French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1919-02-27
Y, W. c.. 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. c. A.
Miss Mabel Warner of Salina, 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 and the new Tu-
berculosis Commission. Miss Warner
has been director Of the Y. ". G. &.
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
F.! are difficult to find.
The work in Rome was started as q
direct result of the appeal of Miss
Charlotte Niven, one OF the National
Y. w. c. A. secretaries in Italy, who is
spending a few months in France as
advisor in the French work.
Miss Niven's dreams of Y. W. G. a.
work in Italy include tho maintenance
of a residence for nOn-Italian women,
who, she feels, will come to Italy il
great numbers after the war to study
music and art.
81 believe 1t this time such a project
is particularly important because wo-
men from other countries should be
encouraged to come to Italy to replace
41n Cyrno YoJIooHor1 oE D-oo- 5000
who flooded Italy in the past, many Of
them paid agents of their govern.
nent,' Miss Niven said in discussing
her plans.
Miss Niyen has asked the American
z. W. G. a. to aid the Italian Associa-
ton in establishing q center, perhaps
at GenOa, with two American secre-
tarieS, with physical and recreationaI
training, to act as a training school for
Italian women. In connection with it
her plan would include a Hostess House
for girls passing through the city or
employed there. Such a center would
become eventually the center for aII
z. ". G. 4. work ii Italy, both Italian
and foreign.
In her formal appeal for help for the
Unionc Christiana Dele Giovanni (the
Italian. name for Young W0Een's |
Christian AsSOciati0n) Miss Niven has i
emphasized two facts, the poverty of
the Italian Association on the one hand |
and the need and opportunity on tina
other for an American program in |
Italy at the present time.
Miss NiVen's favorite way Of iIlas- !
trating the friendliBess of the Italian
woman to America is by telling the
story Of the italian mother who said
she had taken down tho picture Of the
Madonna which had hung fer many
years I'VE her bed and was putting in
its place n of President Wilson.
"In our work in the Unione we have
lacked trained leadership as we'll as
the material to give such
training. We have had no means to
buy modern equipment. Consequently
we have not the visible results OF
American and British work.
Feeble as our work may be, 1t is
useless. Many girls in all parts Of
italy have told US how much the
meant in their lives. italian
girls are ~tOCchingly grateful for the
efforts. They respond eager
" to friendliness.
There is no other agency doing in
Italy what the Association is trying to
10"
Miss Niven hes spent the past seven
in work with the italian wo-
men, starting as director Of a hostel, or
boarding home. for Italian women stu
tents at Florence. She Is an Ameri-
AN from New York, where she was 3
me time head of the C~hristadora Set I
House. ,