Write a comment
Three women from Newry are heading to a Conference at the United Nations in New York on Sunday 12 March on a trip of a lifetime. CSW67 (Commission on the Status of Women) takes place at the UN from 6-17 March.
It follows a three year delay thanks to the pandemic. Carla Quinn, Colleen McCreesh and Andrea Burns were part of a WICT Programme (Women involved in Community Transformation) held in Ballybot House by Kathy McMahon, Confederation of Community Groups who told them of a potential opportunity to go to the United Nations in March 2020. To apply they had to write about our their lives and their community.
As Carla Quinn explains "We got accepted, we had all our clothes in the suitcase and next a phone call - 'sorry, everything is cancelled!'" 2021 was more of the same and then 2022 came and there was still too many restrictions so the suitcases have been packed quite a while. In 1988 Carla was part of the Project Children initiative that took local children to America for six weeks. Today she works in social enterprise Centred Soul in Hill Street in Newry.
The event happens every year and it's an opportunity and a platform to document womens experiences worldwide. This year's Priority Theme is Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. A Review Theme is Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls.
Bringing a community together that was falling apart
Carla is one of eight women from the north who will be speaking at the event, with her slot on 13 March at 8.30am. Shankill Road, The Falls, Derry and Newry are all represented. The women have all met quite a few times through the programme training. "woman from all over with their own views and opinions and politics and we're all going as one." explained Carla. She will be speaking on her community work and how different sectors were involved in helping a community come together, through hard times, pandemic, vandalism, knife crime, drugs and so on. "As a community we had to involve police PCSP, politicians, different community associations, Ballybot House CRJ to help bring a community together that was falling apart" Carla added.
Flights and accomodation are all included and all realise it is a huge privlege to be involved. They will have access to parts of the United Nations that aren't open to the public and might even meet a star or two! "Every year there's always a guest speaker. They've had Megan Markel, Julia Roberts, and we're hearing whispers that it's Oprah Winfrey this year." explained Carla.
Your voice matters
The feeling that your voice actually matters is massive said Carla. "It's an opportunity we will never get again. I was on 'virtually' last year, talking to women from all over the world. The main subject last year was female genital mutilation. Some of the workshops were very hard to listen to but this is what goes on around the world. The same with them- they're going to listen to our stories about us being reared through the troubles. This is what it's mostly about. It's us coming out of the troubles and the peace agreement, right up to today, so as much as we are going to be shocked by their stories, they're probably going to be shocked to hear some of our stories."
Colleen McCreesh is also looking forward to the event. She worked in Community Restorative Justice. Colleen said "Northern Ireland is a complex society and women have been keeping the peace. A lot of time you think of peacekeeping, you think of powerful men in politics where Northern Ireland shows the strength of bottom up peace keeping, how change happens in the home and how women play such an important role in making positive change to their communities."
Conversations
Andrea Burns hopes to engage in many conversations. Andrea said "My interest is in technology. I'm really looking forward to hearing about initiatives that will be available. My ex husband is Middle Eastern, so I'm really looking forward to meeting women from the Middle East and the conversations."
Getting together with all the women they have met via their training is a big part. Recalling their first meting Carla said "When we first walked in that door in Belfast it was like we're all the wee Newry ones and there's the Derry ones and the Shankill ones and now it's like we don't even think that way. "
"We done a talk one time and I was sitting beside a woman from the Shankill. Hillary Clinton was there. The woman from the Shankill said 'It's just like this Hillary. Any other place I would never have breathed the same air as this one."
St Patrick's Day
The women will take part in plenty of workshops during the week they are there, but of course St Patrick's Day will have to be dealt with as well! To add to the excitement if that was possible they are also going to be in the St Patrick's Day Parade with the Green and Lavander Alliance, a group of LGBT Irish American people who have asked them to join in.
It may have been years in the making but you can be sure there will be many more stories to be told by the time they all get home.
For more information see www.unwomen.org
