Zonta International and White Ribbon Campaign, together, say NO to Violence against Women.

Imagine this ..... suburban Canberra, a high school full of boys and Matt Hollis is wondering if any of them are going to turn up.

Matt is a teacher at this school and he is also an Ambassador for Australia's White Ribbon Campaign. He is working hard in the school to raise awareness with the boys and his fellow teachers about having respect and care for the women in their lives. Matt has a special event planned and is hoping he'll get enough of the students to show the school that the effort is worthwhile.

So what is Matt's purpose?

To help these young men to grow up creating a world of safety and respect for others. Because currently, Australia is like most western nations - living with an approx. 30% of women reporting some form of domestic violence incident in their lives.

1 in 3

I'll stop for a moment to let that sink in.

That means in our daily lives, going to work, sport, Zonta - where ever - we are mingling with both the victims and the perpetrators. Just as White Ribbon suggest, it is likely we will come across such violence.

White Ribbon is the world's largest male-led movement to end violence against women. Launched in Canada in 1989, White Ribbon was brought to Australia by the then UNIFEM in 2003.

Today in Australia the White Ribbon Campaign is well established and is fast making in roads in supporting men to help their mates understand and live in respect. Of course, Aussie blokes make it their own with their "Hey Mate" campaign.

Stephen Carter, the White Ribbon Organiser here in Canberra tells me that the script for this commercial was from a real conversation overheard down at the local pub.  ummmm ..... struth!

The Zonta Club of Canberra Breakfast has linked up with the White Ribbon Campaign to plan a joint event to recognise November 25 - the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women - a day important to both organisations.

All Zonta Clubs across the world are joining together in 2013 as a united front in our Zonta says NO campaign. 

Here in Canberra we are hoping to join with White Ribbon in the conduct of an awareness raising event with some of the local boys schools, local White Ribbon Ambassadors and our Zonta club members.

I wonder if our kids will be as inventive as these Canadian school students?

EHHHH! Respected Ladies!! Wow!!

So I can hear you saying ... But Mrs Banks! What happened to Matt and his school students??

OH - yes Matt! Matt visited our Club monthly meeting and shared this story with us. Matt had arranged a large long sheet of black fabric and tins of white paint. The young men would leave their white hand print on the sheet as a pledge that hand would never be raised in violence against women.

The school had to delay classes.

Matt ran out of paint.

Kids were queued down the corridor and painted both hands.

All the male teachers then joined him on stage at the school assembly and together recited the White Ribbon Oath.

I am SO thankful to have Matt in Canberra, doing the work he is doing, changing the lives of these young people and making the world a better place.

What is your club planning for the Zonta says NO Campaign?

We all love Pre-Loved Fashion at the Zonta Club of Canberra Breakfast

Holy guacamole - Last night and today was my club's major annual fundraiser - our Pre-Loved Fashion Sale

Not the most sophisticated but has all the important information!

I'm so tired I don't have the strength to use BOLD or colours or exclamation marks or anything.

$21,700

But this result was enough to crack out the crayons - how's that money in the kitty?!

In 5 years that is our best result ever! 

We did the same things we always do: go to our storage unit and sort clothes - Our Shed Queen, Grace,  tells me for 336.5 hours over 4 months

That makes our time worth $ 64.53 / hr

Josh Goot dress - walked out the door

Went to the same venue, we ran a cafe, we ran a raffle, we ran a book stall - but most of all - we sold squillions of clothes.

Before the hoards descend

We copied this idea from our ZI President Lynn McKenzie and her club: Zonta Club of Wellington, New Zealand, when one of their members (Sharon - the Queen of thinking BIG) transferred to our club here in Canberra taught us how. And we all know the fabulous wardrobe Lynn has the joy of wearing!

NO - These are not Lynn's clothes - juxtaposition purely co-incidental

Z Cafe (said with a French accent) where we have rather over catered - it was CAKE for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

I was the raffle queen. We were inundated with raffle prizes this year. It was all rather surprising and last minute and in truth we didn't take full advantage of the raffle situation. 

Crabtree & Evelyn toiletries, Longchamp travel goods, Chefs Toolbox kitchen implements, L'Occitane hair care, Nutrimetics facial, UltraTune Car Servicing, Alan White nail polish, Mariah Carey Perfume, Massages, dinner at Rama's, and Rod Stewart memorabilia made up our prizes.

