Talk of trees and bridges

14 and 15 March
With another BFWI member, I attended the Rainforest Conference run by Taylors of Harrogate (Yorkshire Tea) at Denman College. There were WI members from all over the country in spite of the fact that it was Mothers' Day.Ruth Bond our National Chair was there and three others from the WI National Executive.Jonathan Wild, who you remember spoke so well at the AGM in the Albert Hall, had organised the event.Speakers included Tony Juniper , Special Envoy for HRH The Prince of Wales from the Prince's Rainforest Project and Simon Counsell Director of Rainforest Foundation UK who all gave excellent presentations on work being done across the world. Erika Bjureby also from the Rainforest Foundation described her experiences in Peru but as far as I was concerned the most inspirational speaker was Cristina Talens, the Ethical Trading Manager at Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate who talked about her trip to the Selva Central region of Peru's Amazon rainforest. Cristina without the aid of graphs and charts brought home to us the problems of the farmers in the forest and how the women are protecting their rights to land and their means of survival against the advances of big business, such as the timber and oil companies.
Of course there is no such thing as a free lunch and it is obvious that Taylors want those who attended to cascade information down to the WI County Federations.After all we have passed mandates on these issues. WIs help by collecting the tokens off the tea and coffee packets in response to which the firm has planted over three million trees but more importantly it has been able to employ people like Cristina to go out and give practical help to the women.And it is mostly women as there are very few men over 40 or anyone for that matter left after liquidations by the Shining Path.She gives them advice on how to prevent the people being exploited in world markets.It was really impressive to listen to these slips of girls talking about living in Peru a year at a time and learning to eat grubs for the best of possible reasons ---not to glorify themselves for some television camera crew.
I hope BFWI will be able to hold some event to highlight these issues either under the umbrella of ACWW or at an International Day or perhaps at Group level.
11 March
Most of our time at the Education and Current Affairs meeting today was spent in organising our Tudor Day but we have also written a letter on your behalf to enquire into provision of services, especially in rural areas of Bucks, for women caught up in domestic violence and abuse. We then experimented with a conversation kit issued by NEF on the pros and cons of electronic patient records.This was an enjoyable exercise which stimulated debate and we think that discussion groups would like to use this kit.If there is anyone reading this who is still part of a discussion group, please make yourself known to Sara at BFWI's Stuart Lodge.
8 March
Well, the Join me on the Bridge campaign for International Women's Day got some good publicity although I don't know of anyone from Bucks who went down to the Millennium Bridge. We could have used Marlow Bridge, I suppose or one over a motorway. The most media interest seemed to come from the Humber Bridge where I am not sure what happened between the WI and the Hull Football Club but it did result in the WI being mentioned on Match of the Day which must be a first!.