The Women Chapter International (WCI) signed an agreement with The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) as a Partner in CVT’s project, IDREAM, for the cohort performance period of December 1, 2022 – January 31, 2024. The United States Government funds this Agreement under the US Congress’s Foreign Assistance Act. The IDREAM project is a capacity development project for HRDs living in exile. The primary focus of the IDREAM project is to support HRD-led organizations, with at least one participant in exile, through a variety of activities so that they may implement more effective advocacy campaigns. The IDREAM project aims to identify, support, and work with a global network of HRDs in exile. WCI participates in this project. Throughout the project period, WCI got 55,000 US dollars (40,000+10,000+5000) in total. To accomplish this project, WCI included another HRD from Syria, Suzanne Ibrahim (who is now a board member of WCI), living in Sweden, along with the principal applicant, Supriti Dhar.
The entire IDREAM project is online, with a 1.5-hour weekly meeting. 29 HRDs worldwide participated in this project, which discusses resilience, advocacy action plans, and digital security for exiled HRDs. The project is mainly designed to share knowledge among HRDs; and experiences and prepare them for future projects. The project aims for all participants to be capable of designing another project independently, so WCI has taken the initiative to gather six exiled HRDs living in Sweden who came through ICORN and work with them closely to ensure their future well-being after the two-year project period. To design this project, Supriti Dhar travelled to Uppsala, Sweden, on 25-26 October 2023 to meet ICORN authorities and exiled HRDs and discuss the project idea with them. Under this IDREAM project, WCI designed a new project. After a couple of online meetings, WCI organized its first physical meeting in November 2023 in Norrköping. In a two-day-long meeting, the participants gave a deep insight into their current situation, and what ICORN could do to avoid such uncertainty.
WCI aimed to establish a network with exiled HRDs in Sweden and provide the necessary support to overcome the uncertain situation of living in Sweden. Regarding this, the participants from Syria, Libya, Bangladesh and Iran agreed to set up a project for the future well-being of exiled HRDs. This group, led by WCI, has decided to work together to reduce uncertainty and establish a stable future.
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