Women’s Federation for World Peace NZ
Report on the First Ladies Summit in Palau, December 9th-12th, 2019
Womens Federation for World Peace partnered together with Universal Peace Federation,
the First Lady of Palau, Mrs Debbie Remengesau and the Office of the President, to display a model of government and civil society collaboration to promote peace, development and address the critical challenges of our times. Women’s contribution to peace building, strengthening of marriage and family, the empowerment of youth and the promotion of service to others were featured in the Summit. Palau was especially chosen as the host nation because of her friendly people, pristine environment, and world renowned efforts to work for environmental sustainability, making it an ideal setting for all in attendance.
The WFWPI session was held at The Palau Royal Resort, one of Palau’s top hotels under the theme “Leadership Paradigms: Asia-Pacific partnership projects.” The programme was conducted smoothly by the session’s emcee Ms Silvia Coombe (President, Fiji Association of Australia).
It began with a keynote address by Mrs. Mulipola Anarosa Ale Mooloolaba, (Deputy General Manager, Fexco Ltd and Vice President, WFWP Samoa). She spoke eloquently, of her cultural upbringing, something of which she is proud of but also disillusioned by. She noted some of these disappointments in her account of one of many, pressing issues effecting Samoa. Apart from the current measle epidemic, domestic abuse especially against woman has been an ongoing problem. Woman married into other villages are the main sufferers. She highlights one project by the Samoa Victim Support known as the “Nofo Tane woman” project. The initiative is funded by the UN. It empowers Nofo tane women to lift their veils of silence and in some cases men, who have also fallen to abuse, to speak up so a national conversation can be had to address the problem of domestic violence. The project, has churned out a string of success stories but there is still a
lot of work to do, she added. She went on to share about the work of the Samoan chapter of the WFWP. “The Samoan WFWP is currently looking at empowering youth to be ambassadors of peace starting from within our families, villages, church, communities, work place and country. We believe that with peace within us, all of us, we can conquer the universe,” she said.
Next, Ms Moriko Hori (IVP, Asia and IVP, Japan, WFWP International) gave an overview of humanitarian projects in Asia Pacific. She started by saying that, “The WFWP is an organisation of mothers. With a heart of mother we are responsible for peace. We’ve got to teach peace to our children”. She went on to share about the three missions of the organisation (1.The improvement on the status of women, 2.Eradication of poverty, 3.Education) and its activities in Asia and the Pacific. Her role and job requires her to visit two or three countries a month. The visits have opened her eyes to the realities and struggles of people especially women and children in low economic areas of the world. As a result, her experiences have made her more determined to work harder as a leader and organisation; by contributing in a collective undertaking ways to empower and provide those in need with relevant tools including; materials and education to help them, help
themselves. Ms Hori’s account of her visits and the activities were both moving and inspiring.
Then, Mrs Anne Bellavance (IVP, Oceania and President, Australia, WFWP International) took to the stage and gave an overview of ongoing and new, humanitarian projects in Oceania. First, she clarified the role of WFWP in Australia and New Zealand as develop nations. “We (Australia and New Zealand) work to support the development of WFWP and their outreach, connection and work with women and their families in their nations.” She then proceeded to share about projects including the Pacific Scholarship Fund, which is based in the Solomon Islands. It provides funding for educating and up-skilling women who, are often deprived of such opportunities and empower them to become self-sufficient and strong leaders and educators in their families and communities. The activities were presented in a slide-show (refer to the WFWP Oceania website for more information on these).
After the main speakers, we broke up for afternoon tea. Many used the time to mix and mingle and form new networks with women from other chapters. The session resumed with table discussions (lead by table facilitators) on critical issues of our times including; environmental, health, education and, peace and security. This gave the women an opportunity to share their concerns on issues affecting their own nations.
These were later fed back to the wider group in a variety of ways, showcasing the diversity of character and creativity of each group and presenter and, making it a fun and interactive session. Based on the feedback, the Executive leaders informed the group that a selection of the most highlighted issues from these discussions will become the focal point for the regions work in the coming year. Finally, the session concluded with a Resolution and call to action lead by Ms Hori and Mrs Bellavance.
Report by Matapa Shelley