May 12, 2003
Awakened Woman's Circle is working for peace
Peacexpeace, Millionth Circle to participate in Gather the Women Congress
Those of you who participated in the March 8 Gather the Women event will be happy to know that the gathering has just begun.
The first annual Gather the Women Congress will convene on October 17, 2003 in San Francisco, bringing together representatives from over a dozen major women's organizations for three days of collaborative action. The event, which has the theme Weaving a World that Works, has been organized with the goal of discovering creative ways to awaken the potential of women leaders on a global level.
Women of Vision and Action (WOVA) , a non-profit network of women leaders based in Walnut Creek, California, has taken the lead in organizing this event. Partner organizations include Millionth Circle, PeaceXPeace, Women as New Global Leaders, Foundation for Conscious Evolution, AYA Partners, Code Pink, Women Rise, Women of Wisdom, Women's Intercultural Network, Mothers Acting Up, Spiral Muse and The Red Web.
Carol Hansen Grey, the Executive Director of WOVA, sees an urgent need for women to bring their skills and resources to the task of addressing the world's problems . "Women around the world share the same frustrations because we have so much to offer this troubled world and have traditionally not been invited to contribute in ways that are recognized and valued. Even though we represent 53% of the world's population, women hold fewer than 10% of the leadership positions in either public or private enterprise. The time has come to bring global leadership into balance."
"The organizations that have come together in this collaborative partnership represent many thousands of women from diverse backgrounds, who have enormous potential to inspire and empower millions more," Grey adds.
Gather the Women is one of WOVA's major projects, a global movement to harness the wisdom and energy of women for the benefit of all life. In addition to this focus upon creating stronger collaboration among existing women's organizations, Gather the Women also provides support for individual women to come together to create local action. The initiative brought together women in 67 different countries on International Women's Day, March 8, 2003 and has a goal of involving one billion women.
This first Gather the Women Congress will take place at the Radisson Miyako Hotel in San Francisco from October 17-19, 2003. Over 300 women will be invited to represent the various existing organizations and networks already committed to women's issues. Carol Lee Flinders, the author of several books including At the Root of this Longing and The Values of Belonging, will be one of the featured speakers. She will be joined by Jean Shinoda Bolen, Elizabet Sahtouris, Eleanor LeCain, Janice Mirikitani, Rama Vernon and numerous other inspirational women.
One of the highlights of the Congress will be the "sneak preview" of a new documentary produced by one of its partner organizations, Peace X Peace. Patricia Smith Melton, the group's Executive Director explains, "Traveling with our documentary crew in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Burundi, Argentina, and the US has shown me it is the women who weave cultural harmony when their families, communities, and nations have been devastated&emdash;and women's persistence and creativity weave wondrous patterns. Gather the Women, like PEACE X PEACE, is about strengthening and extending this fabric of harmony by linking women together across the world. We must work together. It's what women do best and what is needed most."
Additional information about the Gather the Women Congress is available at www.gatherthewomen.org