The third of our meetings was held in Senegal on the west coast of Africa in a place called "Cap des Biches" thirty kilometres from the capital Dakar. It is a long way... I traveled via South Africa. It is 10 hrs from Johannesburg. Fortunately, I was with Verena Butler, the representative from the Australian Catholic Women's League. We arrived at Dakar airport late at night and were driven by taxi to our retreat house in the company of two Senegalese women, who came to meet us. As you can imagine Dakar is a busy city with many old cars, buses full to overflowing with people in colourful clothes and horsedrawn carts everywhere. It is sub- Saharan and in February, there is little rain so it is very dusty. It was exciting, very foreign and we were amazed by the number of people walking the roads. It makes one realize how few people live in this country compared to its size. On our arrival at Cap des Biches we were shown to our lodgings by a Belgian nun and a Senegalese Brother. It was simple accommodation, not quite what we had enjoyed in Rome the year before, but we settled in with great gusto and woke up to an African sky and trees like in the movie "The Snows of Kilimanjaro". That dates me!

But this is not a travelogue so what did we do at the meeting? Well, firstly the women from the many different National African Catholic Women's Leagues were attending their yearly African meeting at the retreat house, so we got a chance to talk and have meals with them and we had a party too. They have a hard life by some standards but are very outgoing; full of laughter. Music, dancing and religion are integral to their lives. They had all of us staid Anglo-Saxon types up dancing to drums after dinner. We weren't half as light on our feet as they were and we were awkward and embarrassed whereas they were quite in their element.

The formal meetings of the Board are quite intense. We are all issued with headphones and there are interpreters for French, Spanish and English so everyone knows what is being said. It is particularly hard for a couple of the Asian representatives for whom English is their second language so when speeches are originally in Spanish or French it must take several minutes to work it all out . Of course many of the Board members speak three or four languages so I feel a real fool with only English and butchered schoolgirl French

The Board members are feeling quite comfortable together now. We have met in a retreat style situation three times. There is Mass every day and much singing and praying. We had a Canadian priest with us who is very
"sympatico" to the female world.

Our President is a Mexican woman Maria Eugenia Diaz de Pfennich. She is very capable, dedicated and charming. She also works extremely hard for WUCWO - at least 60hrs a week. She is supported by an English General Secretary, a French Vice-President, a Canadian Treasurer, and her Regional Vice Presidents . The Regional Vice Presidents are five women, one from each of the five regions: Europe Africa, North America, South America and Asia. As Australia is in the Asian region, I attend their meetings.

Our representative on the executive is a Japanese women, Sayoko Arai, a Sacred Heart alumna. She is fluent in Japanese, English and French so she is a great representative. She is also highly intelligent and challenging. She has done three terms with WUCWO and served the Organization very well but will not be eligible for re-election in 2001. We hope another of the talented Japanese alumnae stands for election as the representative for Japan.

We heard a report from the Regional Vice Presidents at the beginning of our meeting. Marie-Louise van Wijk-van de Ven, who as well as being Regional Vice President for Europe, edits and puts together our Newsletter with the help of her husband, gave us a report on their activities. They are tireless workers for WUCWO. The newsletter is a fascinating read and I recommend it to you. Just contact me at PO Box 306 Cessnock 2325 NSW AUSTRALIA if you are interested in a subscription. It is $AUD 5 a copy.

We had a guest speaker, a Canadian, Superior of Congregation of Good Counsel of Montreal. It is an order inspired by the Ignatians, which works for the promotion of women in society and the Church. She was both charming and challenging. She talked about women's spirituality in a changing world ... How should we respond to the "Globalization" of the world economy and culture; the revolution in communication technology, now that the Internet is a fact of life in the affluent world; and the rise of Fundamentalism in response to the speed of change. This is heady stuff!

