[Brussels, 13 December 2013] The Mentees of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) European Political Mentoring Programme (EPMN) met together and with their respective Mentors for three days this week in Strasbourg.
During the third leadership and capacity building session, the Mentees also had the opportunity to attend the plenary session at the European Parliament and to benefit from a one to one coaching with Malene Rix, an Executive Advisor in Negotiation, Facilitation & Leadership. The Mentees followed the voting process in the European Parliament and shadowed their Mentors at political group meeting, and networked with different MEPs.
In addition, the Mentees attended two events organised by the EWL in the European Parliament: the conference “Promote Human Rights, Act against Rape!”, hosted by MEP Mikael Gustafsson in cooperation with the Council of Europe and a screening of the film “This is my home now” arranged with the support of MEP Claude Moraes. The Belgian documentary director Saddie Choua and one of the protagonists, Dil Wickremasinghe, were present at the screening and responded to questions from the audience at a reception. The European Network for Migrant Women’s Coordinator, Lara Natale, and four participating EWL staff, including Gina Horst (EPMN project assistant) and Karima Zahi (Coordinator of the EPMN), were very grateful for the support that these events generated.
As part of the second part of the documentary on this programme, a film crew (Myriam Sahraoui, Bart Majoor and Maria Kramer) had the unique opportunity to interview the Mentees together with their Mentors, as well as the above mentioned MEPs who organised the events in Strasbourg with the EWL.
This capacity building session gave the Mentees new incentives for their work, their upcoming campaigns and careers. Their impressions, and the interviews conducted with MEPs will be released with the second part of the documentary by mid-2014 on the EWL website. The EWL is very grateful to all individuals concerned for their contribution during this session in Strasbourg, and for the financial support of the European Commission and Open Society Foundations.
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Ska Keller and Gueliz Tomruk
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Kolia Benie and Ulrike Lunacek
More on the EWL European Political Mentoring ProgrammeRead the blog of the mentees
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12 May 2025
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