GEAR CAMPAIGN PETITION
UN Gender Equality Architecture Reform
Amnesty International Website Link for Petition:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/gear
In mid June, GEAR Campaign representatives will present a petition to "Make the United Nations more effective in realizing women’s rights" to the United Nations President of the General Assembly, H.E. Dr. Ali Abdussalam Treki. If you have not already signed on, please do so before June 10th when the petition will close. Also, please disseminate widely to your networks and constituencies.
GEAR Multilingual Petition Links:
Arabic - www.amnesty.org/ar/appeals-for-action/gear
English - www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/gear
French - www.amnesty.org/fr/appeals-for-action/gear
Spanish - www.amnesty.org/es/appeals-for-action/gear
We thank you for your support and will share more GEAR updates shortly.
The GEAR Campaign
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Soroptimists at the UN - New York-MDG update
DPI /NGO Briefing May 20th 2010 at Salvation Army Auditorium 52nd Street
UN Representative New York
Report : Yoko Komori Olson
“We can End poverty The Millennium Development Goals at Ten”
Background information
“ We must not fail the billions who look to the international community to fulfill the promise of the Millennium Declaration for a better world. Let us meet in September to keep the promise.” With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on world leaders to attend a summit in New York on 20-22 September 2010 to boost progress towards the MDGs. “ Secretary –General Ban Ki-moon
This is the DPI report of FACT and Progress.
( in Reference to the MDGs Summit 20-22 September, 2010)
MDG #3
PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN
Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015
Fact
The gender gap in primary school enrolment has narrowed to over 95 girls for every 100 boys in developing countries,a 4 percentage point improvement since 1999.
Women’s share of national parliamentary seats increased to 19% in 2009, a 6 percentage point improvement since 1999.
Country Progress
Mexico------“Oportunidades “ conditional cash transfer programme led to an increase of secondary school enrolment rates of over 20% for girls and 10% for boys in rural areas where the programme operated.
Rwanda--- in 2008, Rwanda elected a majority of women (56%) to its lover chamber of parliament, the highest level of female representation of any country.
Bangladesh----Starting from a very low gender parity index in primary education(0.35) in 1980’s, now closed the gender gap in primary and secondary education within a decade.
Tanzania---Land Act and Village Land Act of 1999 secured women’s right to acquire title and registration of land, addressed issues of customary land rights, and upheld the principles of non-discrimination based on sex for land rights.
Ethiopia----Amhara Province, promotion of functional literacy, life skills, reproductive health education and opportunities for saving for girls has significantly reduced marriage of girls aged 10 to 14.
Guyana---Help for teenage mothers to improve their competence through education and life skills training has significantly empowered them to make decisions for better lives for themselves and their children.
UN Representative New York
Report : Yoko Komori Olson
“We can End poverty The Millennium Development Goals at Ten”
Background information
“ We must not fail the billions who look to the international community to fulfill the promise of the Millennium Declaration for a better world. Let us meet in September to keep the promise.” With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on world leaders to attend a summit in New York on 20-22 September 2010 to boost progress towards the MDGs. “ Secretary –General Ban Ki-moon
This is the DPI report of FACT and Progress.
( in Reference to the MDGs Summit 20-22 September, 2010)
MDG #3
PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN
Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015
Fact
The gender gap in primary school enrolment has narrowed to over 95 girls for every 100 boys in developing countries,a 4 percentage point improvement since 1999.
Women’s share of national parliamentary seats increased to 19% in 2009, a 6 percentage point improvement since 1999.
Country Progress
Mexico------“Oportunidades “ conditional cash transfer programme led to an increase of secondary school enrolment rates of over 20% for girls and 10% for boys in rural areas where the programme operated.
Rwanda--- in 2008, Rwanda elected a majority of women (56%) to its lover chamber of parliament, the highest level of female representation of any country.
Bangladesh----Starting from a very low gender parity index in primary education(0.35) in 1980’s, now closed the gender gap in primary and secondary education within a decade.
