Around 500 countrywomen drawn from up to 70 countries will attend their world conference in the United States at Hot Springs, Arkansas, from April 21-28.
Delegates to the three-yearly gathering of the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW) will debate global issues from their perspective. ACWW has consultative status with the United Nations and actively pursues the policies that emerge, nationally and internationally.
The organisation exists to promote friendship and cooperation between women of differing nationalities and to support life-enhancing – sometimes life-saving – projects that have been designed by women for women and their families.
ACWW’s current World President, Dato Ursula Goh, is from Sarawak, Malaysia, and it has an Area President for each of nine regions of the world.
The conference will be more colourful than most. Many delegates will wear the silks of Asia, the woven patterns of Africa and decorated dresses of the South Pacific. In recent times, they have met in Finland, Tasmania, Canada and South Africa.
Backgrounder
· Numbering 360 societies in its membership ACWW, run from London, UK, is the largest organisation representing rural women.
· Dato is a non hereditary civil honour awarded in Malaysia.
· Between October 2005 and October 2008, ACWW awarded close to £500,000 to projects, many promoting health through clean water supplies and feeding the hungry through agricultural and women’s employment initiatives.
· ACWW also supports educational opportunities for women and girls and an end to gender-based discrimination.
Canada Area President, Margaret Yetman, reports that the ACWW Canada Area covers a large geographical area, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the east, to the Pacific Ocean in the west, from the USA border in the south, to the Arctic Ocean in the north.
The Area comprises seventeen Societies and 479 individual members. At the conference in Hot Springs, the Area President and delegates from each of the Societies will be in attendance.
Area President, Margaret Yetman, is delighted to report that during the period 2007-2010 a very successful ACWW international project was undertaken by the Area. The project, entitled “Home Based Care for the Tsunami affected Dalit Children” and sponsored by the Society of Daughters of Mary Immaculate & Collaborators, was carried out in the Nagapattinam District of India. Canada Area members generously contributed approximately $10,000.00 to the project. This money was able “to provide these children with a ray of hope” for their future.
Canada Area members are committed to the work of ACWW. Through their partnership with women world-wide, their voices are heard in helping to make the world a better place for all in which to live.