Women of Wyndham
During the Emergency ready community leadership program run by Wyndham Council, a few women participants led by Monica Raizada and Rozae came up with the idea of creating a new association while doing their project “Women at Park” aiming to provide a platform for local women to engage on community matters, promote gender equality, social & cultural inclusion and create awareness on prevention of domestic violence. In the formation of WoW, they not only included the essential women building blocks but local community leaders as well.
The core team of WoW initially comprised of five locally active women from different walks of life and cultures including Australian, Indian, English, Burmese and Samoan backgrounds (which of course got expanded in due course) working towards creating awareness on issues faced by the local community with Monica Raizada as the President and Rozae as Secretary.
WOW Annual Event in Victorian Parliament
To participate in ramp walk for a cause and to win a crown please click on this link.
The launch of Women of Wyndham was planned with the support of Wyndham Council led by Sharon Brown. It was decided to recognise the women workers who are working silently tirelessly to assist the most vulnerable in the community particularly in the area of Domestic Violence, Youth Matters, Aboriginal Women, Aged and Senior Citizens actively involved in cross cultural affairs and promoting general health and wellbeing in the community at the time of launch of Women of Wyndham (WOW). 26 such women from varying cultural backgrounds and age groups making a positive difference in the community were recognised in presence of local community and distinguished guests.
The launch of WoW on 6 October 2015 was extremely successful with around 100 attendees. The VIP list included Hon Joanne Ryan MP, Mayor Cr Peter Maynard, Cr Gautam Gupta and Cr Bob Fairclough from Wyndham City Council in addition to local community from all walks of life and invited guests. The launch was initiated by all the VIPs and WoW team members jointly reading out the WoW vision and mission statement and releasing the wonderful logo of WoW. While Joanne Ryan shared her personal experience about women empowerment, Cr Gautam Gupta highlighted that at Wyndham City Council gender equality is practiced in reality and went on to say that recently the Library was also named after the first woman Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Another highlight at the launch of WoW was an initiative lead by Di Mission from Wyndham Council who highlighted the issues of Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality and sought the feedback and views from Women of Wyndham to be passed on to appropriate policy making bodies for consideration.
Wyndham City Council being highly supportive of the WoW initiative, is one of the few councils that promotes gender balance and equality having women in executive and key positions.
Message from the President
According to WOW President Monica Raizada, “WoW aims to provide a voice for women living in and around Wyndham. It is the need of the hour to think beyond “I” and to become ‘We’ to make this world a better place for our future generations. The WoW team is determined to work towards 'Zero' death due to violence against women, leading to happier and safer place for women living in Wyndham.
Also, I would like to thank my wonderful team - Vice President Ritu Bhatia, Secretary Kelly Gerard, Treasurer Ritesh Chugh, Assistant Treasurer Maria Meilak, all the other members, my family and the wonderful volunteers who have been a great support for WOW”
WoW’s vision and mission
WoW - Educating Engaging Empowering
Women Women of Wyndham (WoW) aims to provide a voice for Women of Wyndham to realise their full potential and develop a network to empower and engage them and to enhance Wyndham as a safe, diverse and welcoming community by social & cultural inclusion, gender equality, education, training & development, prevention of domestic violence and inequality.
When do we meet?
WoW team meetings are scheduled every Thursday evening 6.00pm. To connect with the WoW team, please refer to their Facebook page 'Women of Wyndham' or email womenofwyndham@gmail.com.
According to the WoW team, the membership is not limited to women only but is open to all those who want to support the WoW vision and mission and initiatives should come forward to assist and participate.