Tanzania---Land Act and Village Land Act of 1999 secured women’s right to acquire title and registration of land, addressed issues of customary land rights, and upheld the principles of non-discrimination based on sex for land rights.
Ethiopia----Amhara Province, promotion of functional literacy, life skills, reproductive health education and opportunities for saving for girls has significantly reduced marriage of girls aged 10 to 14.
Guyana---Help for teenage mothers to improve their competence through education and life skills training has significantly empowered them to make decisions for better lives for themselves and their children.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Advocacy in Action- Soroptimists Submit papers to the UN
The Programme Team has been hard at work in the Advocacy area of SI. We have submitted several exciting reports to the UN, including a submission to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for a study on children and migration, where we highlight our work on trafficking in Moldova (Hope and Dreams for Everyone), and a submission to UNESCO on the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World, where we showcase our work in post-war Sierra Leone through Project SIerra. The team has also written new guidelines for Soroptimists to undertake their own advocacy in their own communities. All of this and more will be available on SI’s website (www.soroptimistinternational.org) in the coming weeks!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Project SIerra - last day
( Editor's note- I am so sad to post this last chapter- I have loved reading every moment of it and hope you have too! thanks so very much to our intrepid reporter- Andrea Mills)
Our final adventures were to Kissy and Freetown.
Today we visited the Kissy project and were given a performance by the children. The performance showed how a young girl came to find herself on the streets of Freetown pregnant and then with child.
The children were such great actors. They had developed the skit on their own. The ending showed the young woman and child getting support from the Kissy project.
We also got to tour their facilities. They are teaching the young girls to be seamstresses and hairdressers. There was even one young lady who was taking up welding.
Once again we were all overcome with all the wonderful things that are happening. The team at Hanci, Lois, Kelfar, John and Abu continue to do such wonderful work in extremely tough conditions.
We also cannot say enough about Alison and Joe. They are our Soroptimist link to the efforts and without them, we would not have the communication that is needed for a project of this size.
On Friday we met at Hanci's offices to debrief and give our comments.
Maureen Maguire brought up the issues of prevention of pregnancy. Kelfar spoke how they are utilizing radio but know that they need to get to the schools and they are working on a more face-to-face forum.
Suba Parthiban asked how Hanci was able to recruit and train such a wonderful team. Kelfar spoke about how they recruit from the communities. This helps with finding the issues, gaining trust and speaking up on the rights of women and children.
Karen Fyhring spoke about age requirements on when children are considered children. Kelfar spoke about how Sierra Leone enacted the Child Rights Act in 2008 through legislature. Currently, monitoring actions is tough but they are working on it. The legal requirement is that a child is considered a child until the age of 18.
June Gabbitas asked about if Hanci had resistance from the Chiefs for their efforts. Dr. Roland spoke about how they communicated to the Chiefs the rights of the child to slowly work to move to the rights of the woman.
After more questions, we concluded the meeting and I guess we could say our journeys.
I will not bore you with the details of getting back to the ferry, the heat or anything else, but if you would like to know someday, I will gladly share.
I would also like to say that, we Soroptimists, are not done. We still need to raise another £500,000. There are some conferences and a board meeting coming up. Also, I cannot stress enough, the importance to raise funds at the local level. We need to make our target. Please work hard at this.
I want to leave this blog with the words from a sign hanging in the small clinic we visited with six beds with mattresses about two inches thick. I also apologize if I offend anyone.
Think Wise Thoughts -
In Happy Moments - Praise God
In Difficult Moments - Seek God First
In Quiet Moments - Worship God
In Painful Moments - Trust God
At Easy Moments - Thank God
Our final adventures were to Kissy and Freetown.
Today we visited the Kissy project and were given a performance by the children. The performance showed how a young girl came to find herself on the streets of Freetown pregnant and then with child.
The children were such great actors. They had developed the skit on their own. The ending showed the young woman and child getting support from the Kissy project.
We also got to tour their facilities. They are teaching the young girls to be seamstresses and hairdressers. There was even one young lady who was taking up welding.
