The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-02-24
Y. VI G, A. OPENS
WORK IN ITALY
Tea and Club Rooms Opened for
American Women.
Miss Charlotte Niven, Director Of Ital-
ian Work, Prepares for Influx OF
American Woman Students.

Italy is now included in the war
work of the American Y. w. G. A. * I
Miss Mabel Warner of iSalina, Kan, !,
and Chicago left Paris a few days ago |
for Rome, where she will be in charge |
OF a Hostess House for American girls |
employed there by the American Red
Cross, the Embassy aud the new Tu-
berculosis Commission. Miss Warner
has been director Of tile Y. w. G. A
Hostess House at Brest. France.
Miss Warner will open a tea room
and club rooms where the American
women can gather for social times
Rome is harboring refuge population
of about 10000 and accommodations
are difficult to find.
The work in Rome was started as
| direct result Of the appeal of Miss
Charlotte Niven. one of the National
| Y. W. G. A. secretaries in Italy, who is
| spending a few months in France as ]
advisor in the French work.
Miss Niyen's, dreams of Y. w. G. A.
work in Italy include the maintenance
/ of a residence for non-Itallan women,
| who, she feels, will come to Italy in
great numbers after the war to study
| music and art.
II believe at this time such project
is particularly important because wo-
men from other countries should be
4 encouraged to come to Italy to replace
4 the great numbers of German women
who flooded Italy in the past many Of
them paid agents of their govern
ment,' Miss Niyen said in discussing
her plans.
Miss Niven has asked the American
Y. w. C. A. to aid the Italian ASsocia-
ton in establishing q center, perhaps
! at Genoa, with two American secre
taries, with physical and recreatlonal
training, to act as a training school for
Italian women In connection with it
her plan would include Hostess House
, for girls passing through the city or
employed there. Such q center would
become eventually the center for all
! Y. w. C. A. work in Italy, both Italian
FL and foreign.
f In her formal appeal for help for the
II Unione Christiana Dele Giovanni (the
! Italian name for Young Women
Christian Association Miss Niven has
emphasized two facts, the poverty OF
the Italian Association on the one hand
and the need and opportunity on the
other for an American program In
Italy at the present time.
Miss Niven's favorite way OF illus
n trating the friendliness OF the italian
a woman to America is by telling the
o story of the Italian mother who sai1
e sire had taken down the picture of Tho
e Madonna which had hung for many
z. years over her bed and was putting il
! its place one of President Wilson.
an our work in the Unione we have
! lacked trained leadership as well as
the material resources to give sucl
training We have had no means Il
buy modern equipment Consequent!
% we have not the visible results oil
!. American and British work
/. Feeble as our work may be, it j.
$. not useless. Many girls in all parts o
! Italy have told us how much the
t Unlone meant in their lives. Italian
girls are touehingly grateful Cor th'
smallest efforts. They respond eager
ly to friendliness.
There is no other agency doing il
9, Italy what the Association is trying t,
do
Miss Niven he's spent the past sever
! years in work with the italian wo
- men. starting as director of n hostel, o
h. boarding home. for Italian women stu
is dents at Florence. She is an Amerl
re can from New York, where she wa
n one time head of the Christadora Sci
5. ticment House.