My favourite raffle prize story was a young 14 yr old who was SUPER excited at all the packages. She returned a few times to buy more tickets, hoping for something flashy! Delightfully she was the first person drawn and had her pick of ANYTHING. She choose to go to the salon and have a pedicure - what a fun experience for a young girlie!! When I rang her she was too excited to talk on the phone!

Check out, bag up and pay up!

Over the years, we have saved our money and used government grants, accessed bargain sales and built up our stocks of clothing racks, coat hangers (oh - we have sooooo many hangers), mirrors, tables, and display stands. We are almost self-sufficient.

Dresses waiting for new, loving owners

We had some great donations this year, and have set up deals with local refuges and Working Wonders to take our excess.

Some white hot labels!

Another favourite story was of the woman who had donated a fabulous jacket she was no longer wearing. Over the weeks following she lost some weight and decided she wanted that baby back! To her credit, she turned up at the sale and bought it.

set up almost complete. Club Pres, Lesley, and VP Lauren survey the scene

There are so many people who come together to make this work - to help us raise this astonishing amount, all of which is used to support our Zonta projects.  From the people who donate, our members who sort, hang, lug, set up, pack down, bake, clean, promote and count. To the Hon Zon husbands - our 'muscle' who lift heavy things whilst we point in vague directions. And to the hundreds of women who attend our sale, year after year, and bring their friends and spread the word.

 

Our Project Queen, Penny is planning on coming to Orlando and you can all meet her and hear her story.

Only thing left to do is celebrate and bask in the moment!

Thank you women of Canberra - today we came together to make a better world for women.

You can now join our new Zonta Club of Canberra Breakfast Facebook group and keep up with all our adventures.

Do you want to profile your own club's fundraiser or service project here on Mrs. Banks? Contact me and let's work it out.

Oh - WOW - a new record breaker fundraiser for our club. Still smiling.

In Finland, men can't be President.

My niece is about to sit the Higher School Certificate and finish school! Wow! Gee they grow up in the blink of an eye and she will be 18 this year. Over the years, it didn't matter what we were speaking about, she had no concept of an applied gender differential. 'Anyone can do anything' seemed to be the way she approached life.

But it hasn't always been this way for women in our world, and still isn't. Michelle Bachelet came to Canberra and reminded us how it isn't and in what ways.

So let's go back a step: Michelle Bachelet is the Executive Director of UN Women, and an Undersecretary of the UN. She has also been the first female President of Chile. She is truly global person, having lived several careers, has a mantle covered in awards - all whilst being a single mother of three children.

Michelle was meeting with the Australian Government and AusAID in preparation of attending the Pacific Island Forum with Julia Gillard and Hillary Clinton. Whilst in Canberra she snuck in a quick speech - probably the same one she presented at the Zonta International Convention.

"100 years ago only 3 countries allowed women the vote. Australia was one. Now in every country people continue to stand up for equality"

Michelle primarily spoke about two things:

1. How UN Women operates, and how it is different to the now defunct UNIFEM; and
2. Why UN Women is still needed, using lots and lots of stats and stories.

Basically UN Women was formed from UNIFEM and a couple of other parts of the UN to create a body which works quite differently. Instead of organising and supervising projects targeted for women and girls (the work of UNIFEM), UN Women uses a gender mainstreaming approach. It seeks to co-ordinate the other UN agencies to ensure all their policies and projects are gender neutral and do not generate perverse outcomes for women and girls. In this way, gender issues are no longer silo'd within one agency, but there is the opportunity to embed outcomes across the board.

This new agency has three priorities:

1. equal economic participation, including political participation and engagement of women in peace talks
2. more inclusive society
3. end violence against women and girls

Huge leap forward - as long as the other agencies agree to play along.

And so why is UN Women, and by extension Zonta, still needed?

According to Michelle, 1/3 of all women will experience domestic violence; women still do the vast majority of unpaid work; women on average earn less than men. Even though 125 countries now recognise domestic violence and have made it illegal, 600 million women live in countries where it is not recognised. And for those women neither do they have land rights, travel freedom, permission to sign a contract or borrow money, or receive an inheritance.

Even here in Australia where we have a wonderful life, still only earn roughly 85% of the average of men's salaries; only 1/3 of our pollies are female and women make up less than 10% of ASX top 200 company board members. How can balanced decisions be made in these circumstances? The Australian Government has a target of 40% female participation in government appointed boards, committees and panels - and we are not there yet.