Once again we were all overcome with all the wonderful things that are happening. The team at Hanci, Lois, Kelfar, John and Abu continue to do such wonderful work in extremely tough conditions.
We also cannot say enough about Alison and Joe. They are our Soroptimist link to the efforts and without them, we would not have the communication that is needed for a project of this size.
On Friday we met at Hanci's offices to debrief and give our comments.
Maureen Maguire brought up the issues of prevention of pregnancy. Kelfar spoke how they are utilizing radio but know that they need to get to the schools and they are working on a more face-to-face forum.
Suba Parthiban asked how Hanci was able to recruit and train such a wonderful team. Kelfar spoke about how they recruit from the communities. This helps with finding the issues, gaining trust and speaking up on the rights of women and children.
Karen Fyhring spoke about age requirements on when children are considered children. Kelfar spoke about how Sierra Leone enacted the Child Rights Act in 2008 through legislature. Currently, monitoring actions is tough but they are working on it. The legal requirement is that a child is considered a child until the age of 18.
June Gabbitas asked about if Hanci had resistance from the Chiefs for their efforts. Dr. Roland spoke about how they communicated to the Chiefs the rights of the child to slowly work to move to the rights of the woman.
After more questions, we concluded the meeting and I guess we could say our journeys.
I will not bore you with the details of getting back to the ferry, the heat or anything else, but if you would like to know someday, I will gladly share.
I would also like to say that, we Soroptimists, are not done. We still need to raise another £500,000. There are some conferences and a board meeting coming up. Also, I cannot stress enough, the importance to raise funds at the local level. We need to make our target. Please work hard at this.
I want to leave this blog with the words from a sign hanging in the small clinic we visited with six beds with mattresses about two inches thick. I also apologize if I offend anyone.
Think Wise Thoughts -
In Happy Moments - Praise God
In Difficult Moments - Seek God First
In Quiet Moments - Worship God
In Painful Moments - Trust God
At Easy Moments - Thank God
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Project SIerra- Day 4
Here is the latest from Andrea:
Today, once again, we paid a visit to a Paramount Chief. Chief Kandah Lucini presides over Kamakwie. When you meet with the Chief it is in what is called a barrie, a shaded circular hatched compound usually close to the chief's quarters. We again state how impressed we were about how the community is working with Hope and Homes and Hanci. We can see that success happens when the community works in partnership to rebuild. We also have the chance to meet the recently elected Chief Pasantigie who was previously living in California. He is now a Section Chief in Kawakwie. Lisa Lefebvre, in our group, is also from California. Chief Pasantigie was very interested in talking with her about her home town.
John from Hanci was our guide today. He actually grew up in one of the villages in Kamakwie, was schooled in grade school, secondary school and university in Sierra Leone. He is now back in his home community working to improve the livelihood of the people.
We visited Kamabayo and met the Amadu family including a widowed mother and her six children. She lost her husband in the war. Hanci and Hope and Homes have helped, along with the local community, to rebuild her home. She is such a beautiful women.
We also visited another woman whose husband is blind and must be the breadwinner and caretaker for the family. They were living in unbearable conditions until they were able to receive the same support to get a new home.
We next journeyed onto a new village, Masankone, and met with the Section Chief Bai Ferah Fokie. It is custom to introduce yourself to the chief. He greeted us wonderfully and stated that he is planning to crown our fearless leader, Joe, a Section Chief for all his hard efforts. He was very grateful for the support of Soroptimists around the world and especially for the work that Joe has done in the community.
I must report on one sad part of our journey today. In the first village, Kabombo, we were going to visit some project sites. When we arrived we saw all the children in line and thought they were singing and marching for us, but this was not the case. They were singing for their teacher who was only 23 and had become ill and died the day before. It was so sad. I asked how will they find another teacher? For the time being, they said that someone from the village would fill in until another one was found.
I wanted to finish this blog with what the little children were singing and I could not help not to cry after I heard their song:
'We are marching for our school, always, always. We are marching for our school, always. We are marching for our teacher, always, always. We are marching for our teacher, always. We are marching for the teachers of the world.'
