The spate of articles about Kenya are very moving. I know Philo Ikonya is correct when she says
“I believe it must be the women who find the solutions.”
I heard recently of UN Resolution 1325 that says women must be included in nation building.
At least in principle if not in fact, the world knows that women find the solutions.
Are things changing? In this time of global crisis, will we finally see women take their place?
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Thank you for highlighting Philo Ikonya’s statement that it must be women who find the solutions. In answer to your question, “Are things changing?”, I would like to tell you about an organization that is working to empower women leaders to be part of the change.
Philo Ikonya and I both graduated from the Women Leaders for the World (WLW) program in 2006 that was given by the Global Women’s Leadership Network (GWLN) – she from Kenya, and I an American Ex-pat living in Turkey. GWLN believes that women are the world’s largest untapped resource for leadership and it is their goal to empower 5,000 women leaders by the year 2011. Believe me, they are well on their way.
They graduated their first class of women leaders in 2005. Just recently the GWLN announced their list of 2008 WLW participants. I proudly nominated Kate Daniels to be one of this year’s participants. These women come from all over the world and are dedicated to topics ranging from politics, education, poverty, the environment, media, and culture.
Up until now, this has been a residential program offered on site at Santa Clara University in Northern California. But the GWLN recognizes that they will increase their impact by taking programs “in country” thereby eliminating the need for participants to tackle such challenges as learing English, getting visas, or buying expensive plane tickets. I am pleased to say that one of the first GWLN International Outreach ventures is underway in Turkey where I currently reside, and I am happy to be involved in that venture.
Change is happening. It is happening all over the world, and women are a part of it. I invite you to learn more about the Global Women’s Leadership Network (www.glwn.org) and the various programs they offer. As well, I encourage everyone who reads this to honor her own leadership potential and ask herself how she is taking her place in finding solutions in this time of “global crisis”.
I will finish with my own question, is it really a crisis, or is humanity just learning how to keep up with our own growth and evolution?
TaraLA, many thanks for this information and for your leadership. I did not know about the Global Women’s Leadership Network and am glad to learn about it. Kate is, indeed, a woman who will bring a lot to that organization.
It is also inspiring to see that the GWLN is removing obstacles like language and travel from the development of women leaders.
I like your question about how I can take my place in finding solutions. It is a burning issue for me. I engage in activism of several kinds here in the US, mostly for peace and human rights and against torture, but I don’t know that I am finding solutions. I am certainly not in denial about some of the problems.
My personal tension is that I am an artist. In a country where artist are mostly discounted or exploited, it is hard to work here. When things seem, in addition, to be going to hell in a handbasket and much work is needed to solve huge problems, what should I do–drop everything and be a full time activist? do what I can and make art, but what kind of art? This is really a very great challenge for me.
Tomorrow morning I leave an artists’ residence where I have been working on a project for two weeks. I have worked long days and gotten a lot done on something that is part of a bigger project that will, if it succeeds, enhance the work of American Creative Dance and benefit lots of people. None of this has anything specifically to do with the great issues of this time, however, at least not directly.
I am, however, working in the trenches to find solutions to the problems of making art in this place at this time. I know that art is necessary for human survival. There is no evidence of any human culture that did not make art. Human beings will die out quicker from lack of water, air, food, and shelter, but we will die without art. So maybe what I do is more important than I realize and I am exercising my leadership in a positive way. Certainly creating and empowering others to create beats killing people and destroying things.
I’ll read about the Global Women’s Leadership Network and learn more about it. Thanks again for sharing that.