On Monday, May 28, Equipop kicked off the week in style by organizing its first co-construction workshop with a dozen young people to brainstorm innovative projects for social and political mobilization.
We met up in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, in the aptly named "creativity room" of the "La Ruche" coworking space.
The evening began with an awareness-raising session on gender equality issues and sexual and reproductive health and rights. This took the form of a presentation of various Equipop projects that reflect our motto: "Inspire. Mobilize. Support." This allowed participants to familiarize themselves with the issues Equipop works on, both in the field and through its advocacy activities in France and internationally.
[vc_column width= »1/2″]The key word for this workshop was "Mobilize," which is why we emphasized one of Equipop's advocacy efforts with French and international institutions to put girls' rights on the agenda. The aim of this advocacy campaign was to raise awareness of the specific challenges faced by girls because of their gender and their age, a form of double discrimination that until recently was not considered an issue. Thanks to the efforts of NGOs such as Equipop, this issue is now on the political agenda, particularly on International Day of the Girl. This proved to young people the effectiveness of social and political mobilization, but also the importance of continuing this mobilization through actions on the next International Day of the Girl Child, October 11!
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The second part of the evening was organized around two focus groups. Some of the participants discussed ideas for actions to be taken for International Day of the Girl. Others worked on designing ad hoc activities to be carried out throughout the year within their respective networks.
With the help of colorful sticky notes and flipcharts, ideas for events and actions of all kinds flew thick and fast: public speaking competitions, forum theater, street actions, TED talks, sketchnoting, photo exhibitions, presentations in schools, etc. There are many ways to raise awareness of sexual and reproductive rights and health and to defend these rights. Each group selected their favorite projects and began to think about how to implement them.
Tired but satisfied with the work we had accomplished, we parted ways with the goal of meeting again very soon to put our ideas into action! This workshop marks the starting point for the mobilization of young French people with Equipop for gender equality and sexual and reproductive rights.
The next event has already been scheduled, and you can meet our young volunteers at the Equipop stand in the Solidarity Village at the Solidays festival on June 22, 23, and 24. We hope to see many of you there!