And our journey continues....
Today, once again, we paid a visit to a Paramount Chief. Chief Kandah Lucini presides over Kamakwie. When you meet with the Chief it is in what is called a barrie, a shaded circular hatched compound usually close to the chief's quarters. We again state how impressed we were about how the community is working with Hope and Homes and Hanci. We can see that success happens when the community works in partnership to rebuild. We also have the chance to meet the recently elected Chief Pasantigie who was previously living in California. He is now a Section Chief in Kawakwie. Lisa Lefebvre, in our group, is also from California. Chief Pasantigie was very interested in talking with her about her home town.
John from Hanci was our guide today. He actually grew up in one of the villages in Kamakwie, was schooled in grade school, secondary school and university in Sierra Leone. He is now back in his home community working to improve the livelihood of the people.
We visited Kamabayo and met the Amadu family including a widowed mother and her six children. She lost her husband in the war. Hanci and Hope and Homes have helped, along with the local community, to rebuild her home. She is such a beautiful women.
We also visited another woman whose husband is blind and must be the breadwinner and caretaker for the family. They were living in unbearable conditions until they were able to receive the same support to get a new home.
We next journeyed onto a new village, Masankone, and met with the Section Chief Bai Ferah Fokie. It is custom to introduce yourself to the chief. He greeted us wonderfully and stated that he is planning to crown our fearless leader, Joe, a Section Chief for all his hard efforts. He was very grateful for the support of Soroptimists around the world and especially for the work that Joe has done in the community.
I must report on one sad part of our journey today. In the first village, Kabombo, we were going to visit some project sites. When we arrived we saw all the children in line and thought they were singing and marching for us, but this was not the case. They were singing for their teacher who was only 23 and had become ill and died the day before. It was so sad. I asked how will they find another teacher? For the time being, they said that someone from the village would fill in until another one was found.
I wanted to finish this blog with what the little children were singing and I could not help not to cry after I heard their song:
'We are marching for our school, always, always. We are marching for our school, always. We are marching for our teacher, always, always. We are marching for our teacher, always. We are marching for the teachers of the world.'
And our journey continues....
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Soroptimists Advocate against Cluster Munitions
The best news possible for me this morning.
The UK ratified the new Cluster Munition Convention yesterday!
The following link from the UN has the details.
English: http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CN/2010/CN.246.2010-Eng.pdf
My sincere thanks to every Soroptimist in the UK who has supported the work to ban cluster munitions since we started this campaign in 2003! Your campaigning, organising petition signing, lobbying the UK government, raising public awareness and of course, organising those pyramids of shoes has helped to change the world. You have made a difference to the lives of future generations!
With grateful thanks to everyone
Kate
(Kate Moore MBE)
Federation Director of Membership
The UK ratified the new Cluster Munition Convention yesterday!
The following link from the UN has the details.
English: http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CN/2010/CN.246.2010-Eng.pdf
My sincere thanks to every Soroptimist in the UK who has supported the work to ban cluster munitions since we started this campaign in 2003! Your campaigning, organising petition signing, lobbying the UK government, raising public awareness and of course, organising those pyramids of shoes has helped to change the world. You have made a difference to the lives of future generations!
With grateful thanks to everyone
Kate
(Kate Moore MBE)
Federation Director of Membership
Project SIerra- Day 3 of the study tour
Here is the Day 3 blog from Andrea:
We started our morning with a special briefing on the day's activities in Makeni. We played a special trick on Joe, our fearless leader, but I am not allowed to blog about it on the Internet. I would be willing to disclose the secret though if an offer came with a bottle of a local Star Beer. After our briefing, we headed to Makeni in the northern province of Sierra Leone. It is one of the most scenic areas of the country, but also one of the places hardest hit by the recent civil war.
People say that Makeni is now its way up with support from the international community and the new national government. It is also centrally located in the country making it a hub for commerce.
Our journey today was not without breakdowns. Apparently, there appears to be one person in our party who the breakdowns seem to following (Maureen!).
