“Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give.”
Today’s readings from Acts tell us that “we all have to experience many hardships before we enter the Kingdom of God”. God has assured us “if we but trust in his help and mercy during these dark times we will be granted peace of mind and soul.”
“This is my gift to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
National Vice Presidents Barbara Paterniti and Anne Power attended the CEDAW meeting held in Perth on 29 February :
“The purpose of the consultations was to attract submissions from the various NGO’s to present them to the Australian Government Office for Women to choose which submission/s point out the areas of concern so the OFW could submit them to the Australian delegation to CEDAW to present at the next 6/7th Consultation session. The report is due to be lodged in August 2008”.
On 17-18 March Vice President Barbara Paterniti attended two sessions of the WomenSpeak meeting held in Canberra, accompanied by Jacqueline Hipwell President Canberra/Goulburn. Issues discussed were:
- A Secretariat for Aboriginal and Torres Strait women
- National plan to Eliminating Violence against Women
- Advocating for Paid Maternity Leave
- Issues affect Immigrant and Refugee Women
- Collaborative Proposal for an Australian NUSCR 1325 national action plan
- 2020 Summit and the in-balance between men and women.
These issues were pondered at great length and an agenda was presented to Minister Tanya Plibersek at a meeting on Tuesday at Parliament House.
Two issues to be aware of are - Maternity leave and Housing for refugees.
WomenSpeak consists of 37 Women’s groups, is funded by the Federal Government under the YWCA Secretariat and receives $157,000 indexed each year. Barbara and Jacqueline both agreed that it had been a most productive meeting and passed on their thanks to Caroline Lambert and Kathy Richards.
Noelle Guidera and I travelled to Canberra recently to meet with Communications Officer Aileen, NSW President Catherine McGrath and Sydney Archdiocesan President Moya Potts to discuss the finer points of presenting CWLA to the Youth of the World at our Booth at the Vocations Expo in the Sydney Convention Centre for WYD08 15-20 July. It was agreed at the meeting that CWLA would “handover” the responsibility for our involvement with the booth to Moya and Catherine utilising the assistance/expertise of Aileen our Communications Officer as required. I continue to urge you to send your material to Aileen before the end of April so it can be collated and used to showcase our involvement in the Church and wider Community at the Expo.
On Sunday 4 May the National Executive will share in a Prayer Day at the Dardanup Prayer House. I ask that you remember us in your prayers on that day. Our next National Executive meeting will take place in Busselton following the CWLA teleconference on Monday 5 May.
We have received advice from Kimberly Davis that the Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference meeting to be held in August has been held over until 2009.
Karyn Kammann
