The Feminist Web Launch and Volunteering Hustings

Tuesday 2nd March was another busy day for me with the Youth of Today. I was asked to attend two events in London, the Feminists Web Launch and Volunteering Hustings.

The first event I went to was the Feminists Web Launch which was held at the National Women’s Library in Aldgate East. It was an exclusive event as only women were invited to attend. Alison, who was the event organiser gave a welcoming speech and spoke about the organisation and its history. There were also other key speakers who spoke of femininity and women empowerment including Doctor Ronan.
After stirring speeches and poems from the guest speakers, we got into workshops where there were different issues affecting women were discussed.
I joined the “Know your bits” workshop were we went through all the body parts of a woman and spoke about sex myths and facts.
I was glad I went into this workshop because I learnt quite a bit about the female body and some of its functions.
After the workshops, we mingled with other people from different parts of England and all of them spoke of women concerns and problems.

The second event I attended on this day was at Church Hall in Westminster, near the Houses of Parliament. This was a very interesting and exciting event in the sense that there were very influential people there and they gave special attention to me and my friend Moira as we were the only young people present.  The event was organised by Volunteering England to give people from voluntary organisations the opportunity to question MP`s from the Labour -Rt Hon Angela Smith, Liberal Democrats -Nick Hurd and Conservatives –Jenny Willott-  parties on the volunteering policies their governments would want to implement. The session was chaired by the Assistant Editor of the Guardian Newspaper, Mr sosososoos.
I found this event to be very satisfying because the MP`s all had a chance in the beginning to talk about their government policies regarding volunteering and how they have engaged within the sector. Also they promised to look deeper into the issues that the attendees raised.

I enjoyed myself at both events and will be looking forward to what the new government will have planned for volunteering and the third sector. 
 

Belinda Fumai - The Youth of Today Intern at NYA