This week’s SoroptiVoice blog is from Robyn Cain, SISWP Federation Programme Director. She reflects on the SISWP Federation Conference of Clubs in New Zealand which took place at the beginning of May. Many thanks to Robyn for reporting back – and welcome to Siew Yong, the new President of SI South West Pacific!
My goodness – is
it already over a month ago? The South West Pacific conference was held in
Greymouth New Zealand from May 4th-6th.
This was certainly a “conference with a difference”.
Originally the
conference was to be held in Christchurch, but following the February 2011
earthquake that option became impossible, as the selected hotel was so severely
affected by the quake that it has been demolished. The ingenuity of our New Zealand sisters came to the fore and a new plan
was hatched, which in the long run was a master stroke. The conference was
relocated to Greymouth on the west coast of the South Island. This meant a 3 hour trip by rail over the
Southern Alps. What a great way to start the conference.
I wonder what the 23 non-Soroptimist passengers thought!
Not only did 300
conference participants enjoy some fabulous ‘sightseeing’, we put the time to
good use by holding our programme meeting in one dedicated carriage. This gave
the new zone programme coordinators a chance to have face to face conversations
with their groups and to learn about the specific issues in the different
countries.
The conference was a fine blend of history, Maori culture and Soroptimist
enthusiasm. There were Soroptimists from 20 countries including International
President Alice, SIGBI President Maureen Maguire, SI Treasurer Pat Carruthers, SI Procedural Consultant Carwen
Wynn-Howells and Montreal Convention Chair, Yvonne Machuk.
President Alice
seemed to never stop smiling. She had recently visited the ‘Birthing in the
Pacific’ project clubs in Papua New Guinea and announced that this would
continue to be her President’s Appeal for 2012. Later we learned of a very
important grant made available to the Lae club from Aus Aid which will enable
that club to undertake ground-breaking statistical research in the field of
Birth Attendants.
We had great
speakers, including (on video) former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark who is
the Administrator of the United Nations
Development Programme.
There were also many important developments stemming from the Conference which I want to share with you all here: We welcomed the new SISWP President, Siew Yong, and congratulated the newly elected SISWP President Elect, Carolyn Hudson
We also announced the 2012 Best Practice Awards:
GOAL ONE:
Objective 1. SI Torrens – Girls on Track for Life
Objective 2. SI Helena – Integrated farming in East Timor
Objective 3. SI Port Moresby – Gordon’s Ridge Settlement Training classes.
Objective 4. SI Darkhan – Soroptimist Garden – training women to grow and harvest food
crops.
Objective 5. SI Lautoka – Recycling Project
GOAL TWO:
SI Bayside – Reconciling History
Congratulations to all the winning projects!
President Siew
Yong’s theme for the new biennium is
“Flower Power – Strength in Diversity”. There is a wonderful
video, which is a tribute to all the clubs and members of the SWP Federation
and is available to view here:
The video is
designed to demonstrate the diversity of members of SISWP and encourage our
working together to grow Soroptimist International. The video was a
wonderful way to complete what had been a friendly, bonding conference.