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How women can change the world
Summary
Did you know that of the billion people living on less than US$1 a day, 3 out of 5 are women and girls?
Just imagine the transformations that would follow if we could break through the barriers that keep so many women in poverty and without rights. We know that when women benefit from development and have a say, they share the benefits with their families and invest in their communities. Women use their earnings for the health and education of their children and themselves. And for every year beyond fourth grade that girls attend school, wages rise 20%, child deaths drop 10% and family size drops 20%. Yet even with this knowledge, mobilising the resources to enable women and girls to change their lives remains hard work.
International Women’s Day 2010 comes at an important time. There is five years to go until 2015, and an enormous amount to do to reach the Millennium Development Goal of gender equality and empowering women. And around the world, countries are assessing what has been achieved in the fifteen years since the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Where are things at? When justice and self-interest both argue for investing in women, and when women’s leadership makes such a difference, why is change so slow? And what can we do to speed things up? Come along to this special International Women’s Day forum and find out how you can make a difference in women’s lives – and help change the world for the better!
Venue |
BMW Edge, Federation Square, Melbourne, VIC |
Date & time |
Wednesday, 10 March 2010 6:00 PM |
Speakers & Performers
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Kavisha Mazella - ARIA award-winning Singer, Songwriter, Choir Leader
Born in London England, to an Italian father and Anglo Burmese mother, and migrating to Australia in the early sixties, Kavisha is an ARIA Award winning musician and singer who crosses musical boundaries and create community experiences in her shows. She makes passionate, life-affirming music which is an energetic fusion of her own original music in which you can also hear echoes of Italian folk traditions tinged with Country, Celtic and Gypsy styles. As well as leading the Kavisha Mazzella Trio (with Irine Vela and Peter Vadiveloo), she collaborates with many artists in theatre projects,teaches workshops in voice in Italy and Australia and has run choirs such as Melbourne based "La Voce Della Luna" Italian Womens choir of which she is the current Musical Director. In 2008 Kavisha was a recipient of the Victorian Governments Multicultural Awards for Excellence for her contribution to Community Arts.
"Her voice flows like tears of joy and sorrow, there’s a saltiness and warmth of sensuality here that sings the great bitter sweet song of life"
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Hilary Charlesworth AM - Internationally renowned commentator on international law and human rights
An internationally renowned thinker and commentator on international law and human rights with a strong interest in gender, Hilary is Director of the Centre for International Governance and Justice and Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the ANU. Hilary is an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow and has held visiting appointments at Washington & Lee School of Law, as Manley O. Hudson Visiting Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School, New York University Global Law School, as Wayne Morse Professor at the University of Oregon, and at Université de Paris. She was the winner (with Christine Chinkin) of the Goler T. Butcher Medal awarded by the American Society of International Law in 2006 for “Outstanding contributions to the development of international human rights law.”
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Kankelay – Sierra Leonean refugee women’s choir
Kankelay has been delighting audiences in Melbourne since 2007 when a group of SIerra Leonean refugee women came together to sing and dance their traditional cultural repertoire. The women come from different groups in Sierra Leone and they teach their own songs to each other in rehearsal. For the women, the singing and dancing is a joyful confirmation of identity and culture, after years in camps and then the enormous adjustment that resettlement involves. What is so interesting about the performing group, besides the vibrant performance in traditional African attire, is the dynamic nature of their songs. Made in traditional form, the songs reflect the war at home, the strangeness of Australian life, what they have lost and what they bring to their new lives here. Kankelay is a group that tells us much about the power of song!
"Dynamic, rhythmic, intensely moving, new songs for Australia and an integrity of performance that touches your soul!" Therese Virtue, The Boite, Melbourne
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Jane Sloane – Executive Director of International Women’s Development Agency
Jane previously held executive positions for Marie Stopes International, World Vision, AusAID, Austrade, as founding CEO of the Social Entrepreneurs Network and as General Manager, Sydney Media Centre for the Sydney Olympics. In 2005 Jane was awarded an Asia Pacific Business Women’s Council Woman of Distinction Award and a 2005 Churchill Fellowship to improve Humanitarian Emergency Response models for Australia and the region after the Asian tsunami. In 2007 Jane was granted an Endeavour Professional Award to pilot a project to increase Pacific women’s political participation at local and national levels. Jane is one of 75 Australians trained by Al Gore as climate change messengers.
IWDA works in partnership with community-based organisations across the Asia- Pacific to implement programs designed to improve the lives of women and girls. |
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Sok Panha – Executive Director of Banteay Srei ('Citadel of Women')
Banteay Srei started out life as IWDA Cambodia in 1989. Immediately after the Khmer Rouge genocide, there were no local development NGOs to partner with, so IWDA set up IWDA Cambodia to implement IWDA projects. Banteay Srei became the first international NGO in Cambodia to be headed by a Cambodian national. IWDA Cambodia eventually evolved into a separate independent local non-government organisation in Cambodia, passing to full local management in July 2000.
Banteay Srei focuses on empowering communities at the grassroots level and establishing strong community networks to combat violence against women. Banteay Srei 's Safe House in Battambang provides the only crisis centre in the Province where adult women can find immediate care and address personal safety and economic needs. |
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Moderator
Dr Helen Szoke – Commissioner, Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission
Helen was appointed to this position by the Attorney General in 2009. She was previously the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Conciliator of the Commission and held this position from December 2004 until her appointment as Commissioner. She has previously held positions in management, community development, organisational development and regulation in the education and health sectors. Helen is currently a director of the Adult Multicultural Education Services and a board member of Multicultural Arts Victoria. Previously Helen has been involved with various community groups including Women’s Health Victoria, VCOSS, Consumers Health Forum and was a Preston City Councillor from 1982–1984. Helen has a PhD in public policy from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD examined policy and process in pioneering jurisdictions, specifically in relation to reproductive technology. |
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Pre-forum entertainment! Women’s Circus
The Women’s Circus is a community arts organisation that presents innovative high quality circus performances and workshops to a diverse audience and participant base. The Women’s Circus was established in 1991 as a project of Footscray Community Arts Centre and in 2003 incorporated as a company. In October 2006 the Circus relocated to Drill Hall in West Footscray. The critical success of the Circus rests with our strong focus on creating a safe, supportive and stimulating environment in which participants can extend their skills, build confidence and have fun, and in presenting engaging, high quality public performances of social relevance. Women’s Circus offers a training, outreach and artistic program.
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