End Hunger-Walk The World on 7 June 2009

End Hunger: Walk the World on Sunday 7th June 2009
Will your Club participate? - Article by Else Larsen, SI Representatative the UN in Rome-FAO ( UN Agency -Food and Agriculture Organization)

(Today is International Women's Day- I have published many articles from CSW this past week- and thought that the issue of poverty and hunger would resonate with Soroptimists . I was one of the lucky people whose mother always had enough food available for the 6 children and two parents in the family. My parents weren't rich by some standards but with the thrifty behavior of my mother- were able to stretch a little food into hardy meals. Billions of people today do not have enough food in their stomachs- women and children representing over 70 % of that number. This article presents another opportunity that we have to join with partners around the world and focus on an issue that clearly is one that women must expose- poverty.......Dawn Marie Lemonds)

On Sunday 7th June 2009 the whole world will once again be on the move. Within 24 hours and in all 24 time zones, thousands of people will put on their walking shoes and join in a five kilometer walk to campaign against poverty and hunger.

Did you know that:

· More than 800 million people in the world do not get enough to eat, most of them are women and children.
· Almost 200 million children under five years of age are underweight due to a lack of food
· Malnutrition in children causes mental retardation and physical stunting
· One child dies every seven seconds from hunger and related causes
· For only US$ 50 per year (or 25 cents a day) you can fill a plate of nutritious porridge for a needy child in school.
· You can help to End Hunger by organizing a walk against hunger on 7th June 2009

End Hunger - Walk the World is a global event initiated in 2003 by TNT, a global mail and logistics company, in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). TNT and WFP works together with FAO and many NGOs to help raise awareness about poverty and hunger in the world and raise funds for WFP supported school feeding programmes in the poorest countries. School feeding programmes are a powerful way of reducing child hunger and increasing the enrollment of more children, and particularly girls, in primary schools, which is part of our SI Programme Focus 2007-2011 and the corresponding Millennium Development Goals.

Will your club participate?
To find out how to organize a ‘’Walk’’ visit http://www.wfp.org/ Next click “How to Help” - next “For Individuals” and you will find “Walk the World” and “How to find out More” This website will be updated regularly so keep an eye on it. There may also be a WFP Office in your own country or region which you can contact directly. To organize a ‘’Walk’’ is easy and a lot of fun – and, remember, your Club will be encouraging many more children, and specially girls, from poor countries, to attend school and help them fight hunger pains and concentrate on their studies.


To find out how to join or how to organize a ‘’walk’’ get in touch with WFP Headquarters in Rome by email: WFP.Walk_the_World@wfp.org and to learn more about this years Walk the World activities look up http://www.wfp.org/ I strongly encourage you to get involved. To organize a ‘’Walk’’ is easy and a lot of fun – and, remember, your Club will be helping many more children, and specially girls, from poor countries, to enroll in school and to complete primary school.

Restoring Dignity- Update- Cafe Juniper Opens

Soroptimists - Restoring Dignity
Our new Juniper Café is soon to be opened near the lake at
Desta Mender, and set among many juniper trees!
It is near our teaching or conference centre where we hope
to attract groups, who want a pleasant place to hold a day
conference, and where they can buy food from our café. We
are enormously grateful to the Soroptimist International
organisation for raising all the money for this café through
the 2007 and 2008 President’s Day Appeals, called “Restoring
Dignity”. We want to thank the President of the Soroptimists
for those 2 years, Margaret Lobo, for choosing the Hospital to
be the recipient of this large donation – which also paid for a
hard-top vehicle for use at Desta Mender. We hope Ms. Lobo
will visit us for some celebrations in May or June and will then
be able to unveil a plaque in the café telling of the assistance
provided by so many Soroptimist women.
We are also most grateful to Rae Newman, from Canberra,
who has done all the work in a voluntary capacity, in training
the girls from Desta Mender who will be the future cooks and
managers of the café. Rae has also worked hard at selecting all
the equipment and furniture we need for the café – kitchen,
and storerooms and an attractive eating area with tables and
colourful table cloths!
We are sure this will be a great attraction, not only to help
us financially, but to make known the plight of so many
fistula sufferers in this great country. We ate there a few
days ago, after holding our weekly management meeting in
the conference room. We had a delicious lunch, eating true
Australian meat pies, and other delicacies, all made by the girls
under Rae’s tutorship!
I have just realised this is our first letter in the New Year – so
I send you all our warm greetings, and wish you much joy, and
may God be with each of you through the months ahead.
Dr E. Catherine Hamlin AC
The Fund joins Dr Hamlin in expressing its grateful appreciation
to AusAID, Soroptimist International and all the Fund’s other
supporters for their generous assistance towards the work of
the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.
The Foreign Minister with Dr Hamlin and a fistula patient.

