Hostess:
Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education
Represented by the teachers Jill Parton and Anna O’Kane
Tour through Ardoyne: Mary Brady of Ardoyne Women’s Group

Central positions:
	introduction to Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education
	common workshop, mode of work: story quilt Pictures: results of the workshop
	tour through the district of Ardoyne in the north of Belfast with explanations on the “murals”, the political wall paintings as well as on the situation of families whose lives have been marked for decades by the violent conflicts between Protestants and Catholics

Personal report
of three unbelievably packed days in Belfast:

When we, 4 women of the Frauenakademie Ulm, finally arrived at our hotel, after 6 hours by train, waiting period and flights, introductions, there was not much time left for our first information meeting with our hostesses as well as the women from Wexford, Warsaw and Esbjerg.

This meeting was followed by a first pub visit, where, first with Guinness and Irish folk, then during dinner time, all language barriers fell. Meals and drinks of the best quality accompanied us in three hour stints as well as the usual evening visit to the pub.

Next morning we met in one of the 5 main buildings (there are further 120 units in Belfast’s city zone) of the Belfast Institute in which every year about 40 000 participants take the opportunity to get further education.

The largest target group are fringe groups of any type who are able to
reduce traumas with the help of creative methods, or
for the first time at all, get in touch with education
and have thereby the chance of getting out of the vicious circle of – welfare – senselessness – unemployment (in some districts over 70%).

Through participation in a 16-week long course and social action these, otherwise underprivileged people, are getting a fair chance of either to increase their welfare cheques or even get a temporary job. The Institute offers a very high standard of adult education. The big difference to me seems that – not like it is with us – people with desire for education take courses, but here social workers, artists, teachers and an army of volunteers go out to old people’s homes, hospitals, social security offices, homes for young and unmarried mothers, to bring these offers to those who need it the most.

After detailed explanations on the Belfast Institute’s methods of working we met the leader of the “Ardoyne Women’s Group” for lunch in the catering school of the institute. For the afternoon she offered us a tour through Ardoyne. Their main goal is to help children, teenagers, women and families reappraise their problems on the conflict in Northern-Ireland, get them a new view on interpersonal viewpoints, motivate them towards social engagement and learn to live with each other peacefully. Help to self-help, new ideas, for example a shopping centre built on their own initiative, in which even the prices for the many unemployed are really low, are only two projects of many.