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Vital Voices Eurasian Leadership Summit for Women and Girls, October 14-18, 2007

by Alyson | October 10, 2007 at 10:50 PM

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Tomorrow I am leaving Portland for Kyiv, Ukraine. I will be acting as a rapporteur for a regional conference in Eurasia. The Summit is being held by Vital Voices, a fantastic non profit based in Washington DC that focuses on global women's leadership advocacy. I used to work for this organization and helped put together a similar regional conference in Cape Town, South Africa. I am very excited and wanted to take the opportunity to share this experience with the Pulse Wire community.

The conference is quite innovative- it will bring together women across generations and professional sectors (civil society, business, and government) to discuss the challenges facing women in Eurasia today. The major pillars of the conference will be human trafficking, economic empowerment, political empowerment, good governance and HIV/AIDS prevention.

I will be posting thoughts and highlights each day and would love your feedback to take back with me to the discussions!

Comments

I really look forward to reading about your experiences in Kyiv. Thank you so much for sharing with us!

Maria Jett, Online Community Director

I'm really excited to follow your blog while you're in the Ukraine. Sounds like an amazing conference!

OCTOBER 15th: Power of mentoring and education

Discussion Leader: Daria Golebiowski-Tataj ,Poland

Experts:
Oksana Yarosh, Director, Gender Center, Ukraine
Svetlana Panaitova, Association of Women of Gagauzia, Moldova
Irina Zhikhar, Chair, Belarusian Organization of Working Women, Belarus
Kathleen Vaughn, Wells Fargo Bank, USA

OCTOBER 16th: Combating Violence against women

Discussion Leader:
Marina Pisklakova-Parker, Founder, Centre ANNA, Russia

Experts:
Mavlida Salihova, Women's Crisis Center Oydin Nuri, Uzbekistan
Judit Wirth, NaNE, Hungary
Susanna Vardanyan, President, Women’s Rights Center, Armenia

Enforcing Laws and Holding Govs Accountable
Discussion Leader: Theresa Loar, Senior Vice President, Global Strategies, CH2M Hill, USA
Experts:
Natavan Famil qizi Rustamova, Member, Azerbaijan Lawyers’ Society, Azerbaijan
Anna Nikitina, Judge, Court of St. Petersburg, Justice of the Peace, Russia
Vera Stremkovskaya, Director, Center for Human Rights, Belarus

OCTOBER 17th:Promoting Greater Civic Engagement and Political Participation

Discussion Leader: Marta Kolomayets, Country Director-Ukraine

Experts:
Gulzat Nurmambetova, Director, Women Can do Everything!, Kyrgyzstan
Dorota Mitrus, Executive Director of the European Institute for Democracy (EID)
Ranka Sepic, City Of Pazin, Executive Associate For Civil Society, Local Self-Government And Youth
Olga Aivazoveska, National Director, OPORA, Ukraine
Roziya Taborova, Head of Orzu and Founder of the Women’s Political Discussion Club Tajikistan
Marina Skrabalo, Coordinator of Miramida Plus! Program, Centre for Peace Studies
Rano Akhunova, Founder, “Forum for Free Elections” and “Women’s Political Discussion Club,” Tajikistan