Laatzen Women's Centre visits Chemnitz
A women's group from the Laatzen Women's Centre near Hanover visited Chemnitz at the weekend. The women from Lower Saxony had deliberately chosen Chemnitz for this year's excursion in order to familiarise themselves with the city that has been the subject of so much media coverage in the past year.
In an exchange with the Equal Opportunities Officer Pia Hamann and women from the Chemnitz Women's Initiative Network, the focus was on the work of the two women's centres in Chemnitz and Laatzen, both of which were founded around 30 years ago. The main concern of women in the West at that time was to organise alternatives to the lack of childcare. In the East, the first women's centres, such as the Lila Villa, were founded to deal with feminist issues for the first time. However, the current orientation of the two centres with the pillars of education, culture, health and counselling is similar.
Political issues and current challenges were also addressed during the course of the evening. For example, the women from Laatzen asked whether and how women can live well in this city. Many examples were used to prove that Chemnitz is a city worth loving and living in, which offers many opportunities for communication, is home to a lot of culture and has many remarkable places and corners, even if these can sometimes only be found at second glance.
During a tour of the city on Sunday, the guests learnt a lot about women in Chemnitz from the past and present. A return visit by the Chemnitz women next spring is already planned.