www.fistula.org

International Women's Day-Celebration at CSW53

5 March 2009-Celebration of International Women's Day

Today marked the official celebration at the United Nations of International Women's Day. Soroptimist delegates came early to ensure that they had one of the 230 available places in the session highlighted by a wonderful speech given by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. In addition to the Secretary General there were impressive presentations from leaders from several different regions of the world- similar to the presentations at many of the other events this week.

It was disheartening to learn that VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN knows no borders, knows no economic condition and is a condition endured by millions of women in the world everywhere. Secretary General Ban ki-moon launched his campaign one year ago at CSW52 to UNite to End Violence Against Women.

SG Ban Ki-moon told the government and NGO attendees at the UN and also gathered world wide video conference that he was impressed and moved by the distinguished participants attending the meeting. He strongly reinforced that we must continue to UNITE to End the scourge of violence against women. " Women are like rivers, connecting us to the heartbeat of the earth, Men, on the otherhand, are Warriors. While women weave the fabric of society- men dismantle all that keeps society whole.
-Violence Accentuates Poverty
-1 of 5 women and girls of the world suffer rapes or attempted rape, beatings and even murder"

He then went on to tell of a Health Hospital that he recently visited in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo. He met a 18 year old woman who told her story.

" While she was fleeing the soldiers she was raped by four soldiers. While physicians can heal her body and repair her wounds, who can repair her soul. Who will help her repair the stigma on her and the shame she will endure on her family. He said I was shocked and saddened beyond expression. I was very angry. Women need to live free of fear. I spoke to the President and the commander of the army. I spoke to everyone I met about such unspeakable tradgedies. I told the President that there is no excuse for this situation whatever and where ever it happens in his country-he is responsible. Violence against Women is a crime against humanity."

Mr. Ban talked about the cost of VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN to society- of death, injury,inability to work and in ability to be productive. The cost to lives is incalcuable and too often the perpetrators go free.

Mr. Ban talked about some positive programs like the WHITE RIBBON CAMPAIGN where men are taking responsibility to advocate and educate other men and boys about the unacceptability of VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. "REAL MEN DON'T HIT WOMEN LET ALONE RAPE THEM."

He told a story about an older man who participated in a workshop for men. The facilitator of the group was nervous about the message he would bring because the old man's words had so much power and he was afraid he might say the wrong thing.

The man told the group. " I came home and told my children that things have to change now. No longer can your mother come home from a full day of work and have to cook the dinner and clean the house.d He said- children- you will now have to clean the house while your mother is cooking dinner and I will do the dishes!"

"Society has to change.
Society can change society. Violence against Women cannot be tolerated in any form in any context!"

Mr. Ban's passion for the cause and compassion for women and girls is real and infectious! Not a person could feel anything but sincerity and commitment to FIGHT for this cause.

The rest of the session included regional leaders-
-HE Mrs Saidy, VP and Secretary of State for Women's Affairs of the Republic of the Gambia
-He Mrs. Gaytan, President of the National Women's Institute of Mexico
-Ms. Plibersek, Minister for the Status of Women in Australia.

