Midday Workshop features UI member:  On Sept 6, during the 60th annual NGO DPI Conference on CLIMATE CHANGE: HOW IT AFFECTS US ALL, UNANIMA International is co-sponsoring a mid-day workshop featuring Cecilia Nya, SHCJ.  Sister Cecilia is currently the Provincial of the African Province of the SHCJs and will be speaking about an organic farm project that she began in Nigeria.  The event will be held in the Dag Hammarskjold Library.

UI will have a delegation of six members to the conference:  Cecilia, Jeanne Ronzani, SHCJ, Margaret Rogers, SHCJ,  Joan Greany, SHCJ, Kathy Gibbons, and Mary Breiling, SNJM.  Sister Cecilia’s own sister, Joan, will be attending as a representative of another NGO.

 Welcome  Louise Cleary CSB arrives on 15 September to begin her 3-month internship with UNANIMA International.  Louise is the former Congregational Leader of the Brigidines and also a former board member for UI.  We are excited to have her with us.

Louise and Jennifer Burn will represent UNANIMA International at the UN High Commission for Refugees Executive Committee meeting at the end of September.

 International DAY of Peace: 21 September   Appearing soon on the UNANIMA International website will be a link to the Holy Names Sisters Justice Network for their secondary schools.  Their first item on the page will be some suggestions (English only) related to the UN International Day of Peace.   For more information on the day itself see  http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/

 Girls and the United Nations:  Ana Martinez de Luco, CCV, has been the UI representative for the Working Group on Girls (WGG) and she reports:

I attended the training for those who wish to advocate for a Special Representative to the UN Secretary General on Violence Against Children. Afterwards I visited 4 governments: Senegal, Burkina Faso, Thailand and Botswana.  For more information and to sign on to a petition for such a new position visit: http://www.crin.org/violence/petitions/petition.asp?petID=1004

 I have now become a part of the steering committee for the WGG with a special area of concern for girls participation.  We have three main events coming up: a mid-October vote on the Rights of the Child Resolution which includes the new position, a resolution on the Girl-Child and finally the 11-12 December session on the 2002 document A WORLD FIT FOR CHILDREN.  UNANIMA International hopes to have several youth nominated as participants in this event.

 VOICES OF COURAGE AWARD seeks nominees   Each year, the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children holds a luncheon to honor individual refugee women and young people who are working on behalf of other refugees. They are now seeking candidates for the 2008 Voices of Courage Awards to be bestowed at their May 6, 2008 luncheon. They will honor individuals in the United States and overseas who have been key players in preventing and responding to violence against women and girls displaced by armed conflict.

We know that many of you work with immigrants and refugees and if you are interested in making a nomination, get more information at www.womenscommission.org

 Conference on Trafficking and Prostitution in Barcelona On 28-29 September there will be a special session on prostitution and trafficking of women in Cataluña.  UI also has a copy of the program posted on its website on the resources page for those who might be interested in participating. 

 Sessions on Trafficking  With the sponsorship on the Canadian Religious Conference David Bouchard, SFO, is working with a group of concerned citizens to plan two Symposia on Human Trafficking, one to be held in Red Deer on October 12-14, 2007, and the other one in Vancouver, to be held November 2-3, 2007. For more information see the resource page of the UNANIMA International website.

 Report on Water Consumption  Marcellina Aguiar, CCV, from India has sent a report on the issue of water consumption.  See the resource page of the UI website for a copy of the report.

 Global Economy Workshop   From 15-18 August, Ana was part of the team for the Seminar on Global Economics in St. Paul, Minnesota, at the request of organizer Lucianne Siers, OP, Partnership for Global Justice. Ana’s job was to react from the perspective of the “excluded” to the content of the other speakers.

 Follow up from Latin America trip  Maria Teresa Andant, SUSC, (Argentina) who organized the opportunity for Catherine to speak with religious in Buenos Aires at the Conference for Religious there (CONFAR) notified Catherine that the group at the session continues to meet.  They will be presenting information on trafficking at workshops for religious on 4-5 September.