Women’s festival organized by the city Rheine and Caritas Rheine
Rheine.cpr. International Women’s Day on March 8 was the occasion for a big women’s party at Centro S. Antonio, the intercultural meeting center of Caritas Rheine. The team accompaniment and counseling of immigrants of the city Rheine and the specialized service migration and integration of Caritas Rheine organized the party together, supported by some dedicated women.
More than one hundred participants with and without migration history spent a common afternoon with creative workshops, dance and culinary delights. In her introduction to the theme of International Women’s Day, Anna Sievert, from the city Rheine, outlined the origins of International Women’s Day 112 years ago: Political co-determination and the demand for equal pay for women and men. Today, International Women’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world in different ways – in Rheine this year with a cheerful women’s festival. Afterwards, there was an opportunity for a casual exchange in the festively decorated hall at the diverse international buffet.
Later, there were various short workshops that invited people to get creative. There were floral henna tattoos for the hands, the women could design greeting cards themselves and decorate special pastries. Also, some girls from the intercultural girls’ group at Centro S Antonio offered to make their own scented soaps in a workshop. After the workshops, there was exuberant dancing together, to music compiled from the women’s requests. Special and atmospheric accents were set by one of the co-organizing women with a lively musical contribution on the accordion and a group of women who showed traditional dances from Afghanistan. At the same time, a photo workshop took place during the entire event, in which all participants could have their pictures taken. From the resulting images will now be created a large photo collage, which will later be exhibited in the City Hall of the city Rheine, Caritas House, Centro S. Antonio and Center 51. “With the photo collage, we want to make women visible in central places in the city Rheine and raise awareness of the importance of International Women’s Day,” explains co-organizer Natalie Holthaus of Caritas Rheine. “It was a successful, creative and joyful celebration, with women from a wide range of cultures contributing.” “It was a relaxed atmosphere in which women met, had fun together and celebrated themselves, as well as all women of the world with their colorful facets!” summarize co-organizers Ghada Mohammad and Pia Terhaar.