After their report was a riveting panel of experts representing a variety of issues related to the topic of Violence against Women:
- one of my long time heroines- Radhika Coomaraswamy, United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict- Violence against women and girls in the context of armed conflict
-Yakin Erturk- United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women- Violence against women: the scope and dimensions of a global challenge
-William Lucy-International Secretary Treasurer of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees -Violence against women in the work place
-Imrana Jalal- Human Rights Lawyer and advisor at the Pcific Regional Right Resource Team - Ending Violence against women and girls: using the law to create change

Their messages in full will be available on the website mentioned earlier- http://www.ngocsw.org/

We carry the burden and the opportunity for being part of collective change with the challenge of these amazing people who spoke today!

Dawn Marie Lemonds, SI Programme Director

ARTS AS ADVOCACY AT CSW 53- #5

Yesterday- two amazing activities were presented for CSW attendees as side events. One was presented in the UN building and the other at a local Episcopal Church. Both events featured films about significant events involving women advocacy at the grass root or on the ground level- one in Australia and the other in Liberia. These heroism of the women involved and the sensitivity of the film makers was moving, breathtaking and absolutely empowering to the CSW53 to continue to do our work. Following is a small review of each of the films and the events accompanying them.

Yajillarra- Story by Ralda Forzin- SI South West Pacific CSW attendee.

The Australian government hosted a movie presentation highlighting a success story about a community turned around by a community decision to restrict the sale of take-away high alcohol content drinks. The town of Fitzroy Crossing in the remote Kimberley Region of Western Australia suffered numerous social problems associated with excessive alcohol consumption – violence, children born with foetal alcohol syndrome, lack of school attendance. There were thirteen suicides within thirteen months and a funeral a week to attend.

A campaign initiated by two aboriginal women and supported by the aboriginal elders, recognized women and men leaders, saw an unprecedented ban on high strength beer, wine and spirits sales at all outlets in the town. This was not total prohibition. Low alcohol beer is available for purchase and people can drink at the local hotels. Since the ban, school attendance and success has increased dramatically, the streets are quiet and safe and the levels of violence have reduced significantly.

The film, “Yajillarra”, To Dream in the local Bunuba language, documented the women’s story. The film was followed by an interactive panel session which included the two women, June Oscar and Emily Carter, who spearheaded the campaign as well as the Australian Minister for the Status of Women, the Hon. Tanya Plibersek MP and Elizabeth Broderick, the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner. The audience was impressed by the strength and persistence of the women in the face of powerful opposition from those with vested interests in the sale of alcohol and from some members of the community angry at having to drive almost three hundred kilometers to the nearest town to purchase full strength alcohol. This was a story of a community working to solve its own problems. This was a story of women making a difference.

PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL- A film by Abigail E. Disney and Gini Reticker

To set the stage for this amazing award winning film Abigail Disney gave a most empassioned and exciting speech about the inspiration and the making of this important film on women's impressive activism in recent times in Liberia. An interesting thought was that Ms. Disney told us that she had no intention about producing a film when she went to Liberia. She told us that she "went to Liberia
on a lark" because she heard how impressive the women were there.

In brief- she went to Liberia and says that the film was inspired by hearing "the story from a woman". This simple statement resonated with me because I believe so much of the on the ground work that we do as Soroptimists is inspired by stories about a need- often presented by the people involved in the problem.

The movie tells us of a recent and bold advocacy effort that women did in Liberia that gained world public attention. This movie chronicals women in Liberia who banded together against the devastation of the years of civil war that killed their family members, raped their girls, conscripted their children into becoming soldiers and destroyed any posibility of people having their human rights-particularly the women. Women from both Christian and Muslim Peace groups- collaborated and boldly "forced peaceful conclusions" in the "so-called" peace talks between the war lords. Peacefully 200 women blocked the exit doors of the negotiation site with the proclamation that they would not leave until a peaceful solution was achieved. This was an extradinary and brave effort which ended up with positive results!

