NIRWN was delighted to bring rural women together at The Gables, Dungannon, for a wonderful morning of connection, inspiration and wellbeing to celebrate International Day of Rural Women.

International Day of Rural Women is a dedicated day in the year; set by the United Nations in recognition that rural women are further away from experiencing a gender equal society.

International Day of Rural Women provided a timely opportunity to share NIRWN’s work on advancing. workable, resourced Women’s Health Strategy for NI which delivers for rural women.

This work of course cannot be done in isolation so our Engagement Officer Chaired a conversation corner with Danielle Dawson from Community Foundation Northern Ireland who lead on the ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’ Project which has engaged many of our members over the last few years in both consultation and training opportunities related to women’s health and advocacy skills development.

The conversation included our Executive Director Louise Coyle who updated members present on our critical policy work as part of our ‘HerHealth’ Project in partnership with The Women’s Organisation, Liverpool. HerHealth Project has been supported through Connect Fund 2 investment by the Northern Ireland Office through Cabinet Office.

Delegates had the opportunity to learn more about our work with Enterprise Evolution to train Community Advocates for Women’s Workplace Wellness ensuring workplaces are empowered and supported to improve Womens wellness at work through adequate policies and simple, easily implementable actions with a gendered lens. This work is supported by SEUPB.

We always take the opportunity when we gather to provide vital opportunities for connection and improving our own wellness. Participants enjoyed creative and relaxing wellbeing activities with an emphasis on ensuring we invest time in relaxing and building our own wellness

A big thank you to our speakers, facilitators, staff and of course our members who joined us to make the day so special!