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