The movie is available for sharing with other groups and is a "must see". Contact the website:
www.PraytheDevilBacktoHell.com People can do any of the following:

• apply to host a screening
• apply for the September Global Peace Tour
• purchase a DVD for your library, school or institution
• sponsor an international screening
• get Updates about home video DVD release
• and much, much more

Off to another session- We hope these "stories" inspire you as well as remind you how important your "on the ground" work is. One of the constant things we hear from people is that they know who Soroptimists are, they know what we do, and they are impressed that we put action to our words.

Dawn Marie Lemonds, SI Programme Director

ADVOCACY IN ACTION AT CSW53- March 2009 #4

ADVOCACY EFFORTS AT CSW-STATEMENTS WE HAVE SIGNED

Yesterday we recieved this information from our Soroptimist International Headquarters which is a summary of all of the statements we developed and co signed. This is a wonderful summary of the issues that Soroptimists are encouraged to endorse and promote at national and local government levels.

The Commission on the Status of women has published the Official Documents for this year's session. You can find them via the link below:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw53/OfficialDocuments.html

SI Statement E/CN.6/2009/NGO/7
SI co-signed Statements
SI co-signed Statements

E/CN.6/2009/NGO/19
E/CN.6/2009/NGO/21
E/CN.6/2009/NGO/22
E/CN.6/2009/NGO/30
E/CN.6/2009/NGO/41
E/CN.6/2009/NGO/42
E/CN.6/2009/NGO/43

OTHER ADVOCACY "ON THE GROUND"

Each year a small cadre of Soroptimists who are well versed in the advocacy process have been intimately involved in the working groups with their government's missions meeting at CSW. This year we have delegates from SI meeting with the missions of Denmark, Australia, Germany, UK, Canada and USA. SI is working toward improving our Advocacy efforts each year and will be developing a little Advocacy kit for attendees next year.

Our SI participation is a dynamic process. As more Soroptimists become part of this process from around the world as they learn how important this event can be- we will be able to spread our news and issues to more of the world we affect!

Dawn Marie Lemonds, SI Programme Director

CSW Day 2- micro and macro observations- All part of it!

A View from CSW
Exhausting, challenging excited- a visit to the CSW in New York. Miles of Corridors to negotiate, correct conference room to find and this year a massive fall of snow which made crossing the street somewhat dangerous as we negotiate slush, piles of snow and ice. How refreshing to meet with so many young involved girls, many belonging to World Wide Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides (WAGGGS) Sharing breakfast with them this morning we learned about their advocacy work on HIV/AIDS. We then played a game from their AIDS awareness pack: By shaking hands, I was able to infect 6 other people in 5 minutes as I had drawn a card saying I was HIV positive. Of course this activity was designed to "demystify" some of the myths about HIV transmission and leads to a discussion about how HIV can be transmitted- NOT by shaking hands. This demonstrated the ease and speed with which the virus can be spread. Half an hour rest to write this bit for the blog. Sandwich in hand-off now to the main session for a panel discussion in the main theatre. Hilary Ratcliffe- SI Great Britain and Ireland Programme Director


Emerging Issue: Gender Perspectives of the Financial Crisis
The following statement will be presented this week at CSW as an issue affecting all of it. Patti Dolan, SI member in Canada

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has selected the emerging issue, "Gender Perspectives of the Financial Crisis" as the subtheme of the 53rd session of the CSW. There has been increasing concern among women’s organizations, networks and agencies about the impacts of not only the global financial crisis but the food, fuel and climate change crises on women. Gender advocates are looking at how to engage in further dialogue with the key political players and at key moments to ensure policy proposals include a gender perspective in the solutions of the global crises.

How is the global financial and economic crisis impacting development?
The impact of the financial crisis is affecting the whole world and is threatening long term objectives like the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals .

Not only the developed countries, but increasingly emerging economies and least developed countries are suffering the effects of this global financial crisis.

