YWCA World Council & International Women’s Summit 2011 in Zurich
By YWCA Scotland Development Worker, Rachael O’Bryne – who will be attending the World Council this summer as part of the GB Delegation.
The World Council meets every four years and over 1000 members of the YWCA movement from more than 100 countries convene to set priorities, elect the governing body and honour women. Part of the week is a two day International Women’s Summit with the theme of ‘Women creating a safe world’ where World YWCA, partner organisations and guest speakers come together to discuss the subject.
The GB delegation consists of eight women, a mixture of staff & young women representatives, from YWCA Scotland, Platform 51, YWCA Glasgow and YWCA Sheffield. So far we have taken part in two training weekends - one in Doncaster and one in Edinburgh, and we are getting ready for our final weekend in Northampton in May. The members of the delegation have a wide variety of backgrounds, skills and talents, as well as sharing a common goal and active interest in encouraging girls and young women to overcome barriers and achieve their full potential.
At the training weekends we have been learning more about the three themes of World Council which are ‘HIV/AIDS’, ‘Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights’ and ‘Violence against Women’, as well as discussing how these are covered at a local level. This has been very interesting and motivational for me in my own job as Development Worker in Kirkcaldy and I look forward to returning from Zurich with more knowledge of women’s issues around the world and passing this on to other staff, volunteers of YWCA Scotland and the girls & young women that we work with here in Kirkcaldy.
In the delegation, we have also been tasked with more practical duties for the trip including finding out more information about Zurich, Swiss culture, language, currency and weather and deciding on a GB ‘dress’ that we can wear as a delegation for the opening ceremony. We decided on a sash with all our home country flags on it and the YWCA GB tagline which is ‘young women working together for a better world’.
Kirsty Kelly, who is a member of the World YWCA Board, came to speak with us at the Edinburgh training and went through the programme day by day of what will happen during the week in Zurich and what would be expected of us as a delegation. This was really useful as it all became ‘real’ for us and we began to understand what our roles and responsibilities will be.
The Northampton training weekend in May will only be the third time we have met together as a delegation, however we have all bonded, found our places in the group and learned what each other’s skills, strengths and abilities are, which is very useful in deciding who will attend workshops etc.
I am feeling very motivated and excited about the adventure ahead and very proud to be representing YWCA of GB, YWCA Scotland and of course our local Kirkcaldy centre.
