Still Moving Forward … Locally and Globally

Ten years ago, along with 40,000 other delegates who attended the 4th UN Conference on Women, WIN took up the challenge to bring the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) to the grassroots of California for implementation - and agreed to “keep on moving forward. “ We formed the California Women’s Agenda – CAWA, to carry out that mission and now a million California girls and women are connecting on the ground and on the internet for collective action on the BPFA critical concerns. Aileen Hernandez, CAWA Chair speaks to that “Call to Action” in her “Welcome to the Second Decade.”

CAWA has been honing its organizing and advocacy model since 1999 with global leadership exchanges in Uganda, Japan and Afghanistan. We have learned and exchanged best practices and worst barriers to empowering women. We initiated CALLING THE CIRCLE OF WOMEN FOR FULL PARTICIPATION IN DEMOCRACY in China in 1999 and then took the CIRCLE to Africa and Central Asia. We have brought Ugandan and Afghan women leaders to CAWA networks throughout California since 2001 and this past August, 2005, we came full CIRCLE when Lydia Bakaki and Hon. Annette Mukabera, WIN Board members, returned to California. They met with CAWA networks in Los Angeles, San Diego, Ventura, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Marin, Napa, and San Francisco counties. They spoke about our groundbreaking partnership project in Uganda that has granted acres of land to 100 homeless women who suffer from domestic abuse and HIV/AIDS. Those eight CAWA county coalitions, along with eight other CAWA county partners, are now mobilizing around their local priorities for action plans that will give grassroots input into a dynamic California Women’s Agenda, a U.S. Women’s Agenda and the UN women’s global agenda (BPFA).

Parallel to base building in California, on the domestic front, WIN co-founded US Women Connect in 1997 which served as the anchor for monitoring US implementation of the BPFA, Beijing+5 in 2000. USWC was reconstituted in March, 2005 as a national action network of 10 states in 10 Federal regions that is growing to 50 state networks, on the ground and on the Internet (www.uswc.org), amplifying US women’s voices on critical issues of public policy.
Now, following Beijing+10, WIN and CAWA are celebrating ten years of connecting women across cultures for collective action on local and global Platforms for Action. We thank and honor the many women who have kept us moving forward locally and globally since 1995. We have given CIRCLE OF COURAGE AWARDS to the tip of the iceberg of fearless, courageous, and progressive California women – Sen. Barbara Boxer, Congresswomen Barbara Lee and Nancy Pelosi, Billie Heller, Aileen C. Hernandez, Olivia Puentes Reynolds and Charlie Toledo. On accepting her award in December, 2004 Congresswoman Pelosi said, "Setting an Action Agenda is essential. The status of women and the well being of our children and families are in great danger. We cannot afford to waste one minute in implementing an agenda that will protect and enhance the status of and opportunities for women and girls throughout California, the United States and the World." We accept Congresswoman Pelosi's challenge and intend to keep on moving forward locally, state wide, nationally and globally.

Full reports from this CALL TO ACTION – MOVING THE AGENDA FOR WOMEN, 2005 AND BEYOND are on the web at: http://www.win-cawa.org/sbc_conference.html On-going activities at the county and regional levels are at: http://www.win-cawa.org/cawa/regions/index.html Watch for our 10th Anniversary Celebrations and our action alerts - fast forward to your list servs everywhere!

Marilyn Fowler, President/CEO, WIN Dian J. Harrison, Chair, Board of Directors, WIN

Charlie Toledo, Past Chair, WIN Linda P. Thurston, Founding Chair, WIN

Your voice counts! Give us feedback on your prority issues and progress in your county on our survey Your Voice Counts

Beijing+10 Call to Action Reports:
Health, Education, Media, Environment, Peace, Girl Child, Violence, Institutional Mechanisms, Poverty, Economic Justice, Power Sharing, and Human Rights

We are grateful to SBC Communications for hosting our third CALL TO ACTION

click to learn more about the Beijing +5 conference

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last updated 1/07 by Molly Klett