Feel Good Friday - Ruhama

It's Feel Good Friday, St. Patrick's Day is coming up this weekend and it's still Women's History Month, so I searched for an organization in Ireland that works with women and found Ruhama.

Since 1989 Ruhama, based in Dublin, Ireland, has been working "on a national level with women affected by prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation." This short video from the CEO, Sara Benson gives you a good introduction to their work.

As explained on their website, all services are free and confidential and are offered to "women who are currently involved in on-street and off-street prostitution; women who are exiting prostitution; women who are victims of sex trafficking; and women who have a history of prostitution." Specific services include counseling, housing support, work placement, mobile street outreach and court accompaniment. You can read the full list of services here.

Ruhama also advocates a legislative framework that decriminalizes those in prostitution and works with national media to raise awareness of prostitution, sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.

When they celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2014, their records show they assisted more than 2500 women from over 60 countries!

If you live in Ireland, you can get involved with Ruhama by volunteering. No matter where you are, you can show your support by making a donation, liking the Facebook page and following them on Twitter @RuhamaAgency.

Feel Good Friday - Stemettes

Happy Feel Good Friday from London, home of Stemettes!

Based on their name, you won't be surprised to learn that "Stemettes is an award-winning social
enterprise working across the UK & Ireland and beyond to inspire and support young women into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths careers (known collectively as STEM)."

Since 2013, over 14,000 girls have attended free events and workshops throughout the UK and Ireland. Events include "STEM in a Day" school trips to partner companies like Accenture and Salesforce, coding hackathons at companies like Oracle and Merrill Lynch, and panel discussions for girls to meet women and men in the industry. Check out the video from their 2016 panel event here to see what the girls had to say about it.

The mission of the Stemettes organization is "to inspire the next generation of females into STEM fields..." and the stories written by the young Stemettes on this blog prove they are well on their way.

You can financially support them with a purchase of a Stemette t-shirt or tote bag and morally support them by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @Stemettes!

Feel Good Friday - National Women's Council of Ireland

With March being women's history month and St. Patrick's Day around the corner I wanted to check out what's going on with my Irish sisters this Feel Good Friday. Turns out, these are some very busy ladies!

The National Women's Council of Ireland has been around since 1973. Their mission, as stated on their website, is "to lead and to be a catalyst for change in the achievement of equality between women and men.

They work with women in the areas of leadership, health care, economic independence, care and care work, reaching out to young people and building the women's movement. This can include increasing women's participation in politics, the media and the boardroom, fighting for reproductive rights and equal pay and empowering young people. Whew!

On International Women's Day (March 8th) they set up a pop up Soap Box in Dublin so women could have a public forum to speak their minds. From the photos on Twitter it looks like it was a well attended, successful event.

Anyone in Ireland who's reading this blog can get very actively involved with the group. The rest of us can follow the news on their Facebook page.

Now that you know what's going on...  Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh!