Keep doors open - EWL supports KVINFO Mentoring Network
(Brussels, 10 April 2013) On the 10 April 2013, the EWL wrote to Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt in order to support the continuation of the KVINFO Mentoring Network. The very existence and the continuation of the KVINFO Mentoring Network has been put into question by the recent proposal to cut funding for this Programme made by Danish authorities during the negotiations for 2014-2016 budget.
The EWL has collaborated with KVINFO in the last year in the implementation of a very successful European Political Mentoring Programme in view of the EU elections 2014, which was officially launched in the European Parliament on 9 April 2013.
The EWL Mentoring Programme would not have been possible without the methodology and support of the KVINFO programme, which is recognised at European and international levels as a source of best practice and being used and reproduced in different countries and now at the EU level. KVINFO’s mentor network matches women with refugee and immigrant backgrounds with women who are active in Danish society. KVINFO has been doing this for 10 years and with groundbreaking results. Mentees have had the possibility to enter the labour market, they have gained educational qualifications and they have built up networks and become part of Danish society. Their motto is ’we open doors’. It is imperative that this initiative that has seen 6000 women graduate from the programme and that Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and her government do not close doors to women’s advancement in Danish society.