In France they have a saying: "If a woman becomes involved in politics, she is changed. If lots of women become involved in politics, the policies are changed"

Michelle asks how can people make good decisions if participation is not 50/50? She points out that women's participation in peace talk negotiations has been less than 10% of the participants, and that peace talks, on average, fail within 5 years. And that research has shown that the most important success factor for a child is the education level of the mother. That when the economic status of women is advanced, women are more likely than men to put their money into their family and reduce hunger rates, reduce illness, increase education rates of children and this generates more jobs in the local economy.

So let's take a break and you can see this short video, filmed by AusAID, (with Canberra in the background). Michelle speaks of Australia's foreign aid program and support to UN Women, and some of the successes of the UN Women programs.


However, the picture is even worse in the South Pacific, where conditions for women are pretty much the worst in the world on every count. How bad? This AusAID poster summarises some stats:

So let's just check that again:

• 1/3 of Australia's women experience domestic violence, but in the South Pacific it is 2/3rds! And the UNHCR has pronouced that the Solomon Islands has a rate of domestic violence that is pretty much the highest in the world.
• In Australia, we average 1/3 of our pollies being female, the South Pacific is less than 5%, and in some countries it is 0%.

Michelle came to recognise Australia's foreign aid contribution to turning around this situation. Australia is one of only 2 countries in the world to be growing our foreign aid budget, to now $7.5 billion. And an increased chunk of it is heading towards the South Pacific women's projects, such as their "Women leading change" program, aimed at increasing the number of women as parliamentary representatives.

Take a look at this AusAID video:


So AusAID have increased their funding for South Pacific projects, expanding with projects for:

• Peace and security - helping more women to be involved in peace talks and anti-violence projects
• Women leading change - supporting women in the Solomons and PNG to enter parliament and step up their role as leaders in their communities

In closing her presentation, Michelle took a question from the floor about what inspires her to keep going:

"In Finland, A woman was head of state for over 12 years (Tarja Halonen), and she was visiting a kindergarten asking the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. She was getting the usual answers: a doctor, a teacher, a fireman. She asked one boy: "Would you like to be President one day?" and the boy replied "Men can't be president!".

Michelle closed by saying this story made her realise: in changing mindsets, role models help more than policy.

So gentle reader: who have been your role models for advancing the status of women & how have they changed your mindset and driven you to action?

One Million Birthing Kits

How you feel about giving birth in a hut, on the dirt, miles from a hospital and perhaps with a half trained midwife?

Many women and babies suffer from neo-natal tetanus, and through no fault of their own. Naturally occurring soil bacteria can affect the mother and baby during the birthing process and be potentially fatal for both.

I've told you on numerous occasions about Birthing Kits, and these cheap and simple collection of just a few items can make an enormous difference to the cleanliness of a birthing site.

Last Saturday, both Zonta clubs in Canberra hosted our 8th annual public birthing kit packing day.  Once again, over 200 women donated their time; friends of the club, including Rotary, donated cash; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints donated their hall, chux cloths, cake and hands to help successfully pack 3000 kits for the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Go and check out the photos on flickr.

What I really wanted to tell you is that in August, a Zonta club in Brisbane will pack the 1 millionth Birthing Kit!

Over the past 12 years,  all over Australia, small and large groups of Zonta clubs; nurses and midwives; uni and high school students have come together to hand pack these birthing kits and send them around the world.

In September, the Birthing Kit Foundation (Australia) will celebrate with events across the country.

Here in Canberra, there will be a breakfast on 11 September.

In Canberra we will be breakfasting with Dr Luc Mulimbalimba Masururu from the Democratic Republic of Congo and hear first hand about conditions for reproductive health in that country.

There are also celebration events in other States. Check your diary and see if you can make yourself available to celebrate this unique service project.

Zonta Birthing Kits - Canberra midwives helping babies around the world

Zonta wise I am kept fairly busy. However, most of my Zonta work is boring admin stuff. I am about to start as District Secretary for this upcoming biennium. I could post photos of me taking minutes. I suspect there are already enough blogs about that sort of thing.

Yesterday, I got out from behind the computer and went out to a Birthing Kit packing session. I had the magical opportunity for a bit of 'drive-thru' service. I pulled up in my car, ran in, did some work, ran out, drive off. Such a luxury! 

