Women’s Fund to mark International Women’s Day and screen ‘Hidden Figures’ on 26 March

28 Feb 2019

International Women’s Day is a day that celebrates womanhood, with events taking place all over Northern Ireland, at community and national level. “It is the perfect milestone for the Community Foundation to highlight some of the work we do through the Women’s Fund and the UK Tampon Tax Community Fund” said Joan Smyth, Chair of the fund.

“To celebrate the funding we have awarded to groups and individuals in the past year, we will be welcoming some of the recipients to have breakfast together on March 8th and to share their thoughts on what the day means to them”

In January 2019, the Women’s Fund awarded seven individual bursaries to local women in support of personal development and confidence building, overcoming barriers to employment and training and making the first steps towards re-entering the workplace.
This included support towards their education, the purchase of equipment and/or help with subsistence costs and/or childcare costs and priority was given to applicants living in deprived/disadvantaged areas.

Before Christmas, more than 30 projects working with some of Northern Ireland’s most vulnerable women and girls received a much-needed funding boost from the UK Tampon Tax Community Fund. Small charities and community groups were awarded grants of between £5,000 – £10,000 to work with women of all ages. Projects that received funding will help women and girls get into or back to work, raise awareness about health issues, and help them create and develop social networks.

Finally, In support of the Women’s Fund and in the spirit of International Women’s Day, The Women’s Fund will be holding a screening of ‘Hidden Figures’ at the Strand Arts Centre in East Belfast on March 26th at 7.40. Hidden Figures is a 2016 film loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly about black female mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race. Tickets are available from Joan Smyth, Chair of the Women’s Fund joanrsmyth@btinternet.com