Financial markets have collapsed, lending and investments opportunities are declining and exports are falling as demand decreases.

In addition, developing countries, facing already higher food and energy prices, lack the means and resources to protect their financial institutions or banks from bankruptcy.

The results are falling stock markets, rising interest rates, and less government resources for socio-economic investments that benefit the poor.

How is the global financial and economic crisis affecting women?

Women’s jobs tend to pay lower wages, in part because women tend to have a higher rate of part-time employment, and are often not covered by social safety nets. Moreover, in countries without social safety nets, the impact on women is even more severe.

Employment losses or a slowdown in job growth is expected to contribute to growing unemployment. This finds women at the risk of being hired last and dismissed first.

Developing countries will be affected by the drop in remittances from family members in developed economies. Remittances give women greater autonomy and control over family matters.

Female-headed households are at greatest risk, with few if any savings to weather the crisis, and limited ownership of wealth and other assets, as compared to men.

Ethnic groups that are less powerful and immigrant groups will suffer in many of the same ways because they are similarly situated in the paid economy as women. Even in developed countries such as the US, Black and Latina women face particularly high rates of poverty.

The effects on women and therefore children will be transmitted through cuts in public sector budgets, due to falling tax revenues and foreign aid.

As food and fuel prices soar and adding stress and hardship to families, incidents of violence against women and communal violence increase.

What are policy and advocacy inputs to improve the situation for women?
Past experiences have shown that financial crises and neoliberal policy responses, such as Structural Adjustment Programs, have disproportionately affected women in negative ways. It is critical to recognize gender equality as a fundamental human right and an issue of social justice essential for economic growth, poverty reduction, environmental sustainability, and development effectiveness.

New indicators must be developed to measure the impact of gender inequality on economic growth by measuring the value of women’s unpaid work as well as by developing performance indicators to measure progress in introducing and implementing gender-responsive approach to public finances.

To be efficient, effective, and accountable, public finance management systems and practices need to support rather than undermine principles of participatory and gender-responsive budgeting.

Information and resources
This information sheet primarily referenced the following papers and websites:
Interactive expert panel: Gender perspectives of the financial crisis, Issues Paper, 2009.
www.un.org/womenwatch.org Center for American Progress
www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/10/women_poverty.html/ "The Straight Facts on Women in Poverty," 2008. Commission on the Status of Women 53rd session, Agreed Conclusions
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/53sess.html

Excerpts from Written statement submitted by Stephanie Seguino for the interactive expert panel on the "Emerging Issue: Gender perspectives of the financial crisis" at the CSW on 6 March 2009.

Day 1- CSW53 - BE BOLD

Yikes! This California woman, Dawn Marie, and her President from Perth Australia- Margaret Lobo are NOT used to snow! This morning was fierce- blustery- and we clung to each other as we struggled to stand in the lines at the UN- greatful that we only had only a block to walk and that we had finished our registration! This posting of the first day will be done in haste- as we have a early morning Soroptimist briefing to go to at &:30 Others in our group will be sending postings to add to this blog- so you get views from others on our team. We will be writing a composite report for mass distribution at the end of the month- but hoped that you would enjoy accompanying us on this journey throughout. Please understant that each of these reports are written quickly. We will attempt to write all of the names of the speakers as we know them- but urge you to go to the websites listed below for the "official" reports.



WAGGGS - our partners in working together here at CSW- You will want to go to their website and read the report of Vanessa- one of the two young women who participated yesterday in the Soroptimst International Workshop we presented. Vanessa is from Brazil and told us about the work that they do with leadership for boys and girls and education they do with young people in Brazil on many issues- one of them being HIV/AIDS. The other participant who spoke from WAGGGS was Misozi-from Zambia. Soroptimists will be happy to know that we helped sponsor Misozi's attendance at CSW- money well spent! Misozi is an extremely articulate young woman who told us about the issue affecting girls in Zambia- many of who are either required to be caregivers for their family as young girls- or- forced into prostitution at a very early age. Read daily stories from the 5 young women from WAGGGS at www.wagggsworld.og/en/csw09/Day2





Soroptimist Briefing-After braving the snow - 20 Sorotimists met for the first of our daily meetings that are set up to prepare people for their UN experience this week. We were lucky to have Carol Themm and Lois Beilin- two of our UN Reps- who presented some of the tips and tricks of getting around, navigating the building, reading the schedule etc. We find this to be an important time to help Soroptimists have an effective journey during the time they spend at CSW.