There was a report from the Constitutional Committee headed by our Norwegian representative (a lawyer) and a plenary session following. Our constitution needs updating (it was first formulated in 1910) and as it must correspond in three languages this is a long and painstaking task. There was a report from our Treasurer and Finance Committee. This is very detailed but the crux of the matter is we are running the World Union of Catholic Women's Organization on a shoe string and it only holds together because all the women work for nothing. What's new? We could do so much more good work if we had the means, because we hear about problems at the grass roots level. We have women suffering in the war in Sierra Leone, other poor countries of Africa; in Indonesia and now in Europe in the former Yugoslavia. We can and do pray for them but we would like to give material help too.

All this led to further discussions. Claire Herron the Regional Vice President for North America, a Canadian and a particular friend of mine put forward a proposal to launch an Endowment Fund for WUCWO. It would ensure the future of WUCWO. A feasibility study is necessary as a preliminary to define exactly the target of a professional fund raising campaign. She has expectations of receiving a subvention to fund this initial study. I hope we can get the project off the ground as WUCWO is doing essential work and it is important that the face of women be seen in our Church as well as in society. We have been very fortunate to have a benefactor in New York, Mr. Terrence Gallagher, the husband of Barbara Gallagher who has been working as the WUCWO representative at the United Nations for several years and has established a Foundation to fund this activity. It is a very generous gift for WUCWO and will enable us to sustain our presence at the UN into the future.

Following all the talk about finance, it seemed like a good moment to bring up the Project 2000 for discussion. Trish Burns had asked me to speak about this crucial matter at this meeting. Project 2000 is a large non- denominational movement which is concerned with unpayable debts incurred by many countries. These countries are paying interest to the creditor countries while their own people live in dire poverty. People in both debtor and creditor countries are involved in the project. Caritas supports it, the religious of the Sacred Heart support it and asked the alumnae to get behind it. The project was not news to the members of WUCWO. There was round the table support for the cancellation of certain debts in a transparent manner by the year 2000. This money ( formerly going towards the payment of debt) must then be used to build up the infrastructure in debtor countries, thus benefiting the people of these countries. We all signed a petition to this effect and a resolution was passed that WUCWO would officially present a petition to the G8 Meeting of Ministers in June this year. We can only pray that the politicians will respond positively to Project 2000. We also agreed to send our resolution to Caritas International, CIDSE (Conference of International Catholic Organizations), the Pontifical Council of the Laity, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the World Council of Churches in Geneva .

May I remind you of the three priorities of WUCWO:

Violence against Women


During the workshops it was decided to encourage member organisations to educate men in the Church and society about what "violence against women" means. It doesn't only mean the physical violence women suffer. Raising awareness on all aspects of violence might best be done through our affiliated men's
associations such as "Unum Omnes". It was also decided to support the international campaign for the
Moratorium on the Death Penalty.

Health

Many matters were raised during the meeting of the working group on health. There was to be a Commission on the Status of Women in the UN in March. Abortion would certainly be a matter discussed. It was important that
WUCWO put the Christian view. Caring for the sick at home was also discussed. Veronica Coleman, who is a WUCWO representative at UN in New York was asked to prepare a paper . Veronica has a Ph.D. in Public Health . Valerie Noble (England ))gave a paper on some of the programmes for the prevention of AIDs that have been developed .

Women in Decision Making

Much has been achieved since the Conference in Beijing. Ruth Ekindy of Cameroon told us of the increase in the representation of women in the Parliament. In France there is a non religious movement "Elles Aussi" which works to establish equality between men and women in politics. We heard about the situation in Lithuania from Aldona Slepetys and from the African women we heard about some of the negative traditional practices which are actually cruel to women. It was decided to collaborate with the group working on "Women in the Church" to send a statement to the Synod of Bishops enunciating the aspirations of women in our Church. This was done and a statement has been formulated and sent to the Synod. This action is in accordance with the aim of WUCWO which is to promote the presence, participation and co-responsibility of Catholic women in society and church in order to enable them to fulfill their mission of evangelization and to work for human development.

Thank you for the trust you have placed in me by allowing me to be your representative. I am trying to follow the principles I acquired at my Sacred Heart School and to act prudently always and assertively when necessary. The "prudent" bit is very difficult for me!

- Camille Farrell