SI under the Big SI CSW "Tent"
Dawn Marie Lemonds, International Programme Director
Happy International Women's Day- I have said this to every woman I have talked to at my workplace in California and sadly- few of them have ever heard of such a day! This gave me a great opportunity to share some of the solidarity and issues that we have learned in this CSW experience this year.
This year I have purposefully shared other women's voices from our delegation at CSW in the SI Blog. I wanted you to get a flavor of what each of them are finding important.
Today I am sharing some quick notes directly from New York. I hope you hear their enthusiasm!
Lois Beilin, Lead SI Representative from UN- New York 3/6/10
Today we discovered that the woman at the United States Mission who is the chief negotiator on women's issues received a scholarship from Soroptimists as a young woman.(Probably a Soroptimist Youth Citizenship Award now called Violet Richardson Award -from a club in SI/Americas). Here- we find what wonderful "interest" we all get back from our investments in young women with our Soroptimist awards, scholarships and support. Her statements and support for a strong composite entity at the United Nations makes all Soroptimists proud.
One of our Soroptimists, Ulrike Neubert the SI/Europe Federation Programme Director who is attending attending CSW 54 has been chosen to make a statement on SI's behalf at the Interactive Panel on Violence Agains Women. It is expected that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and many other United Nations officials, ambassadors and delegates will be there to celebrate International Women's Day. It is a particular honor to have Soroptimist International chosen to present a statement on Violence Against Women- one of 2 or 3 NGOs - at that time on this all important topic to the Secretary General, UNIFEM and CSW and to Soroptimists.
From President Leigh Ellwood-Brown- Soroptimist International South West Pacific
We have just completed a very successful session on Trafficking where Soroptimists came out of the wood-works from Ireland, Gambia etc. We had a lot of Government delegations from various nations. Our guest speaker on the panel was Norma Ramos Director of CATW, Lori Blair, Soroptimist International of the Americas Federation Program Director was the moderator & representative for SIGBI & SIA, Ulrike did SI Europe, I covered SISouth West Pacific and both Ulrike & I covered Project SIerra & SIAM. We had several men in the audience, one African TV camera from Gambia he rolled the camera on the female Government Gambian speaking on her Governments stance then she also revealed she was a Soroptimist. Norma was very succinct in her presentation. I saw some men in the audience drop their face & eyes when she spoke of elimination of demand! We have all had very good feedback, Norma also did not realise how much work on this subject SI had done. What a team!
Monday, March 8, 2010
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Have not seen this on your blog and I think it should be told to your readers. The Soroptimist International has a Soroptimist scholarship program called the Womens Opportunity Awards Program. While the club operates in 120 countries, only 19 of those countries participate in this program. This program started in 1972 and since then $25 million has been given to women via awards to help improve their lives. The program is available to women who are currently working to support their families, and provides them with the funds and support that they need to improve their educations and skills, which greatly increases their employment prospects. The women who are eligible must be the primary source of income in the home. This is a scholarship for working moms. As you can see this organization really cares by helping those women that really can't help themselves.
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