DAY 1 – MAY 16TH

by Johanna Richardsson , Soroptimist Sweden, Lund

 
WOMEN DELIVER 4TH GLOBAL CONFERENCE

"The Nordic Collaboration and working group consisting of Gunilla Rommerskirchen, Birgit Aarsnes Frandsen, Else Larsen, Linda Schang and myself, is now finally in Copenhagen attending the 4th Women Deliver Conference and the main topic for the conference is women’s and girl’s health and rights. Over 5500 people are attending. NGO’s, desionsmakers, world leaders, young professionals and students gather to find new solutions to complex problems and to find new partners in order to get things done.

Among the speakers we find Kofi Annan, Mary Crown Princess of Denmark, Jill Shepard founder of Women Deliver, Danish Prime minister Lars Locke Rasmussen, Annie Lennox, Ban Ki Moon, on video, together with many other world leaders and perhaps most importantly, many people with the urge to make a difference one way or another. This in order to put girls and women in the heart of development.

 
”Less bad is never good enough” said Mary Crown Princess of Denmark at the opening ceremony and she reminded the audience that what we are discussing at this conference is not a woman’s issues but a human issue and that we need to add value to the evidence based solutions that we already have in order to push this work further.

The moderator, Barkha Dutt, made us all stand up in solidarity of feminism. There was a strong feeling of togetherness in the room at that time and I got goose bumps. I was very glad to so many men were on their feet, seemingly grasping the concept of feminism and that it concerns all of us. 

 
Picture: Today our team grew bigger. From the left: Johanna Richardsson, Kirsten Bruhn, May Lise Hegrand, Birgit Aarsnes Frandsen, Else Larsen, Anne Marie Boile, Soroptimist International President Yvonne Simpson, Ulla Madsen, Linda Schang and Gunilla Rommerskirchen.

We will take turns working in the stand and also listen to as many talks as we can and bring all new knowledge and insights back to our countries and our clubs to share. Jill Sheffield who is the founder of Women Deliver talked about expectations and that we all have them when coming to a big event like this one. Her advice was to focus on expanding knowledge and finding solutions.

Seeing all these organizations gathered at Bella Center gives an awareness of what an amazing amount of work is being carried out around the world for the sake of women and development. A feeling of hope arises and we expect new collaborations to take form so that healthcare and education can reach more people and have a greater impact for all of us. Bye for now!"