Fundacija Kobieca/eFKa – www.efka.org.pl

The Women’s Foundation (Fundacja Kobieca), acronym eFKa, was founded in 1991. Its mission is to act for solidarity and independency of women, against the discrimination of women and to support women’s culture. It has an office place, library with ca. 2 000 of books and a reading room in the center of Cracow, in the Krakowska 19-Str. The Women’s Foundation eFKa is an NGO, a non-profit foundation, which has its board of directors (3 women) and its advisory board (7 women).  eFKa realizes its mission by initiating, realizing and participating in cultural, educational and research projects.

eFKa has its seat in one if the biggest university cities in Poland and in the center of culture. It  is rooted in the city Cracow but it operates both on the local, on national and on  international level. eFKa is publishing the only Polish feminist magazine “Zadra” twice a year, for the last 18. Its projects, which were especially successful were: “Gender Training for Trainers” in 2007 as one of the few Polish projects of the European Year of Equal Chances for Everybody; WenDo Training for Trainers (2002-2005),  Feminist Academy (2002-2006) or Academy of Critical Writing (2012-2013).

The most significant international projects, realized by eFKa, were:

– “Global Feminisms} (2000-2004),  an oral history project on women’s movements in different countries,  in partnership with Center for Women and Gender Research of the Michigan University, Haydarabad University and Bejing University;

– “Biographical Approach in Adult Education” (2010-2012), which was an EU project on Biographical method in education, in partnership with universities and associations from Germany, Austria, Italy and Turkey;

– “Jugów. Memory and Oblivion” (2010-2014), an oral history project on forced displacements in Central Europe, realized with Polish, Ukrainian and German participants;

– “Guardians of Peace” (2013-2015), an EU project, concerning post-memory on war, post-war expulsions and forced displacements.

One of most important fields of activities of eFKa is history, reflected from the perspective of women. Using the oral history methods eFKa collects narrative biographical stories, documents them and makes them circulating. eFKa’s “Jump Over the Walls” workshops on “her” history combine biographical reflection, memory work and intergenerational exchange.