Tolerance and Peace

On 20 th of November 2018, Woman Center for Development and Culture Albania organized a
seminar on “Tolerance and peace.” The honorary guest was Mrs. Samia Bibars, Director of Inter-
Civilizations Dialogue Department and League of Arab States.
Mrs. Samia Bibars welcomed the group and held a short presentation about this regional
organization which was founded in 1945 to increase the collaboration of the 22 member states
regarding economics, communication, culture, nationality, social welfare and health by supporting
their common interests. She explained that the organization follows its charter, which established
the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo and created a General Secretariat, as well as rules like
biannual meetings, councils consisting of all heads of states, sub-councils and voting rules, among
others.
Mrs. Bibars, also underlined that tolerance and peace are key words in today's international
relations. Without coexistence, without peace and tolerance, neither the welfare nor the wealth of
developed nations is guaranteed. Risks threaten the same, both rich and poor countries, both large
and small ones, both powerful and weak countries.
The meeting lasted about 2 hours, where students asked many questions about the topic and other
information related to the experience of Mrs. Bibars.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

A useful topic for the students of the various faculties at the end of April was also: "Effective
Communication," which was presented by the professor of New York University in Tirana,
Emiliano Kaziaj. The reason a seminar with this topic was considered necessary to be held in
our Center, is related to the fact that even though we communicate all the time with others,
we still know very little how to communicate effectively.
Professor Emiljano was focused on several issues in his presentation, among which there is
the concern of raising the voice in a way that it can be heard. He provided very useful
practical advice to the students. Moreover, there was discussed the process of communication
and the factors that should be taken into consideration in order to transmit a strong and
influencing message to the other parties. The theoretical discussion was also illustrated by
practical situations where students performed in front of the audience, considering all the
skills a good speaker should possess.
Through the exercises and the engagement of the students it was provided a diversity to this
seminar, which made it pleasant and highly informative for the students.

Training Workshop on Strategic Planning with a Gender Perspective.

On February 1, 2018, at Imperial Hotel, Woman Center for Development and Culture
Albania organized two training sessions on Strategic Planning. The lecturer was Mrs. ‎Asma
Abbas, Architect Engineer and Member of UNICEF Denmark. The participants in the
training were intellectuals from various Albanian Cities, engaged with various Projects,
interested in designing and implementing the best Strategic Planning techniques and the most
important skills related to it.

Objectives of the Training:
 Capacity building and skills on building effective tools for strategic planning,
monitoring and evaluation tools, availability of analysed statistics from available and
comprehensive research, realistic outputs for implementation.
 Developing Strategic framework: identification of opportunities and obstacles for
gender mainstreaming, strengthening gender mainstreaming skills, building social
capital.
 Sharing &Collaboration: opportunities for networking within and between countries.
The Trainer, Mrs. Asma Abass, provided an overview of the strategic planning process. She
emphasized that each person present had a role to play in this process. Participants were

encouraged to see themselves as agents of change and to use their power of influence to
facilitate implementation of gender mainstreaming activities.
She also challenged participants to assess their role and responsibility within the process and
to think about the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary for successful implementation of
female projects and encouraged the competition on fields that are wrongly considered as men
perspectives.
Since one of the objectives of the workshop was to identify approaches for Social Media to
Promote women’s rights, participants were asked to review cases on women issues in the
world similar to recent women situation in Albania. This suggested practical approaches and
options for effective usage of social media means in Promoting women’s rights. Participants’
feedback from these discussions indicated that they had developed useful and practical ideas
about what can be done to integrate gender in the various departments of the Ministries of
Labor in Europe and in their own country.

FIRST AID TRAINING
In the Woman Center for Culture and Development was organized a training session on the
first aid that should be provided in cases of emergency. This seminar was presented by a
representative of the Red Cross: the psychologist Irena Xhaferraj. There were about one
hundred students from different faculties who attended this seminar.
Designed to help non-medical professionals provide assistance in times of crisis, this seminar
provided students with the opportunity to gain an understanding of what is a first aid provider
allowed to do and not to do, as well as an understanding of first aid best practices for a wide
range of conditions, including: External bleeding; Choking; Neck, head and spinal injuries;
Heart Attack; Epilepsy; Fainting.
Apart from the theoretical presentation with power point, there were also practical
demonstrations. At the end of this seminar, students had gained theoretical information about
the first aid as well as practical skills to give the first aid properly in cases of emergency.