A PERSONAL MESSAGE

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS PUBLISHED WITH THE AUTHOR'S PERMISSION. IT IS A PERSONAL MESSAGE AND IS NOT SENT ON BEHALF OF ANY NATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

Dear Josephine,

My name is Martha Piaggio. I am an alumna of the Sacred Heart of Montevideo where I attended since kindergarten, when I was four years old, to the time of my high-school graduation. I then went on to college and received a degree in Library Sciences, in which field I worked for many years. Now I am retired.

As a librarian in my native country, Uruguay, I worked for the International Labour Organization (ILO) headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland-more specifically, for the Interamerican Centre for Research and Documentation on Professional Development (CITERFOR). (If anyone should be interested in finding out more about CITERFOR, they may access the CITERFOR web site on the internet.) At CITERFOR, I was responsible for drafting and implementing the Regional Information System for Professional Development (SIRFO) in Latin America and the Caribbean. My work has taken me to different countries in North, Central and South America as well as Europe, which I have visited on several occasions both for pleasure and business. Traveling has been a wonderful experience that has given me the opportunity of not only visiting new places but getting to meet new people and making new friends in different countries.

I have also been involved in work with the physically- and mentallly-challenged. During my years at CINTERFOR, I coordinated a group of governmental and nongovernmental experts in order to develop and establish rehabilitation policies in Uruguay. I organized the first conference on the Societal Integration of the Disabled as well as several other events around the same issue. At present, I am still active with non-governmental organizations (NGO) using my knowledge of the subject and relations with people in this field accumulated during all my professional years.

At the request of CITERFOR and the National Honorary Commission for the Disabled, I drafted and organized the Project for Uruguay's Information System on Rehabilitation (SIRU), which serves as a database for the different rehab centers in Uruguay and the rest of Latin America. I also developed the SIRU Bulletin, which has been translated into Braille.

Well, the purpose of this long foreword was to tell you a little about my background.

Currently, I am a member of the Alumnae Association Commission. I had been offered the Vice-Presidency in the past, which I had to turn down because my work load did not permit me to accept that position at the time. I have, nevertheless, continuously collaborated with the commission and now have volunteered to draft their bulletin and publish it on the internet.

This Friday, as the first Friday of the month in which we hold our monthly meetings, I intend to let the commission know about our conversations. We have to plan the bulletin, which I think should not only provide information about the activities of the Association, but also information about the different countries. For those who have not had the chance to travel, the bulletin would be ideal for sharing personal experiences about the activities of alumnae in other countries, their professional careers, etc. I could become a useful reference book for those in search of specific human resources.

I am going to advance this motion in our meeting this afternoon, and I'd be interested in hearing your opinion about this.

Well, Josephine, please excuse the prolixity and undue familiarity of this letter. The truth is that our being alumnae of the Sacred Heart gives us something in common that brings us closer together-an experience we can both identify with.

I have friends who live in Australia and I can't wait to visit your country. I was also impressed by the way you ended the bulletin with a fragment from a poem by Borges. I had the fortune of knowing him personally during a lunch with ten other close friends. Oh, by the way, did you know that Borges' mother was from Uruguay? Therefore his attachment to our country.

Borges was an exceptional man. It has always amazed me how far-reaching literature can be: You, on the other side of the globe, has read Borges, which shows you must have a special sensibility. He is not easy to read. I love to read and I have read a great deal. I read-and re-read-all kinds of literature. From an Australian author, I have read The bird sings till it dies (I am not sure of the exact title in English, I am translating for the Spanish version) I loved it despite the fact that I usually am not too fond of best-sellers. I even saw the movie afterwards. I not only enjoyed the plot but also the way the author pictured the Australian culture and customs, different milieus, etc.

I do hope you can write me back and thus initiate a wonderful conversation. I have also volunteered to act as liaison between you and the Uruguayan Association and its President Elba Gari de Márquez with whom I am in close contact through this communication channel.

I will let you know what is going on with the bulletin and who will finally draft it.

Much love and see you soon. The internet is just fantastic - it has wiped out all distances!!! Again, my kind regards,

Martha Piaggio