Our welcome today at the project in Makeni was truly fabulous. The children were so cute and it was so, so hot. They were waiting for us in the hot sun but could not wait to greet us, touch our hands and sing to us when we arrived. These welcomes are quite overpowering and a feeling comes over you of being thanked more than you deserve. There is so much more to be done.
Today's group gave us a performance and it was quite good. One thing that is very evident is the leadership skills we seen developing with the children.
After our performance, we took a tour of the site and visited the clinic. This site has a health clinic. Most people in Sierra Leone do not have access to a health clinic.
Today, we were taken to meet Section Chief Kamara the representative of the Paramount Chief Bai Kasana. A little history is that the Permanent Chief is the custodian of the land. We reported to the Chief about our meeting with Hanci. We had to meet him to ask for his blessing and to ask permission to visit some families. There are 144 chiefdoms with a Paramount Chief in each chiefdom followed by Section Chiefs and then each section has a Village Chief.
After meeting with the Chief, he told us: 'You can bend the rules but do not break them.' We told him we are very good bending the rules. After our blessing from the Chief Kamara, we were off with Abu and John, our guides from Hanci. I cannot say enough about the Hanci team and their care for the community. They are wonderful. They are doing so much with so little. Abu and John left a big spot in our hearts.
We visited one home that had been rebuilt by Hanci and another family where the grandmother was taking taking care of four grandchildren. Hanci was helping her to start a small business so that she could support herself and her grandchildren. She was an inspiration to us all.
And the adventure continues.....
We started our morning with a special briefing on the day's activities in Makeni. We played a special trick on Joe, our fearless leader, but I am not allowed to blog about it on the Internet. I would be willing to disclose the secret though if an offer came with a bottle of a local Star Beer. After our briefing, we headed to Makeni in the northern province of Sierra Leone. It is one of the most scenic areas of the country, but also one of the places hardest hit by the recent civil war.
People say that Makeni is now its way up with support from the international community and the new national government. It is also centrally located in the country making it a hub for commerce.
Our journey today was not without breakdowns. Apparently, there appears to be one person in our party who the breakdowns seem to following (Maureen!).
Our welcome today at the project in Makeni was truly fabulous. The children were so cute and it was so, so hot. They were waiting for us in the hot sun but could not wait to greet us, touch our hands and sing to us when we arrived. These welcomes are quite overpowering and a feeling comes over you of being thanked more than you deserve. There is so much more to be done.
Today's group gave us a performance and it was quite good. One thing that is very evident is the leadership skills we seen developing with the children.
After our performance, we took a tour of the site and visited the clinic. This site has a health clinic. Most people in Sierra Leone do not have access to a health clinic.
Today, we were taken to meet Section Chief Kamara the representative of the Paramount Chief Bai Kasana. A little history is that the Permanent Chief is the custodian of the land. We reported to the Chief about our meeting with Hanci. We had to meet him to ask for his blessing and to ask permission to visit some families. There are 144 chiefdoms with a Paramount Chief in each chiefdom followed by Section Chiefs and then each section has a Village Chief.
After meeting with the Chief, he told us: 'You can bend the rules but do not break them.' We told him we are very good bending the rules. After our blessing from the Chief Kamara, we were off with Abu and John, our guides from Hanci. I cannot say enough about the Hanci team and their care for the community. They are wonderful. They are doing so much with so little. Abu and John left a big spot in our hearts.
We visited one home that had been rebuilt by Hanci and another family where the grandmother was taking taking care of four grandchildren. Hanci was helping her to start a small business so that she could support herself and her grandchildren. She was an inspiration to us all.
And the adventure continues.....
SI International Long Term Project- what do you want to know?
HAVE YOUR SAY! Introducing the new SI long term project
Hopefully you have all received your materials to participate in the first ever worldwide Soroptimist vote to choose a topic for our new long term project. This new long term project is part of a wider strategy to improve and progress our work internationally. We hope that by creating a Soroptimist project which can be implemented in every Club, Region, Union, and Federation, for an indefinite period of time, on a topic which is chose by YOU, we can collectively make a even more of a difference for women and girls! Here at SI, we will connect Soroptimists all over the world as we work on this project together. Once you have chosen a topic, there will be many different opportunities to either become involved in international work or to work on the topic in your own communities. We will also take every opportunity to advocate for our chosen topic at the UN and other international forums. And we will strive to become a resource center of excellence, full of information, ideas, and inspiration for Soroptimists to join together in achieving our common goal.