This was a small packing session - 600 kits. Small compared to our massive 4000 kits day. The Canberra branch of the Australian College of Midwives organised a packing session held at the University of Canberra - in the midwifery practice room of course.

A couple of us from the Zonta Club of Canberra Breakfast went along to do a bit of training and help out. Kerri did a spot on job at teaching. I worked on post-packing quality control. These ladies were great! Organised, friendly, all got stuck in and completed the session in under 2 hours! They were proud to be part of a bigger, greater outcome.

Primary target for birthing kits is mothers in developing countries who are giving birth on the ground. By providing a few simple items, such soap and a scalpel, that increase the cleanliness of the surrounds, the risk of potentially fatal neonatal tetnus is reduced.

Similar to this Canberra group, the University of Sydney Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery put together a short video of their birthing kit experience, which is up on the homepage for the Birthing Kit Foundation. It is very short and shows the lovely young women with a passion for their profession - go now and watch!

If you are interested in supporting Birthing Kits, the Foundation also maintains this Facebook page, and this list of upcoming packing days being run all over Australia. Here in Canberra, we are packing 3000 kits on 31 July. Come and join us! See the details on my Event Gadget - up there - on the right of this page. There'll be cake.

Sweet Desserty Goodness: Battle of the Food Festivals: Epcot vs Canberra Part 2

After all the fun of Part 1, can you believe there is more?

Oh you should know me by now - of course there is .....

Dessert!

In the morning I'm making waffles!

Epcot Belgium stall produced these baby waffles with a squish of whipped cream and a dollop of berry compote. I had this as my breakfast one morning (before I continued eating at all the other stalls for the next two hours) and it was a fresh, sweet, tasty start to my day.

Canberra's Waffle Kitchen produced a full sized serve: 2 freshly cooked waffles with 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream, stewed strawberries and maple syrup. Fortunately I was sharing this with The Ken Man. This was also delightful - crispy waffle with fluffy soft insides mixed with strawberry and maple - YUMMO!

It's sweet sweet waffles - what can go wrong? Everyone Wins! YAY!

Although there is something wrong with both offerings ... what could it be??

This shape makes ALL the difference

Appley Goodness

My grandmother used to say that all those appley baked goods, such as pies, slices, tea cakes etc, were really made out of chokos with apple flavouring.

Who knows - but my grandmother still ate it all.

Epcot German Apple Strudel vs Canberra Dutch Poffertjes with imitation apple sauce

I don't even know why I put these up against each other. The Epcot Germany Apple Strudel is fresh chunky spicy sugary apple slices inside fresh flaky pastry that has soaked up the apple juices, drizzled with Werther's caramel sauce and cream. Oh how this came together in harmony! All elements in balance - a magnificent example of what can be done with humble ingredients.

The Poffertjes were - well - little mini pancakes with some kind of vaguely apple flavoured gooey sauce - more like it was at one point shown an apple and expected to absorb the flavour by osmosis. The pancakes were well cooked - you can see they are a little bit brown, not too crispy.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and to commemorate my grandmother's memory, I snorfed the lot.

Happy-ish and Happiest!

Let's take a quick run through the remaining desserts from both festivals.

Epcot L - R: Dessert Trio of lemon chiffon, tres leches verrine, white choc macadamia mousse with dark choc pearls; Italy stall cannoli with sweet ricotta, chocolate and candied fruit; France stall chocolate creme brulee.

How great are these? Full blown traditional desserts with creamy bits and chocolatey richness and diary wonderfulness! Tres Leches means "3 milks" - usually evaporated, condensed and cream - so not so much milk as all the fat and sugar that exists in milk condensed and intensified with all the water removed! Astonishingly it makes for a very light, fluffy moist spongy cake. What a wonderful array of hard core desserts!

 Canberra: L to R: Tongan pineapple pancakes; Thai banana and jackfruit springroll; Italian gingerbread man

So I learnt one lesson from this. When other countries have a go at something that it is not traditional to them, frequently my expectations are sadly dashed against the rocks of culinary destitution.

Pancakes are not meant to be balls, springrolls are not meant to have jackfruits in them and Italians must use the word "ginger" when it does not mean what I think it means.

So the pancakes - yes they did have a sweetness that could have come from pineapple, and the dough is golf ball sized and deep fried. So pretty much nothing like a western style pancake - but it was sweet and greasy and comforting. Think doughnut hole.

