SI Programme Director Hilary Ratcliffe reports on day 4 of CSW57 (7 March), including a second successful Soroptimist event, relationship education and continuing concerns about the outcomes document – your help is still needed!
Our second side event: From girl child to mature woman: A life course approach to gender empowerment and a violence free life was held at the Salvation Army centre some way from the UN building. As it is now cold with snow flurries, we were worried that we would have a low attendance. We needn’t have worried.
The event was run together with WAGGGS and the YWCA. Emna Fitouri from Tunisia spoke on behalf of WAGGGS spelling out clearly the difficulties for girls and young women in her country. She was ably followed by Angela Lauman from Canberra, Australia talking about work undertaken by the YWCA, particularly a programme called Relationship things.
Participants were then asked to think about key problems faced by women and girls throughout their life cycle and to write it on a post-it-note, which was then displayed on a poster around the hall.The aim was to build up a picture of violence faced at particular stages in a woman and girls life.
The panel then turned to women’s experiences from around the world as described by Soroptimists from Pakistan, Moldova and New Zealand.
It was an excellent panel discussion; one participant commented that it was the best she had attended at this years CSW! It’s great to feel that we have showcased not only effective partnerships but also the breadth and depth of our Soroptimist experience.
President Alice and I then attended the launch by WAGGGS and UN women of an initiative called Stop the Violence: Voices against Violence. This is a curriculum for girls from age 5 to help them to understand what is and what is not acceptable behaviour in a relationship.It is an excellent model and will be rolled out worldwide.Through our partnership with WAGGGS I urge all members to engage with this initiative as and when they can. More information can be found at www.stoptheviolencecampaign.org.
Our delegation is really fired up. Many contacts have been made which will drive forward our work as we really seek to be the voice at grassroots of women and girls. We still have extreme concerns re the outcome document so anything you can do from wherever you are in the world to influence you government about these key issues now is your time to act! Find out more about what you can do to help.