Please visit www.soroptimistinternational.org to read more about the two topics and to be inspired with Soroptimist success stories and more! Papers are available in English, Français, Español, Português, 日本語, 臺灣, and 한국인.
Below are just a few ideas about how the different topics could be brought to life by Soroptimists around the world:
Topic A: Violence Against Women
• Set up a local community resource or legal aid centre to help women and girls learn about their rights and seek redress
• Sponsor refugee camps in sister communities to ensure that women and girls are adequately protected (e.g. ensuring that there are sufficient numbers of female toilets so that women are not exposed to potential acts of violence)
• Partner with local groups to provide rehabilitation services for women and girls affected by violence and trafficking, including working with local government to ensure that trafficked women and girls are not forcefully deported.
• Focus on the best known tool for halting the human trafficking epidemic – prevention – by addressing gender discrimination, poor economic conditions, and lack of access to education. Working at local level to ensure that vulnerable women and girls are protected will dramatically reduce trafficking and improve the overall status of women and girls.
Topic B: Education and Leadership
• Foster opportunities to empower women economically (e.g. support microfinancing to strengthen businesses and women entrepreneurs). This could include non-traditional education in different skill areas.
• Teach or support courses on basic literacy skills at local shelters, community centres, libraries, or prisons. Female adult literacy is one of the most overlooked issues in our world today, silencing millions of women and severely limiting their abilities to reach their potential.
• Facilitate women’s access to positions of power and decision-making by widespread and vocal awareness raising events and campaigns around women’s rights. Work with local women to identify educational and training needs around leadership and develop community-based programmes to fill these gaps.
• Develop partnerships and awareness raising programmes with men, boys, and men’s groups to foster true gender equality.
Reilly Dempsey-SI Programme Director SIHQ
Hopefully you have all received your materials to participate in the first ever worldwide Soroptimist vote to choose a topic for our new long term project. This new long term project is part of a wider strategy to improve and progress our work internationally. We hope that by creating a Soroptimist project which can be implemented in every Club, Region, Union, and Federation, for an indefinite period of time, on a topic which is chose by YOU, we can collectively make a even more of a difference for women and girls! Here at SI, we will connect Soroptimists all over the world as we work on this project together. Once you have chosen a topic, there will be many different opportunities to either become involved in international work or to work on the topic in your own communities. We will also take every opportunity to advocate for our chosen topic at the UN and other international forums. And we will strive to become a resource center of excellence, full of information, ideas, and inspiration for Soroptimists to join together in achieving our common goal.
Please visit www.soroptimistinternational.org to read more about the two topics and to be inspired with Soroptimist success stories and more! Papers are available in English, Français, Español, Português, 日本語, 臺灣, and 한국인.
Below are just a few ideas about how the different topics could be brought to life by Soroptimists around the world:
Topic A: Violence Against Women
• Set up a local community resource or legal aid centre to help women and girls learn about their rights and seek redress
• Sponsor refugee camps in sister communities to ensure that women and girls are adequately protected (e.g. ensuring that there are sufficient numbers of female toilets so that women are not exposed to potential acts of violence)
• Partner with local groups to provide rehabilitation services for women and girls affected by violence and trafficking, including working with local government to ensure that trafficked women and girls are not forcefully deported.
• Focus on the best known tool for halting the human trafficking epidemic – prevention – by addressing gender discrimination, poor economic conditions, and lack of access to education. Working at local level to ensure that vulnerable women and girls are protected will dramatically reduce trafficking and improve the overall status of women and girls.
Topic B: Education and Leadership
• Foster opportunities to empower women economically (e.g. support microfinancing to strengthen businesses and women entrepreneurs). This could include non-traditional education in different skill areas.
