Our Club celebrated International Women’s Day 2021 on Sunday afternoon This was a collaborative effort by our Club with the Women’s Shed which played a very large part in creating the event, in partnership with the Women’s Shelter and PCYC.
The food and drink and the DJ-provided music were sponsored by Ku-ring-gai Council, the Ku-ring-gai Neighbourhood Centre and the Community Migrant Resource Centre (CMRC) . It
proved to be a very colourful, vibrant experience with nearly 20 stalls covering many aspects of well-being and support for women, combined with a programme of heart-touching performances including Korean dance, Persian music and vigorous dance therapy which had everyone involved.
proved to be a very colourful, vibrant experience with nearly 20 stalls covering many aspects of well-being and support for women, combined with a programme of heart-touching performances including Korean dance, Persian music and vigorous dance therapy which had everyone involved.President Janelle Speight, Prof..Veena Sahajwalla (UTS), and
Uma Menon (KNC)
Read More below and access to a photo album.
Prof. Veena Sahajwalla’s keenly awaited address focused on the importance of role models in empowering each generation to create new horizons for women and to challenge the impediments of history and social restriction. She referred particularly to her own mother who, as a child, she used to listen to as she waited after school to be taken home.
What struck her, she said, was how her mother didn’t just disburse medicine but connected and created community with each of her patients. Prof. Veena emphasised that this capacity, to build relationships and take community with you, is at the heart of progress led by women.
She then spoke, not of her renowned invention of ‘green steel’ but of her latest initiative, which is the establishment of model micro-factories that enable small scale manufacture of products made from plastic and other waste materials that pilot an income-generating, planet-assisting opportunity for individuals and groups at the local level.
The afternoon had begun with an acknowledgement of Country by Lea Harlow and Peter Kirkwood and was officially opened by Hon Paul Fletcher, Minister for Communications etc who valiantly joined in the dance therapy session and observed afterwards that this was one area in which women surpass men. Paul spoke about this year’s theme, Choose to Challenge, in the context of women’s inequality in today’s society.
The afternoon ended with a feast prepared by the PCYC café staff and the Lions Club Multicultural Kitchen. event was closed by Mayor Philip Ruddock who reminded us of his record in increasing the representation of women on the judiciary in Australia and then distributed largesse in the form of raffle prizes, three of which were won by Rotary members.
Community Committee members invested many hours into preparing for the event including President Janelle who co-ordinated all with immense patience and persistence, Lucy Dahill who produced a colourful printed directory of all participating organisations, Jo Moffat who enlisted and supported the terrific range of stall holders, Peter Kirkwood who provided the venue and food through PCYC and played the didgeridoo, and Christine Biddle whose army of Rotary volunteers worked very hard all afternoon making the festival the smooth-running, welcoming and professional event that, as one visitor said, ‘is typical of Rotary’.
Our hard working team above (for more pictures click - here)
Proceeds from the afternoon will be shared between the Women’s Shelter, the Women’s Shed and PCYC.
A Student Poetry Competition was inaugurated for the event and the awardee, Margaret Li, from Hornsby Girls High School presented the following stirring words with great verve:
Women, a word that has come to mean so much, in our society today
We're a group of united individuals, who've never really had their say
We've been in the background for far too long, overshadowed by the men
It seems as soon as we were born a girl, we were less important than them
But we are so powerful despite our gender and the things that we can't change
Our gender doesn't determine the life we live or the choices that we make
"It's not about the cards you're dealt but how you play the hand"
Some think being a woman is harder but it just means we can take a stand
If you think we'll just sit and take it, you're wrong because we will fight
It's time now for us to step out of the shadows and into the dazzling light
So on this international women's day, up I raise my hand
and say I choose to challenge, but will you take a stand?