There are many foreign women living in Greece. In most cases, however, they don't know how to go about finding work, obtaining a tax number or opening a new business. They don't even know where to find this type of information. Yet all that can now be found just a mouse-click away.

The story begins when Indian-French Sudha Nair ended a successful career in broadcasting to follow her husband to Greece. While going through the long path of getting her "papers sorted" in order to settle and find work she met Norwegian Gunhild Guldseth who was trying to do the same. The two women found that getting the right information depended on which authority they happened to speak to. The problems they encountered inspired them to help other foreign women settling down in Greece.

In 2000 they organised a conference entitled How is the Greek state assisting foreign women attended by over 400 women. That was the beginning of the Foreign Women's Network in Greece. The non-profit organisation, now boasting a database of over 5,000 qualified women from over 60 nationalities, is committed to providing support and information to foreign women on matters of employment, work permits and rights, residency, as well as practical information on upgrading skills. Says Nair:

Why did you found the Foreign Women's Network?
Well, there are lots of social clubs where women can get together and make friends but nothing about how to find decent work. Many of us found ourselves in Greece, married to Greek men or following a husband who moved for work. We've given up challenging careers back home to find that there were no suitable jobs available for us here or we just didn't know where to look. So some end up teaching English, for example, when we've never done that before. Men get expatriated and no one seems to care what the wives are doing.

What is the make-up of the foreign women community in Greece?
There are women here from all over the world. At our very first conference we were surprised to have among some 400 attendants women from Puerto Rico, Jordan and Finland, apart from the more expected US, Britain and Germany. And they are from all age groups. Some have been here for more than 20 years, had no access to this sort of information and were looking for it.

What problems do foreign women face in Greece?
Lack of information is the main problem, but also the language. In the first instance, there is a lack of knowledge of Business Greek, which is, of course, required in order to work in private enterprise. Secondly - and Im not sure if I would call it discrimination - there is an attitude of 'why should a foreign woman be better than a Greek woman?'

What opportunities are there for foreign women and what skills can they offer the Greek market?
There has been some displacement of Greek women in jobs, mainly in the area of domestic help, by less skilled economic migrants such as Filipino, Polish and Albanian women. It is the professional group that no one wants to look at, even though we do have something extra to offer. We have several languages under our belts, we have experience in volunteer work and we've grown up in countries with a strong commitment to volunteer work; we've got good organisational skills as well as good cross-cultural awareness and a good knowledge of the way multinational companies work. We also have a high level of computer literacy in comparison with Greek women.

Its true that we can't hope to get a government position, though many of us are legally long-term residents, so we are left with NGOs and private enterprises. Foreign women have been quite successful in setting up NGOs and working as volunteers here. Greece is a terrific place to open a new business - there is a new market here. There are also opportunities within the foreign community itself. One lady, for instance, began teaching computer skills in English and French. Another idea is opening up a nursery for the foreign community.

Moreover, we have nine women on our database who have worked at previous Olympics Games and we would love to set up a training programme for foreign women to join the Olympic volunteer programme. We would be great ambassadors and anyway, we live here and we know our way around.