1st General Session- The first general session began with the excellent leadership of H.E. Mr. Olivier Belle, chairperson of the commission. It is impossible to identify all of the critical information presented at this important first session. Expert writers versed in synthesizing the information have written about the work and each of the presentations available at many websites- following are a few of them that will lead you to these reports: www.ngocsw.org, and www.un.org

Following are a few highlights of the 1st session for me-

• From the Secretary General's office Madame Nagiro launched a review of some of the most important issues identifed by their office:

-It is critical that the world's governments recognize the work and the value of the work performed by caregivers- most of them women and girls

-Governments must reduce the burdens and expectations for caregiving on women- of all ages including girls and elderly women. Additionally they need to value these services by making resources, benefits, compensation, materials, education, transportation available to caregivers

-Adopt and implement policies- close the gap in pay

-Reduce stereotype of roles for men and women so that men may share the responsibility and opportunity of caregiving

-In line with Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's End Violence Against Women Campaign it is clear that society's reliance on caregiving particularly in the context of HIV/AIDS is unjust and serious violation against women and a form of violence against women.

• Ms Rachel Myanja, Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues ( OSAGI) made a special plea to BE BOLD and Work toward Gender Equality as part of every agenda. Critical Factors emerging at this time that must have the woman's voice and perspective include the global economic crisis, the continued and pervasive issue of Violence Against Women in every part of the world, Increasing Poverty and Climate Change. The Economic Crisis faced in the world today threatens all progress made on women's empowerment and will need governments and civil society to ensure that women's issues are included.
• The Executive Director of UN AIDS gave a most amazing and empassioned presentation as part of the panel addressing the emerging theme. I apologize for not getting his name. It will surely be included in future reports because he "rocked" each of the members of Soroptimist International that heard him. His refreshing RAGE at the issue of violence inflicted on women and girls every day was refreshing. He urged Reforms in the following specific areas:

-Give women and girls power to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS

-the Key to Universal Access is Sex Education

-Deal with Poverty. We must have new models.

-Preventionof HIV/AIDS has to be in the hands of the women. We must have new tools, new resources, Education and Skills Training

The strongest comment he made brought the room to tremendous applause:

WOMEN SHOULD NEVER NEED THEIR PARTNER'S PERMISSION TO SAVE THEIR OWN LIVES

So many many other things happened that first day. In two weeks there are 250 parrallel or side events outside of the UN building and 60 within the UN building in addition to the daily government sessions.

On the first day alone Soroptimists sponsored co-two events and fully presented another.

We co-sponsored a workshop presented by the American Psychological Association called Valuing the Caregiver: the Emotional and physical stress of caregiving: HIV/AIDS

We also co-sponsored a workshop along with the International Council of Jewish Women titled Developing Woman Power for Shared Leadership. Our own President Elect Hanne Jensbo was able to fill in as a speaker at the last minute when one of the speakers from Washington DC could not get to the UN because of the snow. This was the second year in a row that we have partnered with this organization and is a very satisfying relationship. More will be told about this workshop in the composite report.

The Workshop we organized and presented at the United Nations Building with the sponsorship of the Australian Mission was titled "Dialogue-Sharing "on the ground" best practice projedts for HIV/AIDS issues-caregiving, education and strategies of prevention. This workshop was moderated by President Margaret Lobo and included presentations from each of the 4 SI Federations: Alice Wells-SIA President, Ulrike Neubert-SIE Federation Programme Liaison, Carwen Wynne-Howells-President SIGBI assisted by Hilary Ratcliff- SIGBI Programme Director, and Eileen Mitchell-Past Federation President SISWP. Additionally we had presentations from two young women from WAGGGS ( mentioned above) and ended the session with a fabulous talk on Prevention by Dr. Patricia Souza from National Institute of Health. The session included a lot of interactive dialogue and will be described in a future report.

