Watch the Women of WOW! Dance

The Wow! project started in December 2020 with asylum seeking women from the Rainbow Hearts group at Women’s Health Matters in Leeds. The project aims to help women get moving, reduce social isolation, and improve mental health and wellbeing after Covid-19 with a plan for face to face, monthly physical exercise with a fitness instructor, as well as encouraging women to get out walking, build friendships and explore their local area. Asylum seeking women face many barriers to being able to step outside confidently.

As the project started, the country went back into lockdown and we had to quickly adapt how we would work. Through other projects at Women’s Health Matters, we supported the women in accessing the internet by providing them with tablets, phones, and data; this enabled us to move online and meet virtually to exercise and learn a dance routine together. Asylum seeking women volunteered to buddy with other women in the same household or local to them and went out walking together.

The women embraced the project and regularly shared videos and photographs of their walks and their own dance routines. Enabling accessibility and meeting basic needs for women seeking asylum is paramount; women were provided with activity and fitness resources including sports bras (everyone was sent a tape measure and video instruction), bus fares and sharing of food and drink when coming together.

This short film showcases the first time many of the Wow! women met in person to perform their first dance together as a group.