I am pleased to mark International Women's Day ( March 8) by announcing the name of 20 women who will receive financial assistance from the Australian Government to attend the Non-Government Organisations' Forum ' 85 to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, in July. The Forum is being held in conjunction with the United Nations World Conference to mark the close of the United Nations Decade for Women.
The women selected are:
Lois O'Donoghue
Aboriginal: Service to Aboriginal women and communities -A. C. T.
Myra Watson
Aboriginal: Chairwoman of Pitjantjatjara Women's Council.-,:NT/ SA.
Cathy Craigie
Aboriginal: Aboriginal women's health NSW
Ellie Gaffney
Thursday Islander: involved in health, child care, media.- Thursday Island OLD
Louise Nelson
Young Woman: involved in young women's issues and Women's Resource Centre NSW ( Coff's Harbour)
Kaye Best
Young Woman: young women's issues,. nominee of the Youth Affairs Council
of Australia SA
Jillinda Thompson-
Young Woman: young women' s issues, women's refuges, women's health SA
Anne Collins
Young Woman: young women' s issues, women's refuge worker TAS
Annalisa Emamy
Non-English speaking background: nominee of WA Multicultural and.. Ethnic Affairs Commission and- Federation of Ethic Communities' Councils of Australia WA
Concetta La Marchesina
Non-English speaking background: involved in migrant women's issues, legal aid, domestic violence VIC
Eloise Maglizza
Non-English speaking background: active in migrant women's health and welfare issues WA
Naja Spasojevic
Non-English speaking background: nominee of Ethnic Communities' Council of NSW and active in migrant women's issues NSW
Sister Pauline Smith
Nominee of Conference of Major Superiors of Women's Religions Institutes NSW
Kate Short
Experience in women's health issues and infant feeding in Australia and Third World countries NSW
Laurie Alsop
Chairperson of Disability Advisory Council of Australia: disabled women's issues NSW
Judith Cooney
president of Royal Australian Nursing Federation VIC
Phil Slattery
Nunawading North Neighborhood Centre: grass roots support services to women VIC
Janet Hunt
Experience in education, development and peace issues A. C. T.
Isabelle Jenner
Active in women's issues, development, member of Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women QLD ( Toowoomba)
Brigid Walsh
Concerned with interests of women remote areas, employment and industrial issues QLD ( Mount Isa)
I believe that these women are an outstanding group of representatives for Australia. They are from wide and diverse backgrounds including women from remote and country areas as well as cities, and from all States and Territories. In calling for applications for assistance earlier this year, the Government announced three special target groups women from non-English speaking backgrounds,
Aboriginal women, and young women. It also announced that special consideration would be given to women lacking access to other sources of financial support to attend the Forum.
I am very happy that more than half the women selected are from these target groups.
I am particularly pleased that four young women have been selected as 1985 is International Youth Year. It is also the end of the UN Decade for Women, and will provide these young women, who were barely in their teens when the Decade began, with the opportunity. to participate in and learn from the experiences of the Decade, and carry its impetus on to their new generation.
The Forum is one of two meetings of women from around the world to be held in Nairobi in July this year. It is organised by and for individual women and women from non-government organisations. Its themes are " Equality, Development and Peace", and it will f6cus on progress for women in the fields of employment, health and education, with special attention to the problems of rural women, the majority of whom live in developing countries.
The other meeting to be held in Nairobi in July is the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development, Peace. This is a conference of government representatives organised by the United Nations, and the Australian Government will be sending an official delegation of about 15 members.
The composition of that delegation will be announced soon. Unlike the delegation sent by the previous Government to the Mid-Decade Conference in Copenhagen in 1980, the delegation to Nairobi will be led by a woman and the majority of its members will consist of women in senior and responsible positions in public life in Australia.