This International Women’s Day, we’re highlighting the amazing work of New Scots women, and the organisations and individuals supporting their communities across Scotland.
Founded in 2015, MILK Café is a social enterprise set up to empower and support refugee and migrant women living in Glasgow.
MILK runs a small café in the Southside of the city, which provides a welcoming environment that promotes integration within the community.
The café provides an environment for women of all backgrounds to improve their employability skills, and also hosts a range of inclusive activities, including craft sessions, language learning workshops and community gardening.
Over lockdown, MILK Café was one of several community groups in Glasgow preparing and delivering hot meals to people in hotel accommodation.
The past year has shown how essential digital inclusion is to accessing services and staying connected with loved ones. But many people still face many financial, social and educational barriers to accessing online services.
With funding from Scottish Refugee Council and the National Lottery, MILK Café is tackling digital exclusion by providing digital devices, computer skills training and online English classes to women.
The MILK Café team aims to begin weekly Computer Skills workshops in person over the next few months. The workshops will be aimed at New Scots and migrant women with basic computer skills, and will be designed to improve digital literacy and boost confidence using devices and programmes.
Angela from MILK Café said: “The pandemic has been a real struggle for everyone but it really has hit some communities more than others, and living and working in Govanhill we have seen that first hand. The last 12 months have been a journey but we are starting to feel a bit more optimistic now with restrictions being eased soon and the lighter, longer days giving everyone a boost. We are all excited to be able to start working with people a bit more and actually being able to spend time with our friends and all the MILK family again.”
