by Tina Huesing, Committee Co-Chair 

One of the reasons I enjoy being part of the social action committee is that I learn about so many interesting organizations I otherwise would have never heard of.

Recently Janet introduced us to a fascinating organization based in Cologne, Germany: the Handwerkerinnenhaus. What a great German word, no? Let’s take it apart: Hand-werker-innen-haus. “Hand” is hand and “werker” means worker. So “Handwerker” are craftsmen and artisans. Then we add the “innen” to make it refer to women and girls and end with “-haus” because it refers to the place where women and girls become craftspeople and artisans.

Their flagship program is Girls’ Project “Future”.

It’s a work-based educational offering that helps with school absenteeism both in prevention and intervention. And it provides gender-sensitive career counseling in crafts and technology for girls and women.

The organization takes an intersectional approach because girls are exposed to discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, but also as a result of classism, racism, ableism and others. Gender identities and processes of gender identity formation are diverse and, in addition to girls and women, trans-, inter- and non-binary people are also affected by gender-specific discrimination. Girls’ Project “Future” strengthens the girls’ self-confidence; they experience self-efficacy and success! They acquire skills such as communication, teamwork, concentration and resilience and gain positive participation experiences. This strengthens their democratic skills.

Handwerkerinnenhaus reaches more than 1,300 girls and (young) women every year and cooperates with almost 30 secondary, special-needs, middle and comprehensive schools. The program Girls’ Project “Future” has been around for several years and has received several awards.

I personally relate to the project because I remember being in high school, forced to take cooking classes for girls (home economics) while the boys were instructed in crafts and learned how to use a saw, sandpaper and a power drill (shop). How I envied them! And isn’t it obvious how gender-based exposure in high school then leads to gender-based professional choices. I’m so glad Janet found this project!

The social action committee decided to support this important work with a donation from all of us in EUU. If you want to find out more about the project visit the organization’s website at https://www.handwerkerinnenhaus.org/. The website is available in German only, but any web-based translation tool can translate it into English, French or many other languages.