Its time to get on to the work of the day. This event is very satisfactory and requires a lot of stamina from the participants because there are always new opportunities before you. It is wonderful that more members from around the world have made this a priority to attend.

More coming soon- stay tuned- Dawn Marie Lemonds, SI Programme Director

CSW53 Starting On Monday March 2, 2009

Thursday February 26- March 1- 40 Soroptimists comnverged on to New York to attend the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations. Over 5000 delegates from Non Governmental Agencies ( NGO's ) have registered- each working toward advancing issues for women at Government and NGO meetings, workshops, caucuses and other events.

Some of the early travelers arrived in brisk and bright New York City - the sun was brilliant and welcoming. President Margaret Lob0- Executive Officer Rosie Coutts, President Elect Hanne Jensbo and I "hit the ground running" attending meetings with partner organizations such as FIVE -O and World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides, amongst them. This annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women gives each of our groups a chance to network, share strategies, discuss issues of mutual concern and enjoy friendships new and old. It is always exciting to see a new crop of YOUNG women- girls, students and young professionals who are eagerly stepping into ways paved by long time activists for women's issues.

Following is a brief "taste" of some of the spontaneous and planned activities we have enjoyed together:

• CSW Registration- standing in lines is an opportunity to immediately begin to make new friends amongst people who very often had a much more complicated journey than I did. I met women from Ghana, Ireland, Canada, America, Zambia, Kenya, Austria, and United Kingdom in moments and was enchanted by accents, stories, excitement, costumes, and the female energy of my sister delegates as we waited.
• Lunch in the UN Cafeteria is always a treat for me. I never grow tired of looking at the East River, seeing the boats go by, tasting wonderful and diverse treats, and look forward to the always stimulating conversation that we share. That day- 7 of us seamlessly talked of Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Female Genital Mutilation, Human Trafficking, and Rape in one short hour. The amazing thing for me was that everyone at the table understood the issues that we discussed and each had examples in mind of work that Soroptimist International Clubs are doing toward these causes. It makes me think about the times you have with families and friends and how much they would know about any of these topics.
• CSW NGO Consulation Day- 700 NGO registrants converged on a local University Hospital to attend this annual CSW preparation event designed to orient us to the issues and activities that would be taking place over the next 10 days. Very high level UN officials, and NGO leaders took time to help us learn how to navigate the schedule, understand the different types of sessions, and identify the critical issues of the PRIORITY THEME for this year-Equal Sharing of Responsibilities between men and women including care giving in the context of HIV/AIDS. From the very start of this meeting it was clear that there is an impatience from NGOs for Governments and Civil Society to face this issue more boldly. Statistics were shared that put an urgent context for the issues at hand:
• 90% of the caregivers in the world are women - 1/4 of them women over 60
• Many women with HIV/AIDS in developing countries share the burden of also being caregivers for others with HIV/AIDS
• Women spend twice as much time on unpaid work than do men

One of the particularly interesting parts of the day was participating in workshops in the afternoon where each group "practiced" reviewing the Agreed Conclusions that governments at CSW will look at next week and identified areas that needed strengthening or changing.

• Soroptimist Social Event- The highlight of pre CSW activities was arguably sharing a wonderful evening with 35 Soroptimists at a local Italian restaurant. Each delegate was invited to mingle and meet each other and share a bit about some of their work and interests.

The 6 Soroptimist Representatives to the United Nations from New York have tirelessly worked for months to help develop this event. The fruits of their labor is already being enjoyed and appreciated!

Dawn Marie Lemonds

SI Programme Director