Active Women Association

Active Women Association is a non-governmental women's organization /non-profit/ that acts for gender equality and empowerment of women. Our office is situated in Sosnowiec, in the province of Silesia in Poland, near Beskidy Mountains. It was formed in 2002 by Halina Sobanska to promote women’s participation in social, professional and political life, introduce the idea of self-development and lifelong education among women and take actions towards ending violence against women and girls. We are strongly dedicated to non-formal education, as it is extremely good tool of empowerment, social inclusion and self-development. Our target groups: women, seniors, youth. Main types of actions: non-formal education, networking & coalitions, lobbying, advocacy, counselling.

Active Women Association is involved in non-formal education to create awareness of violence against women and women’s rights. Providing services to individual women deepens our understanding of the needs and concerns in our community. Our organization is focus on women's empowerment, self-development, gender equality, reproductive health and health promotion, non-violence communication, cultural and global education. We address our actions as well towards seniors’ civic participation and youth’ empowerment. Since 7 years we have been engaged in European projects and partnerships in favour of non-formal education, exchange of experiences with partners /adult education staff, youth workers/ and European mobilities. We are strongly engaged in global education, intercultural activities and intercultural journeys, since 7 years we have run our empowering outdoor projects in North Africa, Asia and Europe. We managed to establish many links for transnational cooperation and nowadays we cultivate fruitful partnerships and networking projects cherishing multicultural diversity. We have been cooperating in many partnership projects with Sosnowiec Municipality, local and regional governments in Silesia Region, various Ministries and national administration, other non-governmental organisations in Poland and worldwide, public and private universities and few high schools in Sosnowiec.