A lot has happened in a short space of time. Hoping that you are all safe and well, and finding ways to look after yourselves whilst in isolation or managing social distancing.

The FiLiA team has continued to keep busy.

Three more FiLiA podcasts went live:

• FiLiA meets: Susan Bewley, feminist and Professor Emeritus in Obstetrics & Women’s Health at King’s College London

• FiLiA meets: Kathleen Barry, feminist, sociologist and internationally recognised human rights activist

• FiLiA meets: Sam Walshe, who spoke about the impact of being exploited into street prostitution as a teenager

With regards to the current pandemic, one of the FiLiA team put together a summary of the Shared Parenting and Coronavirus guidance and we put out a brief message about how to self-isolate as safely as possible. Our specialist in violence against Women and Girls called upon the government to urgently take measures regarding those Women subjected to abuse.

Our Sisters from Greater Manchester Doulas, who we met a couple of years ago wrote about how Doulas can support Women during the pandemic.

We’ve been in touch with Women from Rojava for a little while now and have been following their story with interest. Rojava suggests to us a blueprint for a more equal and Feminist society. Our Sisters from Kongra Star created a brochure which ‘presents examples of modern warfare and its effects on women and society, as well as examples of resistance to it’. It’s called ‘Self Defence: the answer to gender-based violence’ and is well worth a read.

Marta, whose role is that of Latin American Liaison has been busy for the past few weeks visiting Chile and Argentina, building links with grassroots Feminist organisations. The summary of her visit to Chile can be read HERE and her Argentinian review will follow shortly. She is stuck at the moment, hoping to get on a flight home early in April.

We had to postpone our FiLiA weekend at Horton Women’s Holiday Centre and are arranging Zoom meetings until we are able to meet in person again.

In the meantime we will continue to organise for the FiLiA weekend conference. We were delighted to win a couple of small grants and will share more details of those as the projects progress. Tickets are available NOW and we are keen to support as many Women as possible to attend who otherwise would not be able to, via our SOLIDARITY TICKET scheme - please buy a ticket if you can.

And don’t forget - you can also become a FRIEND OF FiLiA with a monthly donation from £1 per month. Funds go towards enabling as many Women as possible to take part, for example by paying towards the creche and speech-to-text.

Sisterhood and Solidarity

LM