World YWCA Day
www.worldywca.org
World YWCA Day is a day of celebration marked by YWCAs all over the world on April 24 each year. On or around this date every year, thousands of women (and men) around the globe gather in their local communities for the Round-the-World Breakfast to celebrate women's leadership and acknowledge our part in a global movement of women working for justice, peace, health, human dignity, freedom and care for the environment.
The Round-the-World Breakfast also raises funds for the World YWCA’s Global Power to Change Fund, which invests in women and girls through leadership, training and resource sharing, to advance social change around the world.
The YWCA of Canberra holds a Round-the-World Breakfast in April every year. The purpose of our breakfast is to:
- highlight particular issues affecting women
- celebrate women’s leadership
- draw attention to the work of the World YWCA the YWCA movement generally, as well as the YWCA of Canberra
- raise funds for the World YWCA Global Power to Change Fund.
Each year the YWCA of Canberra highlights particular issues facing women in Australia and across the globe.
World YWCA DAY 2011
Guest Speaker - Professor Kim RubensteinConvenor of the Gender Institute at ANU
Kim enlightened us with her speech about citizenship and gender, and gave us some insight into women’s significant role in developing our constitution. Her work at the new Gender Institute at ANU, which was launched on International Women’s Day this year, covers feminism and constitutional law and how this helps in thinking about how best to cater for women and girls within communities.
World YWCA Day 2010
Guest Speaker - Veronica Wensing2009 ACT Business Woman of the Year and Executive Officer of Canberra Rape Crisis Centre.
Veronica enthralled guests with her personal story of how her experiences of violence, healing and involvement in women's services inspired her to be a leader. She explained how she had been pushed into leadership and had risen to it, motivated by her anger in the injustices women experience and the way women continue to be undervalued. Veronica explained how not feeling safe means that as women we adapt our behaviour in response to our fear of violence, and in particular our fear of sexual violence.
She urged women to support each other and stressed that each of us has a role in creating a safer world, by talking to our friends and family, pursuing academic work, speaking publicly, joining email
World YWCA Day 2009
Guest Speaker - Tu Pham, ACT Auditor General
Born in Vietnam, Tu Pham came to Australia 35 years ago to complete a Bachelor of Economics at the University of Queensland under an Australian Government scholarship program.
Tu Pham spoke about her journey, overcoming adversity and breaking through language and cultural barriers, to become a woman in a prominent position of leadership in our local community.
Other achievements include 1998 Australia Day Honour, Public Service medal for outstanding services. More recently Tu Pham was awarded the 2008 Telstra Businesswomen’s Award in the Community and Government Category.
World YWCA Day 2008
In 2008, the focus for World YWCA Day activities around Australia was the female face of the housing crisis in Australia. This coincided with the lead up to the release of the Federal Government’s Green Paper on Homelessness ‘Which Way Home? A New Approach to Homelessness’ and the development of a national YWCA response to the discussion paper which was submitted on 27 June 2008.
The YWCA of Canberra celebrated the Round-the-World Breakfast on the picturesque shores of Lake Burley Griffin at the Deck, Regatta Point. We were delighted to have Linda Crebbin as our guest speaker. Linda Crebbin holds the appointments of Children and Young People Commissioner and Disability and Community Services Commissioner in the ACT Human Rights Commission. Linda spoke passionately and insightfully about women and housing, drawing on her life experiences and her work at the Human Rights Commission.
World YWCA Day 2007
In 2007, the Round-the-World Breakfast theme was HIV/AIDS and women. HIV/AIDS and women is one of the four priority areas of the World YWCA movement and we were pleased to welcome Elizabeth Reid, who made history when she was the first woman to advise a Head of State when she was appointed advisor of women's affairs to Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Elizabeth has spent the past 20 years working on issues around the HIV epidemic, gender and development in developing countries.
Elizabeth spoke about her experience working in HIV education in Papua New Guinea. She brought the HIV/AIDS epidemic closer to home as she spoke about numerous issues facing HIV women in PNG including the stigma attached to such women and the fear and isolation that results and the lack of acknowledgement of HIV infected women by the community.
World YWCA Day 2006
In 2006, the YWCA of Canberra welcomed Priscilla Kare the General Secretary of the YWCA of Papua New Guinea (PNG) who spoke about issues including sustainable development, poverty alleviation strategies, addressing violence against women, sexual and reproductive health, and human rights.
The YWCA PNG works with young women in challenging circumstances in order to deliver innovative and empowering programs. The YWCA PNG are generally recognised as one of the most influential women’s organisations in PNG. Prior to joining the YWCA, Priscilla worked as the Campaign Coordinator for Transparency International PNG and as a Senior Broadcaster for NBC. We were delighted to hear from our Pacific Sister at our breakfast.
Twitter