On November 4, 2017 we held our first Women’s Empowerment Retreat. This event was created and organized by Sandra. The creation of this event was because of messages Sandra received on a daily basis from women with life and personal problems. She loved to help and give sound advice to these women, but she wanted to create something that could give women more empowerment and a safe place to share and provide their own tips and advice.

The first Women’s Empowerment Retreat was such a success we are planning to have one biannually. We hope to have one in the spring and one in the fall. The location of our first retreat was at the Garang Pension in Gapyeong. The hospitality there was beyond what we expected. Twenty-five women attended this event and the family there was so welcoming and accommodating. The family has a pear farm on their property. The family left some pears for us to pick when we arrived. It was a great experience. They also provided fresh, clean and delicious pears for all the women to take home along with a pouch of pear juice for each person.
We wanted to make this event affordable for everyone and it turned out pretty great. The price for each person included the cost of the pension and food that was way more than needed. We had so much food leftover for people to take home the next day. In the future we hope to find sponsorships in order to lift some of the cost off the women. We are so excited for the future of this group. A Women’s Empowerment group has been created on Facebook for any woman to join and to record our events and have a place for women to share and give advice.

During the retreat, we all gathered together and shared questions and concerns with each other. Everyone was able to freely speak because of the no judgment and privacy agreement everyone made prior to the discussion session. The discussion were very respectful and helpful to many. After our discussion session we had a mini bonding time with fun animal facemasks and great music!
We hope to allow more women to join next time in the spring. Join our Facebook group and keep an eye out for any future events! (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1601972753217608/ )