YOUNG women from the Divis area have unveiled a new mural which they hope will inspire other females.
The young women recently took part in an eight-week ‘Sparkle' project at St Peter’s Immaculata Youth Centre. Now they have unveiled a new colourful mural at the corner of Albert Street and Servia Street featuring inspirational images and words, including 'EmpowHER'.
Kate Laverty from St Peter’s Immaculata Youth Centre said: "Our young women have come together over eight weeks to create the mural. They chose images which inspire and help them feel empowered.
"The girls wanted to create a legacy in their community to help other young women feel empowered. The mural has bright and colourful images to recognise the diversity of women. We also wanted to celebrate the roles that female representatives have played in the area.
"It is a great addition to the area."
One of the participants, Sophie Ellis said the mural is to celebrate women in the local area.
"As a group of young women, we fought for this Sparkle programme. Too much funding was being invested in young men to help tackle anti-social behaviour and girls had to make do with peer groups to find support," she said. "We made a case, got a funder and have taken part in lots of pieces of work in the last year. We’ve met with women who have broken through glass ceilings in their field.
"We met with senior women in Bombardier, PSNI, and public sector bodies. We know there are many paths to success and have built our self-esteem and confidence in hearing their stories.
"We decided we wanted to give back to other young women and so did a drive for period products which we donated to Menstruation Matters.
"We worked with Women’s Aid and heard about women and children who had been abused. They had left their homes with nothing, so we did a clothes drive for them and collected 27 black bags of clothes. This was very humbling and we know now how grassroots community development makes the biggest impact.
"We are keen to build strong communities. We are doing an environmental scan to lobby for changes in our neighbourhood which will make us feel safer, happier and healthier.
"We saw there was nothing to celebrate the role of women in the community and that’s why we did this mural."
