfare of Bengali women's groups. The project also benefits Bengali women by providing access to other information and advice services so that they can further develop necessary skills required for active involvement.
The work of BWGf is divided into six parts. These parts being: Outreach Work and Networking; Development Support; Information Dissemination & Monitoring; Forum Facilitation; Involvement Brokerage and Capacity Building Training. The Bengali Women's Group forum is currently engaged in development work with 30 Bengali women led organisations across London.
The work of BWGf is divided into six parts. These parts being:
- Outreach Work and Networking
- Development Support
- Information Dissemination & Monitoring
- Forum Facilitation
- Involvement Brokerage
- Capacity Building Training
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