• Teach or support courses on basic literacy skills at local shelters, community centres, libraries, or prisons. Female adult literacy is one of the most overlooked issues in our world today, silencing millions of women and severely limiting their abilities to reach their potential.
• Facilitate women’s access to positions of power and decision-making by widespread and vocal awareness raising events and campaigns around women’s rights. Work with local women to identify educational and training needs around leadership and develop community-based programmes to fill these gaps.
• Develop partnerships and awareness raising programmes with men, boys, and men’s groups to foster true gender equality.
Reilly Dempsey-SI Programme Director SIHQ
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Project SIerra Study Tour- 2nd day
Reporter- for the Study Tours- Andrea Mills, SI Representative to the UN New York
"The second day of trip is our project visit to Bo. Bo is Sierra Leone's "second city". We headed out for a four hour ride to Bo after a morning information session about Hope and Homes including confidentiality restrictions on photographing children.
We traveled in three SUVs with the third carrying a mechanic. I wondered why the SUV with the mechanic was always last, until our SUV clutch broke down. We coasted for a while until we came to a stop about 15 minutes outside of Bo. Luckily we were able to pile into the other SUVs and head to the project. It was bit crowded, but we all fit in.
As we continued our journey to the project, we were actually stopped by a police roadblock. All I was thinking was we were going to be in trouble with all these people piled into one SUV! We rolled down the window, the police officer looked in and began to laugh hysterically. I don't think it was something he could ever have expected -- a car full of Soroptimists! Thanks to Suba giving her beautiful smile we all avoided jail.
After our long journey, we were greeted by the most wonderful welcome at our Bo project. We had over 40 young women dancing singing and welcoming us in a performance. They even pulled us up to dance. During the dance, one "very rowdy" Soroptimist named June Gabbitas started "shaking her booty". We all tried to keep up with her and so did the young women, but she won out on the "booty" contest. We have the pictures to prove it.
Lois Kamara, Programme Manager -- Kissy and Bo Urban Projects, and Saidu Thoronka, Bo Project Manager, gave us an overview of the program. They are doing wonderful things with women. We were also treated to a wonderful lunch and tour of the project.
After that, Hawa our tour guide from Hanci, took us all around the city to meet women that were learing job skills with local businesses. We visited several businesses in Bo. One is interning at a hotel and others are becoming seamstresses. I am most impressed with how the local community is helping to give the teenage mothers the opportunity to be interns with some staying on full time after they graduate from the program.
After our tour, we took a short journey to our hotel where we found out that three of us would have the opportunity to be interviewed live on Bo's Kiss 104.5 radio program to talk about Soroptimist's partnership with Hope and Homes and Hanci. Suba Partiban, Alison Sutherland and "little me" jumped at the chance. It was wonderful. We ended a very long day talking live to the citizens of Bo about all the wonderful work we were doing with the young women of Sierra Leone and around the world.
We knew that we had a big audience because Kiss 104.5 in Bo is the most popular and listened to station in the area. Radio is the most frequently used form of communicating news and information due to the high illeteracy problems in Sierra Leone.
Quite an eventful day! And the adventure continues....
Best regards,
Alison
"The second day of trip is our project visit to Bo. Bo is Sierra Leone's "second city". We headed out for a four hour ride to Bo after a morning information session about Hope and Homes including confidentiality restrictions on photographing children.
We traveled in three SUVs with the third carrying a mechanic. I wondered why the SUV with the mechanic was always last, until our SUV clutch broke down. We coasted for a while until we came to a stop about 15 minutes outside of Bo. Luckily we were able to pile into the other SUVs and head to the project. It was bit crowded, but we all fit in.
As we continued our journey to the project, we were actually stopped by a police roadblock. All I was thinking was we were going to be in trouble with all these people piled into one SUV! We rolled down the window, the police officer looked in and began to laugh hysterically. I don't think it was something he could ever have expected -- a car full of Soroptimists! Thanks to Suba giving her beautiful smile we all avoided jail.