The jackfruit in the springroll gave me a sad. The banana was nice, but the jackfruit was basically reduced to bland starchy lumps. sigh.

As I ran (OK wobbled with additional intensity) across to the Italian Gingerbread, I created visions of soft, squishy, spicy gingerbread men dancing in my head. Alas, whilst the little man had the soft squishy texture the flavour can only be described as mildly sweet - not ginger flavoured, not even spicy - just non descript sweet. I didn't even finish off his head. He was ruthlessly discarded with swift and brutal justice.

So my lesson: Epcot desserts are worth the airfare. Canberra desserts are worth the cost of parking. Which was free.

Epcot:

small, albeit delicious, servings allowed for pacing

not enough spoons for creative, cheer-making, creamy comestibles

Canberra:

greasy and fattening to fill up, but inedible enough to limit consumption

1 point for the golfballs and the tiny chunk of banana

What have been some of your dessert surprises?

Zonta Pre-loved Fashion Sale - UPDATE

Let me say I was pretty chuffed at scoring a tailored jacket for only $45.

Do you understand how freakin' hard it is to do concurrent shopping AND drinking

This week Canberra Rocks!

The sale income grew by 40% this year- yes - no need to adjust your set - 40%

The quality and volume of donations was higher, the number of shoppers was higher and obvious the amount taken out the door was higher.

It was like this all day

 We set up a sweet little Z Cafe and sold tea with little cakes

Check out the blurry background function on my camera

The weather was glorious so we all sat out on the deck

Catching some rays

Before going once more into the breach

At 2pm everything is half price

The most gorgeous, young, blonde girlie bought this bright pink number to wear to a fancy dress party: as Barbie

Oh to be young, gorgeous and blond. I'd have to go as Mrs Potato Head

Finally we cleaned the hall and it was all over for another year.

Thank you to everyone who supported us - donators, shoppers, people who spread the word. We made more than enough to cover all our existing projects and can now introduce new ones.

Zonta Pre-Loved Fashion Sale - Be our Guest, Buy my Vest!

Do you love a bargain? Do you love new clothes? Do you want to get bargain clothes AND do good for the community?

This is the fundraising event of the year - the Zonta Pre-Loved Fashion Sale - and it's next weekend!

We get the most amazing array of fantastic donations. Let's take a look.

With great love and affection for all our donations, for The Simpsons and for Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast' - all of whom have been mercilessly taken advantage of.

See my vest! See my vest! Made from real gorilla chest

Feel this sweater, there's no better than authentic Irish setter 

See this hat, 'twas my cat.  My evening wear, vampire bat  

These white slippers are albino African endangered rhino

Grizzly bear underwear. Turtlesnecks, I've got my share

 

Scarves in oodles on my noodle, they shall rest

Try my red robin suit It comes one breast or two  

See my vest! See my vest! See my vest!

Like my loafers? Former goafers. Either that or skin my chauffeurs.

And your coming to our big sale would be best

So we'll prepare the racks, so you can take home stacks

Buy my vest, buy my vest, Oh Please won't you buy my vest?

We've been doing this sale for 4 years now and it is our main fundraiser for the year. All year round we collect thousands of women's clothings items - and shoes, jewellery, scarves, handbags - and hours are spent sorting, cleaning, culling, fixing and hanging.


Well - not my hours. I'm busy photographing it all.

 

There are thousands of items including brands such as Carla Zampatti, Guess, Louboutin, Covers, Max Mara, Isaac Mizahri, Country Road, Alannah Hill, Lisa Ho, Laura Ashley, Ashley Fogel, Timberland, Stussy and it goes on.  

All funds raised allow us to deliver our annual Zonta projects - see the 2011 list

TELL EVERYONE - SHARE THE FLYER - BRING YOUR FRIENDS TO THE SALE

Get 10 outfits for the price of 1. Prices range from $5 to $50

p.s. I want to assure we treat all donations with respect and care. Your donations are our lifeblood and fund the projects that touch the lives of thousands of women in Canberra and surrounds. Unsold donated items go to Working Wonders, Bega Women's Refuge and St. Vincents.


Our 2012 Major Sponsor is Fyshwick Self Storage, whose spacious and clean premises you can see in the background of the photos. 

We've also received support from the Federal Office for Women,  Beauty Presence Salon, Lyneham, the ATSI Cultural Centre, and the employers, friends, and family of our club members.