After our long journey, we were greeted by the most wonderful welcome at our Bo project. We had over 40 young women dancing singing and welcoming us in a performance. They even pulled us up to dance. During the dance, one "very rowdy" Soroptimist named June Gabbitas started "shaking her booty". We all tried to keep up with her and so did the young women, but she won out on the "booty" contest. We have the pictures to prove it.
Lois Kamara, Programme Manager -- Kissy and Bo Urban Projects, and Saidu Thoronka, Bo Project Manager, gave us an overview of the program. They are doing wonderful things with women. We were also treated to a wonderful lunch and tour of the project.
After that, Hawa our tour guide from Hanci, took us all around the city to meet women that were learing job skills with local businesses. We visited several businesses in Bo. One is interning at a hotel and others are becoming seamstresses. I am most impressed with how the local community is helping to give the teenage mothers the opportunity to be interns with some staying on full time after they graduate from the program.
After our tour, we took a short journey to our hotel where we found out that three of us would have the opportunity to be interviewed live on Bo's Kiss 104.5 radio program to talk about Soroptimist's partnership with Hope and Homes and Hanci. Suba Partiban, Alison Sutherland and "little me" jumped at the chance. It was wonderful. We ended a very long day talking live to the citizens of Bo about all the wonderful work we were doing with the young women of Sierra Leone and around the world.
We knew that we had a big audience because Kiss 104.5 in Bo is the most popular and listened to station in the area. Radio is the most frequently used form of communicating news and information due to the high illeteracy problems in Sierra Leone.
Quite an eventful day! And the adventure continues....
Best regards,
Alison
Monday, May 3, 2010
Soroptimists Back in Sierra Leone- 3rd Study Tour
Tonight we arrived in Sierra Leone and were greeted by Alison Surtherland, our Soropotimist Coordinator, and Joe Glackin from Hope and Homes for Children.
It is always interesting to arrive in a new counrty and arriving in Sierra Leone is definitely a team effort. Alison and Joe negotiated our transport from the airport, got us on the ferry and dealt with sudden room changes at the hotel. They even had water and a snack ready for us in the van during our trip. What more could we ask for?
Joe also deserves a gold start for hanging with nine women from all of the world for the week. Joe brought some support to our transport from the airport in the forma a young man who is the bookeeper/accountant for Hope and Homes in Sierra Leone. Of course, as an accountant myself, I was very happy to meet this young man who serves as their fiscal person. I couldn't wait to tell him that accounting is near and dear to my heart.
One of the highlights of the trip from airport was a little incident at the ferry terminal. With our van jam packed with nine women, our driver, Joe and the accountant/bookeeper, we could not make it up the ramp onto the ferry! We all had to disembark, except for the driver, to reduce weight. Thank goodness the van made it up the ramp without us having to remove our luggage -- or having to push the van up the ramp. That would have been fun!
All in all, the journey from the airport to our hotel added a good travel story to my collection.
And the adventure continues."
It is always interesting to arrive in a new counrty and arriving in Sierra Leone is definitely a team effort. Alison and Joe negotiated our transport from the airport, got us on the ferry and dealt with sudden room changes at the hotel. They even had water and a snack ready for us in the van during our trip. What more could we ask for?
Joe also deserves a gold start for hanging with nine women from all of the world for the week. Joe brought some support to our transport from the airport in the forma a young man who is the bookeeper/accountant for Hope and Homes in Sierra Leone. Of course, as an accountant myself, I was very happy to meet this young man who serves as their fiscal person. I couldn't wait to tell him that accounting is near and dear to my heart.
One of the highlights of the trip from airport was a little incident at the ferry terminal. With our van jam packed with nine women, our driver, Joe and the accountant/bookeeper, we could not make it up the ramp onto the ferry! We all had to disembark, except for the driver, to reduce weight. Thank goodness the van made it up the ramp without us having to remove our luggage -- or having to push the van up the ramp. That would have been fun!
All in all, the journey from the airport to our hotel added a good travel story to my collection.
And the adventure continues."
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